CrossLoop screen sharing improves phone meetings
Have you ever been on the phone with a client across the country when you wanted to show them something on your computer? You can try reading the URL. (Me: type this URL. Client: what’s a URL? Me: nevermind. in the address bar of your browser, type httpcolonslashslashwww… Client: wait. what’s a colon?) But that’s a great way to waste valuable time and aggravate the client. If you have a spreadsheet, or some artwork to show them your only option is usually to e-mail the file – another great way to waste the client’s time on the phone, and they might not be able to open your file anyway.
One easy way to solve this problem is to share your computer screen with the person on the phone (as long as you are both online). There’s lots of ways to do that, but one of the easiest comes from a company called CrossLoop (http://crossloop.com). The program is free and works with Windows and Mac OS X. During the installation process it will ask you to make an account. Go ahead and do that because it’s also free and it makes using the program a little easier.
CrossLoop Application Screen
Once both of you have CrossLoop installed run the program. You’ll see two tabs: Access and Share. The person “sharing” their screen will see a unique numeric code in their Share tab. (See the picture over on the left.) Tell the other person your code so they can type it into their Access tab. That’s it. In a few seconds you’ll be looking at the same screen.
I’ve done this many times and can vouch for the ease of setting this up – it’s usually easier to have someone download/install CrossLoop while you’re on the phone than sending them a file if you’ve never exchanged files before.
There’s a lot more to CrossLoop than just sharing screens. See that “Get Help” button? Press that and you’ll immediately get a list of “Helpers” that are online right now. These Helpers sign up on the CrossLoop Web site and describe their area of expertise. If you need help getting rid of a computer virus, or want some advanced Excel macro training, or you can’t figure out why your Outlook is crashing, there are Helpers online at all hours to provide immediate assistance. They will use the CrossLoop software to look at your computer and deal with your issues.
Each Helper sets their own hourly rate, but many offer a free estimate, or even some free consultation time. There are ratings, like on ebay, and you can see how active the Helpers have been.
We recently set up a Zoho CRM system for a small medical company 1,000 miles away. After the configuration was done and we had their data loaded, their staff went into a conference room with a computer running CrossLoop and called us on their speakerphone. We had two training sessions like that of about an hour each, giving each staff member time to use the CRM system while we coached. It was a big success and the distance involved didn’t matter at all.