In most small businesses, the client list and the client work live in different places. The list sits in a CRM, a spreadsheet or the contacts on your phone. It knows each client’s name, their number and the note from your first call. The work sits everywhere else, in email threads, group chats, text messages, downloads folders and the memory of whoever spoke to the client last.
That gap is where client work gets lost. A signed agreement arrives on a busy day and nobody marks it as received. A logo comes in by text and is gone by the time the designer needs it. An approval given on a call is remembered two different ways a month later. Each slip costs time to put right, and some cost money, like a project that starts a week late and an invoice that goes out a week late with it.
A CRM with workflow closes the gap. Each client gets a profile with their details, and next to them sits a workflow, which is the list of steps that client’s work goes through, such as sending the agreement, getting it signed and collecting the files. A signed agreement arrives on the step that asked for it, and anyone who opens the client’s profile can see that the step is done.
The sections below start from the beginning, with what a CRM is and what a workflow adds to it. Then one new client goes through the same onboarding twice, once with a contact list and once with a workflow, so you can see where the work goes missing and how the workflow keeps it in place. After that come the signs that your business is losing client work, and what to look for when you choose a CRM with workflows.
What a CRM is, and what a workflow adds
A CRM, short for customer relationship management, is software that keeps a profile for each client. That profile holds their contact details, notes from your calls, reminders to follow up and the files they send you. It answers the question of who the client is and what you know about them.
A workflow, the list of steps a client’s work goes through, is more than a to-do list. Its steps run in the same order every time, and each one opens only when the one before it is finished. Onboarding a new client is one workflow, and preparing and approving a quote is another. When the workflow sits inside the CRM, you open one client and see both who they are and which step their work has reached.
You may also see this called a CRM with task management or a CRM with automation. Tasks and reminders are part of it, but a workflow goes further, because it puts the steps in order and lets the client do their part, with everything saved to the same profile. Lattney, a workflows and CRM platform, works this way. It moves each client’s work through steps, with approvals where someone has to say yes, on the client’s own record.
One new client, followed twice
The story below follows a small agency taking on a new client, a local gym that wants a new website. The steps come from Lattney’s agency onboarding workflow, and the same shape fits many small businesses that take on clients one project at a time.
- The client shares their company, what they need, their budget and their timeline.
- The team reviews whether the work is a fit and holds a consultation.
- The client shares their goals, a main contact and how they like to keep in touch.
- The team prepares the agreement.
- The client signs the agreement.
- The client shares the files and account access the team needs.
- The team lets the client know everything is ready, and work begins.
With only a contact list
The gym owner fills out the form on the agency’s website, and the form lands in the shared inbox. Someone adds the owner to the contact list, but the budget and the timeline stay behind in the email.
The account lead holds the consultation and keeps the notes in a document on their own laptop. Afterwards they send a long email asking for goals, a main contact and how the client likes to communicate, and the reply comes back a week later to the account lead only.
The agreement goes out as an attachment. The client signs it and sends it back to a different person on the team, on a busy day, and nobody marks it as received. A week later someone writes to ask the client for the signature again.
The files are next. The client sends the logo in one email and the website login in a text message. Two weeks later a designer asks for the logo again, because they cannot find it. The client has sent the agreement twice, and now the logo twice as well.
When the gym owner calls to ask when work will start, nobody can answer straight away. The account lead is on holiday, and the answer is spread across several inboxes and a phone.
With a workflow on the client’s profile
This time the gym owner opens a secure link, a private web address that opens a page made just for them. They fill out the first step there, and their company, budget and timeline arrive on their profile in the CRM. The team gets a notification that the step is in.
The account lead is the owner of the next step, which means they are the one person responsible for it. They write the fit notes and the consultation date on the client’s profile, where only the team can see them. Meanwhile the client sees a short line saying “We’re reviewing your request”. That line appears in the client portal, the page behind the secure link where the client can see which steps are done and which come next.
When the account lead approves the review, the next step opens and the client gets a notification. They add their goals and their main contact through the same link. Then the team uploads the agreement, and the client reads it, uploads the signed copy and types their full name. That step is an approval, a step that waits for someone to say yes before the work moves on. The yes is saved on the client’s profile with the date and the name of the person who gave it, so it cannot get lost among other emails.
The files and the website login arrive in the next step, attached to the step that asked for them. When the designer needs the logo, they open the client’s profile and find it there.
So when the gym owner calls to ask about the start date, anyone on the team can answer. They open the client’s profile and see which step is open, who owns it and what comes next. The team has one place to look, and the client has used one link from the first form to the last file.
Signs your business is losing client work
A contact list works well while one person handles each client from start to finish. Once work passes between people, or waits on the client, pieces of it start to go missing, and these signs show up.
- You ask a client for something they already sent.
- A client asks how things are going, and the answer is in more than one inbox.
- Work waits for one person, because only they know the next step.
- You keep a separate to-do list for each client beside the contact list.
- An approval was given on a call or in a reply, and nobody can find it a month later.
One of these now and then is normal. If several happen every week, client work is getting lost, and the contact list alone will not stop it. The same problem shows up in a different form when clients are tracked in a spreadsheet, and 4 signs tracking clients in a spreadsheet has stopped working covers that case.
What to look for in a CRM with workflows
Any CRM can store a name and a phone number. To stop losing client work, the work itself has to live there too, and these six points decide whether it can.
- The steps sit on the client’s profile. You should not need a second tool to see where a client’s work stands.
- Each step has one owner. An account manager for the whole client is useful, but you also need to know who holds the next step.
- An approval holds the next step until someone says yes. A checkbox that anyone can tick is only a reminder.
- The client can do their part through a secure link. They fill out forms, upload files and approve work from one private page.
- Files and approvals are saved where they happened. A signed agreement should sit on the step that asked for it, with a date.
- You can set it up yourself. You should be able to change the steps without paying a consultant.
Some teams search for a CRM and project management in one tool. For a small business, a CRM with workflows often covers the part of project management that matters most, which is knowing what each client still needs and who is on it. To test these six points in a free trial, see how to choose an operational CRM.
Client work and client details in one profile
Lattney is a workflows and CRM platform for small and growing teams. Each workflow is a set of steps, and each step has an owner, collects the information you need and can wait for an approval. If a reviewer rejects a client’s step, they write a reason, and the step goes back to the client to redo through the same link. Every submission and approval is saved with a name and a time.
Clients take part through the client portal. You send them a secure link, they open it without creating an account, and they see what is done and what is next. Your team gets a notification when a client sends a step, and the client gets one when their next step is ready.
All of this sits on the client’s record in the CRM, next to their contact details, private notes, tasks and files. One view shows every active client workflow, with the current step, who owns it and what happens next.
You do not have to start from a blank page, either. Lattney has eight templates, which are ready-made workflows for work such as hiring, client onboarding, document collection and trade jobs. You can use one as it is, change its steps and fields, or build your own.
Where to start
The first step to stop losing client work needs no software. Pick the job your team repeats most, such as taking on a new client. Write down its steps in order, from the first message to the day the work is done. Next to each step, write who does it and what it needs from the client. Then mark the steps where someone has to say yes before the work moves on.
That list is your workflow. You can run it from a template close to your work, such as the agency onboarding workflow, or set it up from scratch. For more lists to start from, 8 business process examples walks through eight of them.
Frequently asked questions
How do I stop losing client work? Start by getting every client’s details organized, then keep everything about their work in one place, on the client’s profile. When every detail is in email, chats and people’s heads, some of them go missing. A CRM with workflow, such as Lattney, keeps them together on the client’s profile. Anyone on your team can open it and see the client’s whole history, with their documents, tasks, notes and every step and approval so far. That attention to detail is a big part of why a client hires you again, and a CRM with workflow makes it easy to keep up, even with many clients at once.
What is a CRM with workflow? A CRM with workflow is software that keeps your client details and the steps of each client’s work in one place. The CRM part holds who the client is, with their contact details, notes from your calls and the files they send. The workflow part is the list of steps their work goes through, in order, such as sending the agreement, getting it signed and collecting the files. Each step has one person responsible for it, so you can open any client and see which step they are on and who acts next.
What is the difference between a CRM and a workflow? A CRM keeps track of who your clients are, and a workflow keeps track of the work you do for them. A CRM holds names, phone numbers, notes from calls and reminders to follow up. A workflow is the set of steps a job goes through in the same order every time, such as onboarding a new client or getting a quote approved. When the two sit together, each client’s profile shows both.
Is a CRM with workflow the same as a CRM with automation? They overlap, but they are not the same thing. A CRM with automation usually does small things on its own, such as sending a reminder when a follow-up date arrives. A workflow sets the order of the steps, names the person responsible for each one and holds the next step until someone approves the one before it. Most workflows include some automation too, such as a notification to your team when a client finishes a step.
Can a CRM with workflows replace project management software? For many small businesses, yes. Project management software tracks tasks, deadlines and who is doing what. What a small business mostly needs to know is where each client’s work stands, what is still missing and who acts next, and a CRM with workflows shows that on each client’s profile. A team running long projects with many people may still want a separate project tool alongside it.
Do clients need an account to take part? Not in Lattney. You send the client a secure link, which is a private web address that opens a page made just for them. From that page they fill out forms, upload files and approve work, without creating a login or remembering a password.
What is a client portal? A client portal is a private and secure page where a client does their part of the work. They can fill out forms, type in their details, upload documents and approve work, all in one place. In Lattney, the client opens it through a secure link. It shows which steps are done and which come next, with short updates such as “We’re reviewing your request” while your team works on its part.
When does a small business need a CRM with workflows? Usually when work starts passing between people or waiting on the client. While one person handles each client from start to finish, a contact list is often enough. Once a job moves from one teammate to another, or stalls until the client sends a file or signs something, steps and approvals start getting lost in email. That is the point where keeping the steps on the client’s profile saves time and money.
