Everything You Need to Know About Using Wikis
Wikis are a great way for us to formalize processes & document how we complete our workflows. They also allow us the opportunity to constantly analyze, systemize, and then continually improve our methods so that we can provide excellent service for our clients. Because we rely on them a lot, here are a few things to know when familiarizing yourself with wikis.
Getting More Wiki Information
We love wikis and documentation, but sometimes you may look for how to complete a process, or have more questions on an existing process, and not be able to find anything. If this is the case, please email Alex with your specific questions and we'll provide you with more information, and then write up a wiki!
Helping us Improve the Wikis
At any point, please feel free to always make suggestions for improving each wiki or writing up new ones! If you find yourself repeatedly completing a task or sending an email, and think it would be helpful to write it down (email templates in particular are excellent for saving you time), let us know!
If you'd like to update a wiki yourself,
here is how you can do that well.
Please always notify management whenever you make minor changes to a wiki, and please get approval before making significant changes to a wiki. If no one is notified of the changes, then it won't improve our system.
Acronyms & Terminology
You may run into some unfamiliar terms or acronyms in these wikis. If you're ever uncertain about anything, you can always refer to the
Acronyms & Terminology wiki for more information. Please let us know if you see a new term that isn't here and we'll add it in!
Message Templates
When you see any information in a box like the one below, this means the information in the box is an email template, which you'll want to copy and paste as an email to whomever needs to receive it.
- Recipients refers to who needs to receive the email.
- Title is the subject of the email.
- The last section is the body of the email.
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Recipients: Client, CC BA.
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Title: Congratulations on your Home!
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{{CLIENT NAME}},
Congratulations on the contract for your new home at {{PROPERTY ADDRESS}}! We're very excited to work with you on this, and I'll be sending some more info on the next steps shortly.
Please let us know if you have any questions, thanks so much!
{{SIGNATURE}}
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When you see any field in {{BRACKETS}} like this, it means that this is a field in a template that needs to be edited, and you'll edit it with the information requested in the brackets. Please be sure to always delete the brackets and write in the information in lowercase text, and make sure the fields adhere to logical grammar!
For instance, if I wanted to send this to our client Jim who just executed a contract for 5607 Kernel St, I would send this:
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Recipients: Client, CC BA.
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Title: Congratulations on your Home!
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Jim,
Congratulations on the contract for your new home at 5607 Kernel St! We're very excited to work with you on this, and I'll be sending some more info on the next steps shortly.
Please let us know if you have any questions, thanks so much!
~Alexander
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Use only first name, not last name in greetings. Using first names is more natural. If 2 people involved in a single email have the same names, then use first and last names for each.
Reading Wikis
Every wiki
should begin with information on why we're completing a task & how we'll be completing it, but if a wiki doesn't clearly explain this, please notify management and we'll work on updating it to be more clear.
We do our best to structure wikis in a way that it is natural to understand what is to be done in each. Most of them are written sequentially, i.e.
- Step 1
- Step 2
Some include 'contingencies', where multiple options are available depending on different situations
- Step 3
- If current situation is X, do this
- If current situation is Y, do this
Failsafes
A failsafe is a note to watch for to help you avoid errors. These are instances where we need to communicate a critical piece of information about a process to help avoid errors when completing a process. You'll see these in blue boxes like the example below, please keep an eye out for these!
Failsafe: If option period is more than 8 days, please change template to reflect this.