Build the Hive: Smart country selection

One example is something almost every platform needs: selecting a country.

Many websites use a standard country dropdown. It works, but it often we find ourselves typing, scrolling or searching through options in search for that one country. A photographer or creative artist may work mainly in one country. They rarely need to browse a list containing every country in the world when managing leads and clients contact details.

Building a smarter approach

To make this process smoother, we added Active Countries to the shootbee settings.

You can define the countries where you work. These selected countries become the preferred choices throughout the platform, making common actions faster and more convenient. Instead of searching through a long global list, you can quickly select from the country in a shortened drop down list.

A small improvement, but one that creates an easy workflow.

Flexible when you need it

Of course, not every situation is the same. It is possible for example that a wedding photographer only serves clients in one country. A destination wedding photographer will travel the world. The later will have clients in different countries.

So for public website forms - such as contact forms or lead capture forms - we provide flexibility. You can choose between: using the pre-defined Active Countries or a full country list.

When a lead is obtained from a country not listed and that lead becomes a client, the country of your new client it will be present in your Active Countries automatically.

Why we build this way

Great software is not only about adding more features. It is about understanding the small moments where users lose time and improving them. Active Countries is one of those small details that helps make shootbee feel more personal, more efficient and better suited to your way of working.

And this is just one of the many pieces shootbee is building for the hive.

Peter Louies
Founder & Creator, shootbee