Todays Contacts

This option in the CRM module allows those users who have regular access to a terminal to receive contact reminders via the screen, rather than through printed contact sheets or forms.

The program is designed to give an interactive list of contacts due either today, or previous to today's date, allowing you to select each one, as required, and carry out the follow-up which is due.

Note: With the exception of complaint follow-up, the contact reminder is directed to the 'owning' sales executive, as defined in the Customer record for the Department concerned, as opposed to the sales executive who carried out the previous contact.

Todays Contacts Grid

The Todays Contacts option is available from the CRM Main Menu. When selecting the option the screens you are offered will depend on whether you are using contact management teams on your system. If teams are being used other fields will be available to you with in the contact form. By clicking the hyperlink options you will find the functionality of the todays contacts both when teams are being used and when they are not.

Todays follow ups when contact management teams are being used.

Todays follow ups when teams are not being used.

General points

Regardless of whether contact management teams are being used or not the contacts displayed in the grid are colour coded according to when you are due to respond to them. Any overdue contacts are coded in red and any contacts that are not yet overdue are coded in black. The contacts are displayed in the grid in date order either from the earliest first which will display those contacts which need responding to first at the top of the list or the latest first which will show the last contact first. This view can be changed from one view to the other by ticking or un-ticking the show latest first box at the bottom of the grid. On doing this the grid will automatically refresh.

PUSH BUTTONS:

Exit: When this button is pressed you will be taken back to the The CRM Main Menu.

Help: When this button is pressed the help file associated with this option will be launched.

Followup: When this button is pressed the contact form will be opened displaying details of the contact to be followed up.

Grid form

The todays contact grid is a four column grid with the following headings:-

Date: This is date on which the follow up is due.
Time: This is the time when the follow up is due.
Branch: This is the branch responsible for the follow up.
Customer/Company name: this is the name of the Customer and the company name(where applicable) who you are due to contact.
F/T description: This is the contact type code for the follow up.

Todays contacts (Contact management teams in use).

If you are a member of a contact management team when the todays contact option is taken from the menu you will be presented with a window asking you the select a team member to impersonate. Even if you are only wanting to look at your own contacts you will need to select the My follow ups option and then click OK.

Once a team member has been selected then the follow up you require can be selected and the followup button pressed in order to allow you to follow up that contact.

If you want to follow up the contact click on the hyperlink for details.

Completing outstanding follow ups.

When contact management teams are being used once the follow up has been selected and the contact form opened you will notice that the follow up executive field on the form is available for editing. This is to allow you allocate the follow up to another team member. When the ellipsis button is pressed you will be able to select the team member to whom the follow up is going to be assigned.

If you type in a user who is not in your team you will not be able to assign the follow up to them. When you tab off the field or try to click out of the field a warning box will appear that you will have to ok before you cam amend the follow-up user id to a valid one from your team.

Once you have successfully reassigned the follow up you will need to click the re save contact button or take the file/re save contact options. When the contact is re saved you will advised that there is an existing entry in another persons diary and if you would like to remove it. Two buttons are available at this point these are :-

No: Selecting the no button will add the follow up to the todays contact list for the executive you have reassigned it to and remove it from the original owners list. How ever a diary entry for the follow up in the original owners list will still exist.
Yes: Selecting the yes button you will remove the diary entry for the follow up from the original owners diary as well as the follow up entry from todays contacts.

Todays contacts (Teams not in use).

When the todays contacts option is selected you will be shown the todays follow ups grid. To do a follow up simply click on the line and then click the follow up button.

Tip: Once you have selected the follow up you are going to work on you can open the contact form by double clicking on the line.

At this point a contact form will be opened on which none of the fields will accessible. To follow up and complete the selected outstanding contact follow the notes given in the To follow up an outstanding contact section.

To follow up an outstanding contact.

When the Follow up button has been selected the system will open a contact form displaying the details for the contact which is related to the follow up selected. To create the follow up contact click the create new icon (or select File/create new contact). This will open a new contact form all of the details for the new contact will have defaulted into the form. The follow up code will be created based on the contact chain associated with the contact code being used. The follow up date and time for the new contact will need to be selected.

Note: The follow up executive will be defaulted in according to the Department details on the Customer record.

When you are satisfied with the contact being created take the save option either from the icon bar or the file/save option. On saving back to new contact a contact history record will be created and the original contact followed up and completed. The follow up contact you selected from the grid will be removed.

When the Contact form is being displayed then the options from the menu bar and the tool bar become available for use. Descriptions of these are available from the links below.

Menu and Tool Bars

Menu Bar

File	Edit	Tools
Create New Contact	Notes	Diary
Re save Contact	Scanned	Case file
Exit	Letter	Customer Details

Icon Bar

Icon	Option	Access from the menu bar	Description
	Create New Contact	file/create new.	This option opens up a new contact form to enable you to create the follow up contact and close the select contact if necessary.
	Re-save contact	File/re save contact.	The re-save contact option allows you to save the contact being created. Selecting this option will close the original contact and remove it from the Todays contact grid.
	Print Contact Sheets	File/Print contact sheets	The print contact sheets option allows you to print a contact sheet for the Customer that the contact is saved against.
	Exit	File/Exit	This option will take you back to the Todays Contacts Grid.
	Notes	View/Notes	This option allows you to display any notes stored against the Customer record. If scanned notes are available then these will be accessible as well.
	Letters	View/Letter	This option is only available if the original contact was created as a result of a letter being sent to the customer. On selecting this option you can retrieve and view an archived copy of the letter.
	Diary	Tools/Diary	Selecting this option launches the diary relating to the person who's follow ups you are in.
	Casefile	Tools/Casefile access	This option opens the case file relating to the Customer for whom the contact is for.
	Customer details	Tools/Customer details	This option loads and displays the associated Customer record.