The lower part of the CRM Data Entry window is for the entry of Contact information for the Prospect or Customer record. This area will be colour coded for Contacts according to the selection made on the General tab of the CRM Options window.

Name

There are 5 fields to hold the details of the name of the contact.

Title, Surname, Initials, First Name, Salute.

Title, Initials and Surname are combined in the Contact list to display the name of the contact.

The Salute field will be populated but you can change this if appropriate.

Job title can be recorded.

Contact details

Email address and telephone and fax numbers should be entered. There is a field for the Home phone number on the address tab.

Use the Tab key to move through the fields.

Continuing to Tab will take you through the contact detail fields and on to the Details tab.

The details tab is provided for you to enter characteristics about the contact. Most of the fields are drop-down lists but there are also fields in which you can store dates and numbers if appropriate.

Before attempting to select or enter any values on the Details tab card you should configure the lists ready for use.

This is done in the Popup List Configuration window opened from the function on the toolbar.

When your lists have been configured, the details can just be selected from the drop-down lists.

Allocated User

A Prospect or Customer can be allocated to one of your staff members by selecting their User ID from this drop-down list.

The staff member can then easily build a list of the records that have been allocated to them.

The My Records search on the CRM Control window does just this, by automatically filtering by the User ID of the current user.

The drop-down list for this field will be populated with all the User Ids for this database.

Tick boxes

There are 5 tick box fields which can be re-labelled to enable the answers to specific questions to be shown clearly on the face of the contact record. The tick box is an implied question, e.g. "Is this person a Budget Holder?", and ticking the box implies that the answer is Yes.

This is sometimes referred to as "flagging" a record, as in "flag this contact as being a Budget Holder".

Three of the boxes will have suggested labels: Active, Decision Maker and Budget Holder. The other two will have the labels Contact Flag 4 and 5.

The labels can be changed using the Description/Language option on the Info menu to load the current window. See Load Current Window.

Checklists

Two checklist fields are provided; these are labelled Interested In and Classification.

The lists can be used for any purpose; you may wish to record which of your stock items the contact has shown interest in or some personal information that will enable you to quickly start a conversation.

These lists are set up in the same way as the Popup Lists, via the Popup List Configuration window opened from the function on the toolbar. Enter the required content for each item and tick the boxes to ensure that the items are included in the checklist.

The labels for the two fields can be changed using the Description/Language option on the Info menu to load the current window. See Load Current Window.

In combination with the checklist, you might wish to use one on the contact date fields on the Details tab to record the date that the checklist was last updated.

There are two notes fields:

One for notes relating to the Company; notes entered here will appear in the same field for all contacts.

One for Contact notes; these notes will only appear for the Contact record for which they were entered.

If the Date Stamp Notes option is ticked and a change is made to either of the notes fields, the date and time of the change and the ID of the User who made the change will be added to the notes field.

Use this tab to associate a campaign with the currently selected contact.

Click Insert. This will open the Change Stage window for campaigns; the same window is used to update existing campaign entries.

Select Add to another Campaign and select the campaign from the drop-down list. The list will contain all active campaigns.

The description of the campaign will be displayed below the list and the Stage list will be populated with the campaign stages.

Select the campaign stage for this contact. The list will default to the first stage when you are inserting a record but you can start the contact at any stage of the campaign should you choose.

Click OK to save the entry.

When the tab is opened, the campaigns for the currently selected contact will be displayed. The tab has a drop-down list so that you can view the campaign entries for all contacts if you prefer.

Use this tab to enter the tasks required to progress the status of this prospect towards becoming a customer.

Click Insert. This will add a task to the task pane.

Select an action from the drop down list. This list should be configured using the Popup List Configuration window.

Select Contact against which the task is to be entered and the User ID of the member of your staff that is to action the task.

Enter an action date and time. If you are also using Access Office Integration, you will be able to synchronise your Outlook calendar to pick up and display these tasks in your calendar for the date and time entered here.

The status will be set as outstanding. The contents of the status list for tasks should be configured in the System Control Options for CRM.

Enter the notes that will be needed to enable you, or whoever has been selected from the Action By list, to complete this task.

Click OK to save the entry.

When the tab is opened, the tasks for the currently selected contact will be displayed. The tab has a drop-down list so that you can view the task entries for all contacts if you prefer.

As tasks are created, if an Action Date is entered, they will be added to the Diary for the user who has been selected from the Action By list. The status of the task can be changed from the tasks tab on the contact record, or from the diary window, or via Access Office Integration if you are using the calendar synchronisation functionality.

Pipeline entries are made from the Pipeline tab on a Contact record. Use this tab to enter estimates into the pipeline for the selected Customer or Prospect.

The tab has a drop-down list so that you can view the pipeline entries for all campaigns or just those for a particular campaign

Individual addresses can be entered for each contact. Remember, changes to the address details entered for the first contact record will update the company level record. See First Contact. A home phone number can be recorded on the address tab.

Keywords can be entered to help you to locate records quickly. These can be used in conjunction with the pre-configured lists on the Details tab or they can be used in preference to these.

Just enter the keywords that define the Company.

Enter one keyword on each line.

To search for records that include a keyword, you will need to add the Keyword search field to whichever search tab you are using on the CRM Control window. If you plan to use keyword searches, then you should consider adding the search field to all the tab cards.

Search fields are added to the search tabs using the Options window opened from the CRM Control toolbar.

The search is a single word search but will return keywords that start with the characters entered. Searching for WH would return keywords such as WHOLESALE and WHISKY.