Well, here's a link to the "creative thinkers" thread where the
details of how to use it as a phone log are discussed. It's kind of a
creative workaround.
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...urage/browse_thread/thread/c096af1b171cecfc/#
Actually I've never used it as a CRM - I'm trying to figure out how to
put together a system. It may be that it doesn't work as a CRM - time
will tell. But I' lI start tomorrow trying to put together a contact
system.
Welcome creative takes on this from anyone! How do you guys manage
your customer contact and follow up ?
I guess I"ll start by importing in a call list - I get these numbers
from the yellow pages and format them into a spreadsheet, then export
them to a format that Entourage can read. At least that was how I did
it with Outlook.
Create a project, 'marketing calls." Then create some kind of system -
like the aforementioned thread with the phone log idea - that allows
me to sort them for followup. Maybe categorize the ones that aren't
potentials, in their own category so at least the information is in
there so that we talked, but they don't come up in the view. Maybe
take away the project association and just give them the category,
'not interested' etc.
Then leave the ones that have to be followed up on with their own
categories - appointment, call back, send info, etc. If they become
customers I could categorize them as that. That way in contacts view
in the project, I can sort by that field in the contacts view and see
right away that all the red ones are appts, all the orange are
callbacks, etc. If I keep a phone log by using notes linked to the
contact, it can be accessed by clicking on the 'links' icon in that
view - not as good as seeing it immediately but it'll do. The
'notes' field in the contact shows up in that view so if it were
critical to see a note right away I could just enter it in that field.
I also used one of the custom views to type in call notes - "out of
office until Friday," etc and then added that field to the view so
that it was visible in contacts view.
I guess I could just set reminders to call people back or write the
time in the custom call notes field. It would be so much easier if
Entourage would include a phone log view with customizable colored
contact flags in the future.
BUt it seems like it's at least possible to do a workaround.
It's all sort of thinking out loud at this point so I'll dig in there
and see how the thing actually works in practice.
At this point I think the workflow would be - import in contacts >
make calls to find potentials > write call notes in a linked note,
with the subject line summary that's easy to reference like "he said
send brochures", then more detailed info inside the note > categorize
him for followup > set a reminder although I'll have to see how easy
it is to to that from contacts > write call notes like "got voice
mail" in the custom field. I f he becomes a customer, put him in a
'customer' category as well ----? I'll have to see how much text is
allowed in the custom fields but maybe I could create one also for
final followup status like, "mailed brochures, close file."
I tried doing something similar to this in Outlook but always got
overwhelmed and cluttered with it. Hopefully keeping a super-simple
system in Entourage will work a little better.
