K
-keevill-
This is what we are doing now and then how we *think* we want to manage our
daily office functions.
We currently receive enquiries -sometimes price enquiries sometimes just
information requests- and each of these emails are received every person in
the office team in their Outlook email box.
Someone starts to deal with an enquiry and in order that others don't also
deal with it, they cc their replies to all the others in their office.
Sometimes other people have to take over the enquiry if the original person
is not in the office and they in turn cc any replies to all the others. This
is manifestly inefficient in many ways as is obvious.
We think we would like to handle things like this.
When an enquiry comes in, it is automatically assigned a ref code/number and
it remains in a sort of central email box where all can view it and all
correspondence and action related to it. Then someone will start to handle
the request and it should be apparent to the other people in the office that
it is being handled by whoever.
Managers should be able to see if an enquiry is being dealt with .
Anyone should be able to take over the enquiry if the original person is
absent or busy on another task
So if the client calls the office for example, anyone of the team can
instantly see its state of action.
What advice can anyone give me to get on the right track here?
Am I looking something like ACT or another customer management software
solution ?
Outlook shared calendar was suggested but I am not convinced that is the
right tool for this job.
We are not running Exchange Server , just standard POP accounts with Outlook
2003/2007 on the workstations
Any advice with regard to finding the correct procedure with the right
software is greatly welcomed.
We are a small office with just about 10 people dealing with the tasks.
daily office functions.
We currently receive enquiries -sometimes price enquiries sometimes just
information requests- and each of these emails are received every person in
the office team in their Outlook email box.
Someone starts to deal with an enquiry and in order that others don't also
deal with it, they cc their replies to all the others in their office.
Sometimes other people have to take over the enquiry if the original person
is not in the office and they in turn cc any replies to all the others. This
is manifestly inefficient in many ways as is obvious.
We think we would like to handle things like this.
When an enquiry comes in, it is automatically assigned a ref code/number and
it remains in a sort of central email box where all can view it and all
correspondence and action related to it. Then someone will start to handle
the request and it should be apparent to the other people in the office that
it is being handled by whoever.
Managers should be able to see if an enquiry is being dealt with .
Anyone should be able to take over the enquiry if the original person is
absent or busy on another task
So if the client calls the office for example, anyone of the team can
instantly see its state of action.
What advice can anyone give me to get on the right track here?
Am I looking something like ACT or another customer management software
solution ?
Outlook shared calendar was suggested but I am not convinced that is the
right tool for this job.
We are not running Exchange Server , just standard POP accounts with Outlook
2003/2007 on the workstations
Any advice with regard to finding the correct procedure with the right
software is greatly welcomed.
We are a small office with just about 10 people dealing with the tasks.