Can I put a text field in phone list view?

[RV]

Can I put a text field into phone list view, that will allow me to type in
phone notes as I go (lleft message, call back at 12, etc?) I"m hving to use
my follow up flags for that and it's getting very confusing when managing a
call list.

Also, a related question: For anyone who works in that view in BCM, what is
your workflow for followup? I basically have a lot of contacts imported into
categories, and then I am trying to cold call through the list. II find the
flag system, since you can't categorize by color, very inadedequate for
keeping up with who I need to call back, mail stuff too, etc. That may be
becuase I'm using it for phone notes as well.
I also haven't found anywhere to view flags by dates - it may be there and
I'm just not aware of of. But if I set two follow up flags for thursday
afternoon, where do I view that? I don't see them in the today pane or the
calendar. What good is being able to set a flag followup time if you can't
view it anywhwere?
Welcome your suggestions on making this workflow work. I"m lost in a sea of
contacs and this is a pain to wade through and I"m losing time. thanks

 

[Leonid S. Knyshov]

Can I put a text field into phone list view, that will allow me to type in
phone notes as I go (lleft message, call back at 12, etc?) I"m hving to
use
my follow up flags for that and it's getting very confusing when managing
a
call list.

Also, a related question: For anyone who works in that view in BCM, what
is
your workflow for followup? I basically have a lot of contacts imported
into
categories, and then I am trying to cold call through the list. II find
the
flag system, since you can't categorize by color, very inadedequate for
keeping up with who I need to call back, mail stuff too, etc. That may be
becuase I'm using it for phone notes as well.
I also haven't found anywhere to view flags by dates - it may be there and
I'm just not aware of of. But if I set two follow up flags for thursday
afternoon, where do I view that? I don't see them in the today pane or
the
calendar. What good is being able to set a flag followup time if you
can't
view it anywhwere?
Welcome your suggestions on making this workflow work. I"m lost in a sea
of
contacs and this is a pain to wade through and I"m losing time. thanks

There is an opportunity tracking system in BCM designed precisely to enable
you to keep track of the sales process with one or multiple stakeholders. Do
you find it to be insufficient?

I was able to add a Notes field. What you should be using is the Phone Log
system. Right-click on the line and choose Create New Phone Log. All of your
logs will automatically become attachhed to the business contact and show up
in the History.

I've tried this is 2007 B2TR release, I think it worked relatively well in
2003 as well.

Followup flags were improved in 2007 and you have the option to set a
reminder. It sounds like you want to learn a bit about customizing views. If
you right-click on column headings and choose "Filed Chooser" and then "All
Contact Fileds" you'll see just how extensive view modifications can be. You
can also use the Follow Up Flag view to view just the flagged contacts. Type
"flag" in help for more details.

In 2007, my flags shows up in my Todo Bar ad they are grouped by date.
--
Leonid S. Knyshov, CEO
Crashproof Solutions, LLC - http://www.crashproofsolutions.com
MCP Exchange 2003/Small Business Server 2003
Microsoft Small Business Specialist Partner
See the tips and tricks section on my website for video tutorials on BCM
Send a smile to Microsoft (Office 2007 Beta feedback tool)!
http://tinyurl.com/m4omy

 

[RV]

Thanks Leonid,
Ok, I played around a little more with sorting in business history, and
realized tht you actually can see the phone log there. So that's a start.
But the phone log/history system is still not efficient, becasue I don't see
that you can open the contact from the business history. So you have to go
back in and hunt through hundreds of contacts to reopen it, get the address!
Also since sometime there are a bunch of calls prior to the current contact -
for instance, phone log entries I made a year ago - I want to be able to
access that if necessary to review the history, but don't want to have a
string of stuff there to sort through. Mostly what I need is just a note
that says 'send brochures' and a way to see current hisotry, and a way to
open the contact directly from there if I need to go more in depth and also
to get the address.

As for the opportunities, same thing - I don't see that you can open the
contact from there.

What I would like be able to do is simply make current phone notees (call
back at noon), make notes for final followup actions like 'mail brochures' or
"appointment on Tues., " and simply sort it, preferably with color flags,
with an option to sort by priority or date. So in one quick sort I can see
who needs brochures, who I follow up wth today, who can wait until Tuesday,
etc. Right now they are all mixed together.
And I need to open the contact straight from there and don't want to go
hunting for each one to have to get the address which takes way more time.

I went into the field chooser and created a new field under 'all notes
fields," and it added the field to the bar but wasn't something I could
simply type a phone note in, in that view. Did I do that wrong?

i did put together a bunch of different views and it helped a little, but
the process is very cumbersome and I may have also lost some things in the
filtering.

I don't see that 2007 will run on my OS but I'll check again. It would be
great if it would. Anything would be an improvement!
thanks =)

 

[Leonid S. Knyshov]

Thanks Leonid,
Ok, I played around a little more with sorting in business history, and
realized tht you actually can see the phone log there. So that's a
start.
But the phone log/history system is still not efficient, becasue I don't
see
that you can open the contact from the business history. So you have to
go
back in and hunt through hundreds of contacts to reopen it, get the
address!
Also since sometime there are a bunch of calls prior to the current
contact -
for instance, phone log entries I made a year ago - I want to be able to
access that if necessary to review the history, but don't want to have a
string of stuff there to sort through. Mostly what I need is just a note
that says 'send brochures' and a way to see current hisotry, and a way to
open the contact directly from there if I need to go more in depth and
also
to get the address.

As for the opportunities, same thing - I don't see that you can open the
contact from there.

What I would like be able to do is simply make current phone notees (call
back at noon), make notes for final followup actions like 'mail brochures'
or
"appointment on Tues., " and simply sort it, preferably with color flags,
with an option to sort by priority or date. So in one quick sort I can
see
who needs brochures, who I follow up wth today, who can wait until
Tuesday,
etc. Right now they are all mixed together.
And I need to open the contact straight from there and don't want to go
hunting for each one to have to get the address which takes way more time.

I went into the field chooser and created a new field under 'all notes
fields," and it added the field to the bar but wasn't something I could
simply type a phone note in, in that view. Did I do that wrong?

i did put together a bunch of different views and it helped a little, but
the process is very cumbersome and I may have also lost some things in the
filtering.

I don't see that 2007 will run on my OS but I'll check again. It would be
great if it would. Anything would be an improvement!
thanks =)

You may not see it that way, but business contacts are automatically linked
from opportunities, if you set them up correctly.

BCM is essentially a stripped down CRM product. CRM can be tricky to get
right and that's one of the reasons why Microsoft has so many CRM partners
like my company to customize its CRM products to match a customer's business
process to the software.

Procedure should be where each prospect has a Business Contact entry. You
right-click on that contact and make a new phone log entry.

Now, it sounds to me like what you may really want is customized sales
stages. You can call a stage - Meeting Setup, Brochure Distribution etc.
That's supported in BCM 2007. You may also want to track it as a marketing
campaign. After all, that is what you are doing, executing a campaign. My
stages correspond to milestones of the Microsoft Solution Sales Process that
we follow closely. The simplest way for you to get the features you want is
to use Appointments instead of phone logs. They will still be linked to the
contact in history and also will show up in your Outlook Calendar. As a
software vendor, I am doing some pretty amazing things with my Calendar
objects. Right click on a contact and choose to create a new
appointment. That will give you the visibility, reminder capability, and
linkage. Opening an appointment from Calendar will not automatically open
the associated Business Contact, but we are working on a 3rd-party solution
for that, if you are interested.

Windows XP Pro SP2 is a recommended upgrade. If you are running Windows 2000
Pro, it's less than $200 and you'll also want to add some more RAM, which is
very inexpensive. Overall, it would make you more productive and is a more
secure operating system. If you are not even on Windows 2000 yet, you must
go to XP anyway and will be very happy that you did so.
--
Leonid S. Knyshov, CEO
Crashproof Solutions, LLC - http://www.crashproofsolutions.com
MCP Exchange 2003/Small Business Server 2003
Microsoft Small Business Specialist Partner
See the tips and tricks section on my website for video tutorials on BCM
Send a smile to Microsoft (Office 2007 Beta feedback tool)!
http://tinyurl.com/m4omy