Customer Contact Information

Customer Contact Menu -> Customer Contact Information

The Customer Contact Management utilities provide the ability to generate selected customer lists based on Profiles, Revenue, Product usage, Dates and Comments criteria.
Customer lists can be generated and selected customer information can be exported to an Excel spreadsheet for further analysis.
Follow up comments and notes can be stored for each customer by date to trigger timely email reminders to the Salesman and/or division contact.

Sharing Customer File
The Customer Information file accessed in this Customer Contact utility is the same file shared by Customer Information.
This means that any records added in Customer Contact Information also are added in Customer Information.

Once customer records exist in Customer Information, the name and address information becomes view only in this Customer Management Customer Contact Information utility.


Start-Up
Make sure A/R Start-Up Sequence has been completed, before entering customers.
The tables used by the Customer Contact Management module, can be setup in the Customer Contact column on the Customer Management tab of the Configure System Settings.

Default Values
Fields not prompted for in Customer Contact Information default as follows. These can be modified later as required in Customer Information.

Note: When viewing an existing customer in Change mode, the address information is display only, and only Contacts, Follow Up, Profile, Competitor, and Motive information can be updated.
The name and address information can only be updated in Customer Information.

The prompts to view and maintain contact information for an existing customer or to setup a new custom record are as follows:

CUSTOMER #
In Add mode accept the number automatically assigned for this customer.
If your customer already has a number, over type the auto-assign number with your numbering system using up to 6 characters.

To access existing customer records in Change mode enter the existing customer number, or select one from the Accounting Customer Search window.
The customer that can be viewed and accessed are restricted by the Divisional Restricted Views assigned to the operator.

Note: In Change mode, the address information is display only, and only Contacts, Follow Up, Profile, Competitor, and Motive information can be updated.


Name and Address Information:
The following address fields can only be accessed in Add mode, and are restricted to view only once the customer record exists.
NAME
In Add mode enter the customer's name as it should appear on customer statements and other printed reports.
Use up to 30 characters.

CUSTOMER ALPHA CODE
This controls the filing of the customer names in alphabetical order.
For example, if the customer's name was Arrow Construction Company, enter ARROW as the alpha key.
If the customer's name was Joe Hardwicke, enter HARDWICKE as the alpha key.

ADDRESS LINE 1
Enter the address to be BILLED for the customer. If more space is required, use Address Line 2 but always fill in Address Line 1 first.

ADDRESS LINE 2
See Address Line 1 .

CITY
Enter the city of the customer's billing address, or select one from the City Search window.

PROVINCE/STATE
Enter the province or state using a maximum of 5 characters or, or select one from the Prov/State Search window.

POSTAL CODE/ZIP CODE
Enter the postal code or zip code to a maximum of 10 characters.

COUNTRY
Enter the country code or select one from the drop-down list.

PHONE #
Enter the area code and telephone number up to 12 characters.

FAX #
Enter the Fax number to a maximum of 16 characters.
Type in the fax number, exactly as dialled. If the call is long distance, enter the 1 in front. Do not use spaces. Dashes are ok.
e.g. 1-416-555-3400

DIVISION
Leave this field blank for Head Office if your firm does not separate customers into Divisions or Regions, or enter the Division for this customer or select a division from the drop-down list.

CUSTOMER TYPE
Enter the business or customer type code or select one from the drop-down list as setup in Customer Types.
Refer to Customer Types for the Features Employing the Primary Customer Type Assignment.

SALESMAN
Enter the salesman code or select one from the drop-down list.
Salesmen codes can be setup with email addresses in Salesman Codes.

ON ACCOUNT
This is a display field only, and when the new customer record is accepted always defaults to No.
This can be changed in Customer Information when required.

Customer Contact Information:
The following customer contact fields can be maintained for new and for existing customers.
CUSTOMER CONTACTS
The Contact Information window is provided to enter or view contact information for this customer, including document types for emailing.

FOLLOW UP
Window to add comments that can be flagged to automatically generate an email message to the Salesman or Division contact on the appointed follow up date, as outlined in Customer Follow-Up window.
This requires the cronjob CMFE02 to be setup to run daily from Automatic Job Scheduling.

PROFILE INFO
Multiple profiles can be assigned to specific customers as outlined in Profile Information.
These profiles can be used to build selection lists from the Selection Criteria utility.

LAST ACTIVITY DATE
This date is maintained by the software and represents the last posted activity for rental or sales by this customer.
Sales and Rental History can be viewed in the windows on the Year To Date Revenue fields as outlined in Revenue History.

Note: Any future dated invoices beyond the current month end, are not considered by the Last Activity Date.


NEXT CONTACT DATE
This date is maintained by the software and represents the next follow up action for this customer as recorded in the Customer Follow Up window with Status F.

USES COMPETITION
This is an information box only.

Check this box if this customer is known to also do business with your competitors.
Uncheck this box if this customer only does business with your firm.


COMPETITOR INFO
If this customer does do business with any of your major competitors, strategy information can be captured in the Competitor Information window.
Customer selection lists can then be built using the By Competitor tab on the Selection Criteria utility, for reporting purposes.

CUSTOMER MOTIVES
This window can be used to rate the motivations of the customer.
All motives are displayed in the table for the customer, as setup in Customer Motives.
Enter a rating in the Importance column of 1 to 7 for relevant motives, where 1 is the highest rating.

This is an information only, and is not used in the reporting.

Note: If a motive is deleted in Delete A Motive, any associated motive records are also deleted from each Customer Motive rating table.


CUSTOMER COMMENTS
This window can be used to view and access the Collector Comments and Notes associated with this customer, as outlined in Customer Comments and Notes.

DOCUMENT INQUIRIES
This window can be used to view the documents associated with this customer as outlined in Document Inquiry.

REVENUE SUMMARIES:
The ability to view the following Revenue values for the customer is controlled by the operator Security Role where the Customer Contact Revenues permit flag can be checked in the "Miscellaneous" window of the Security Role Permissions.

The revenue summary information includes:
Life To Date Revenue:

The total LTD Sales dollars, LTD Rental dollars, and LTD Services dollars spent by this customer is displayed, with windows to drill down to a monthly or annual dollar breakdown as outlined in LTD Revenue.

Year To Date Rental Revenue:

THIS YEAR
This is the total rental dollar amount from this customer for the current year, based on the year start defined when the General Ledger accounts were last summarized in Summarize G/L for Financials.

A window is provided to view the rental and sales history details by date and product.
Refer to Revenue History for a detailed description of this feature.


PRIOR YEAR
This is the previous year's total rental dollar amount from this customer, based on the year start defined when the General Ledger accounts were last summarized in Summarize G/L for Financials.

DOLLAR VARIANCE
The variance value is the difference between the current year's rental revenue to date and last year's rental revenue.

PERCENT VARIANCE
This is the Rental Dollar Variance as a percent.

Year To Date Sales Revenue:

THIS YEAR
This is the total sales dollar amount from this customer for the current year, based on the year start defined when the General Ledger accounts were last summarized in Summarize G/L for Financials.

A window is provided to view the rental and sales history details by date and product.
Refer to Revenue History for a detailed description of this feature.


PRIOR YEAR
This is the previous year's total sales dollar amount from this customer, based on the year start defined when the General Ledger accounts were last summarized in Summarize G/L for Financials.

DOLLAR VARIANCE
This variance value is the difference between the current year's sales revenue to date and last year's sales revenue.

PERCENT VARIANCE
This is the Merchandise Dollar Variance as a percent.

Finished?
Click ACCEPT to accept and exit, or CANCEL to abort.

Delete a Customer
It is not necessary to delete any customers from the system, since the information may still be needed at some point.
If the customer is a duplicate or not required, it can be deleted using Delete A Single Customer.
This program ensures that the customer is not active within the software, before it deletes them.

Topic Keyword: CMCF01
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