Better Customer Communication
Contact Database Manual
Volume 1 (07/13/09)
BENEFITS
Better customer communication
Better staff communication
Mail Merge
Marketing & Advertising
Cost Effective
The Purpose of this Manual
The purpose of this training manual is to answer questions and guide you through the process of using the customer service contact list.
Getting Started
or
Once you click on IPRC Contacts you will see a list of the contacts in the database in the format that is selected.
If you double click on one of the contacts you will see the persons contact information, category, role, and any notes that have been entered for this particular person.
You can now apply any changes or updates that need to be made. If you would like to send the person an email click on the email tab and it will open a new message box as usual in Outlook. NOTE: Many contacts do not have email addresses at this point.
Distribution Lists
A distribution list is a collection of contacts(contact: Person, inside or outside of your organization, about whom you can save several types of information, such as street and e-mail addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and Web page URLs.). It provides an easy way to send e-mail messages to a group of people.
If you would like to create a new distribution list for your clients use the following procedure:
On the File menu, point to New, and then click Distribution List.
In the Name box, type the name of your distribution list. (Example: TRIP Officers)
On the Distribution List tab, click Select Members.
But what if the person you want to add is not in the contact list yet?????
Complete the rest of your distribution list (in case there is more than one missing contact) and remember to click “save and close” in order to save your distribution list. Then close the distribution list and go to “add a new contact”.
DO NOT add a contact from the distribution list screen, this will only add the person to your distribution list and not the entire database.
Before you add a new person to the contact list, please search for the person in 4 different ways. Let’s use Dave Bozell as an example. I first search for “Bozzell”, I find nothing. If I were to add him this way he would be in the database twice under “Bozzell” and “Bozell”. Try multiple combinations of a name before you add the person: Dave, David, Bozell, Bozzell, Bozzel, Bozel. If it turns up nothing, then add the person.
After you add the person from the new contact screen you can go back into your distribution list and “select” the person from the list.
Completed Distribution List…yeah!
Categories
Category
It is important to assign a category to each contact in order to be able to sort for creating distribution lists and mailings. For each new contact or any contact you access, please assign a category that you feel is appropriate. A person may belong to multiple categories.
Because the category section is currently not working, for now, please list category in the notes section:
Categories include:
Notes
Please feel free to add any notes you feel it would be important for others to know about the client such as former employee, friend of, serves on a board. I searched for the word “TRIP”.
Notes should be short and meaningful. Job titles, positions held, former employers, relationships to others, and contracted work or estimate information is relevant. Here is an example of a notes section:
Searches
If you want to search for information in the notes section or by anything listed on the address book you can do this through “search IPRC contacts”. Example: I want to find people who have the word “teacher” in their file. I would type in the word “teacher”:
Changes
This database is for everyone to use. Before you make any changes it is critical you are 100% sure the information you are changing is correct (or incorrect). If you are unsure or feel the information you have is an alternate to the permanent information please verify the information or place the alternate information in the notes section. For instance, Aaron Jones has two email addresses.
When you make a change it will log a change at the bottom of the screen:
Please remember people are sharing their contacts in order to help us work more efficiently and as a team. Please be respectful and limit mass emails. If you are unsure if your email is appropriate for “TRIP” or if they would want the information or not, send Aaron an email and ask.