CRM Activities are used to record customer interactions. Called a grower and want to record the details of your conversation? Create a CRM Activity for it. A customer called you with questions? Write them down in a CRM Activity. Been trying to collect from a customer for months and need to pass on what you’ve done so far to your lawyer? We’ve already created a special category for Credit (Sensitive) activities with separate security just for that.
Once you’ve decided on the Types of interactions you want to track (phone calls, emails, farm visits) you’ll decide how you want to group similar activities together into Categories. Then you can start adding Activities.
I want to read the white paper (with lots of screen shots) on CRM Customer Relationship Management.
What you'll find:
- Managing CRM Activities
- From the Customer Account
- From the Customer Activity Window
- Adding a CRM Activity
* indicates a required field - Adding Activity Details
- Attaching Documents to a CRM Activity or Activity Detail (optional)
- Viewing the CRM Activity Report
- Editing a CRM Activity
- Completing a CRM Activity
- Deleting a CRM Activity
- Exporting a Calendar Entry
Note
Before you can start adding CRM Activities to a customer account, you’ll need to define the Types and Categories.
Managing CRM Activities
From the Customer Account
CRM Activities can be managed from the customer account on the CRM Activity tab.
From the Customer Activity Window
CRM Activities can also be managed from the Customer Activity home form.
Navigate to Accounts Receivable > CRM > CRM Activities.
The Customer Activity window opens.
Tip
If using the Customer Activity window is something you'll do often, consider adding the CRM Activities button to your toolbar.
Adding a CRM Activity
* indicates a required field
Click Add Item.
The Add Customer Activity window opens.
Enter a Customer* if not adding the activity from the Customer Account.
Choose a:
Contact (defaults to main contact)
Employee* (active agrē users only; defaults to the logged-in user)
Date* (defaults to today)
Activity Type* and Activity Category*.
Setup a Reminder (optional).
If an Activity is checked as Completed no reminders can be set.
Select the Reminder frequency.
Reminders are optional, but once you select a Reminder frequency, the other reminder fields become mandatory.
The default on/starting date depends on the frequency selected; it can be changed to any date in the future.
Choose to Remind By an Email, a Popup when you log into agrē, or Both.
You can export reminder information to create your own calendar entries (outside of agrē) if you'd prefer.
Leave blank if you don't want any reminders from agrē.
If Email or Both is selected either you and/or the Employee (depending on who is selected to be reminded) must have an Email address setup in their User Config Options.
Choose whether you want agrē to Remind Me (that's you) or to Remind Employee (that's the agrē user you selected in the Employee box).
Status defaults to Active, can be changed.
Set to Complete when the Activity is done.
(Activities can also be flagged as completed from the Customer Account CRM Activity tab, or from the Customer Activity home form tool bar button.)
Select one or more farm Fields
Type a Description*.
Notes are optional.
Save the CRM Activity.
The Add Customer Activity window closes.
Adding Activity Details
Activity Details can be Added, Edited, and Deleted.
Click Add Item.
The Add Customer Activity Detail window opens.
(optional) Change the Date*/Time, Contact, or Employee.
Add your Notes.
Update to save your changes.
The Add Customer Activity Detail window closes.
Attaching Documents to a CRM Activity or Activity Detail (optional)
Note
Customer name cannot be changed once a Document has been attached to an Activity.
Documents can be attached on Add or Edit.
Click Documents.
The Documents window opens.
Click Add.
The Upload Documents window opens.
Click Browse.
The Choose a file to upload window opens.
Navigate to the folder on your computer or network where the file you want to attach is stored.
Select the file and click Open.
The Choose a file to upload window closes and the file name appears in File to Upload* on the Upload Documents window.
Type a Document Title* and any Keywords.
Keywords are optional.
Change the Security options if applicable.
By default, Sensitive and Show Document in Grower Central are turned off.
Click Save to upload the document.
The Upload Documents window closes.
When all documents are attached, click Exit.
The Documents window closes.
Viewing the CRM Activity Report
CRM Activities can be viewed from either the Customer Account or the Customer Activities home form.
Select the activity. Click View Item. While viewing the report, you can print the activity by clicking on Print.
Tips
To view multiple activities for this customer, click CRM Activity Summary Report in the Reports section of the Customer Account.
To view multiple activities for more than one customer navigate to Accounts Receivable > Reports > CRM Activity Summary.
Editing a CRM Activity
CRM Activities can be edited from either the Customer Account or the Customer Activities home form.
Select the activity. Click Edit Item.
Editing Attributes of Documents Attached to CRM Activities
From the customer account home form CRM Documents tab or from the Document Manager, select the document. Click Edit.
The Edit Document Attributes window opens.
You can make changes to everything but the File to Upload.
Click Save.
The Edit Document Attributes window closes.
Completing a CRM Activity
CRM Activities can be completed from either the Customer Account or the Customer Activities home form. They can also be flagged as completed by editing the Activity and checking the Completed box.
Select the Activity. Click Complete.
The Confirm Completion window opens.
Click Yes to complete the Activity. The Activity is flagged as Completed.
The Confirm Completion window closes.
Deleting a CRM Activity
CRM Activities can be deleted from either the Customer Account or the Customer Activities home form.
Once you delete a CRM Activity it cannot be undone, but deleted data can be viewed in the Audit/Admin data exports.
Select the activity. Click Delete Item.
Removing Documents from a CRM Activity
Click Documents.
The Documents window opens.
Select the document you want to remove and click Delete.
The document is deleted from the activity.
Click Exit.
The Documents window closes.
Exporting a Calendar Entry
agrē can generate an .ics file that contains the information required for creating entries in most calendar software (like Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, and Apple iCal). Once the information has been exported from agrē, follow the instructions provided by your calendar software provider to import the file to create the calendar entries.
Caution
Calendar information will be exported for ALL activities visible in the grid.
Optionally change the New Search criteria to display just the activities you want to export.
The following information is included in the exported .ics file:
Next Reminder Date (or Activity Date if there is no reminder setup)
Description
Summary
Export calendar entries from agrē
Navigate to Accounts Receivable > CRM > CRM Activities.
The Customer Activity window opens.
Click Export Calendar.
The Save As window opens.
Note
The default destination directory is often on the agrē server. Remember to save the file in a folder on your local hard drive, or on a local network drive or you will not be able to access the file outside of agrē.
Navigate to where you want to save the file and click Save.
The Save As window closes.
Import the .ics file into your calendar software
Following the instructions provided by your calendar software provider, import the .ics file to create calendar entries.