The system provides the ability to set contact plans against predicted dates in the Aftersales
Diary. The contact plan is available to design a structure of scheduled contacts for items
appearing in the Aftersales Diary, to maximise the conversion of predicted dates to actual
work.
Once Contact Plan parameters are completed, these parameters will take precedence over the
Lead Time parameters specified on the General Tab.
From the menu, select CRM > Parameters > Aftersales Parameters > Contact
Plans.
Contact plans can be created for each of the different contact types displayed on the left hand
side of the screen, allowing for customisation of the contact. First select the Aftersales Contact
Reason and then click ‘Add’ to configure the Contact Plan. The system will present a pop up to
set up the contact.
The Contact Method can be set as Telephone, Email, SMS or Letter. When selecting the Contact
Method, additional fields are available.
Letter – allows the user to select the correct letter.
SMS – allows the user to add the text that will be sent in the SMS.
Telephone – allows the user to enter a failure count. This parameter is used to define the
number of times a telephone contact can be a failure before the system automatically moves onto
the next contact
Email will automatically set the email from the Workshop parameters within CRM > Parameters
> Communications.
When creating the first entry on the Contact Plan, the system will also create another entry as
the closing contact. Any other contacts can then be added but there must always be a First
and a Final contact. The Final contact is always a day before the predicted Aftersales Diary
date and has a Contact Method of Telephone.
The Lead Time on the initial contact is the number of days before the date predicted in the
Aftersales Diary that this contact will take place. The Lead Time on any subsequent contacts
is the number of days following the preceding contact that this contact will take place.
Actions can be rearranged by using the Up and down buttons at the bottom of the screen.
Actions can also be deleted using the Delete button. The first and final contacts cannot be
deleted until they are the only contacts remaining in the contact plan. When the final contact
is deleted, the system automatically deletes the first contact.
Any letter contacts that are created will be available from Letters for Printing within CRM >
Processing > Letters.
Once all of the contacts have been established, the contact plan is complete and automatically
enabled. The Contact Plans are activated when the Aftersales Diary is generated overnight.
Letters will automatically appear on the ‘Letter for Printing’ list (explained in detail later on in
this guide), whilst emails or SMS messages will be sent automatically from the system on the
date required by the contact plan. Any emails that are generated appear within Emails Pending.
The final ‘Telephone’ contact will appear on the Aftersales Diary on the date required.
Email contacts will only be sent if there is a valid email address on the Customer record. If there
is no valid email address, the system will skip to the next contact in the plan.