Step 1 - Create the App

First of all, you must create the app. Sign in to CRM.COM using your user credentials and navigate to Settings > Platform > Contact-Facing Essentials > Apps. Select Create Application.

• Name - Provide the app name, which will appear on the welcome screen (a.k.a Landing Page).

• Application Type - Select one of the two application types below:

  • Contact App - A consumer-facing app that allows a business's contacts to register and have self-service access to the entire set of CRM.COM features such as access to personal and financial information, manage their CRM.COM Wallet, view your product catalogue, offers and promotions, place their orders and much more!

  • Contact Portal - A web-based portal offering the same features and user experience as the Contact App.

  • Merchant App - A mobile app that allows business and merchant users to identify contacts at the point-of-sale and submit their purchases with optional spend.

• Click Save.

Refer to the Apps manual for further information.

Now that the app has been created, you’ll need to configure the app’s settings in the next step.

Step 2 - Setup the App

Setting up your app involves:

• Branding your business app by specifying colours, uploading images and setting its look and feel.

• Enabling the CRM.COM features that you'll allow your contacts to use for self-service purposes.

To set up the app navigate to Settings > Platform > Contact-Facing Essentials > Apps > View the app in question > select the respective tab.

Appearance

When an app is created, default colour settings are applied, but you can customise them with your own business branding colours and images.

Colours

• Background Colour / Background Image - This is used on the app’s landing page once a contact launches the app. You can set either a colour or an image. If both are provided, the background image will be used.

• Colour Scheme - These are your app’s branding colours, and are used throughout the app.

  • Primary Colour - This colour is used to highlight selectable icons or text buttons and for the selected option and action buttons.

  • Secondary Colours - This colour is used for available options but not the selected option.

Creatives

• App logo - Upload your business logo. It will be used in the following ways:

  • Displayed on the Home screen to represent your business.

  • Shown on the CRM.COM Wallet screen to indicate business-related balances (Business Pocket and Commerce Pocket).

  • Used in place of a product, reward offer, donations and promotions images (if the corresponding entity doesn’t have one).

• Carousel - This is particularly beneficial for highlighting your business in a visually appealing manner on the app's Home screen. You can optionally upload one or more images.

Features

About

This section contains the legal details related to the app, where businesses can define their Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy. If provided, users must accept both when registering via the app or portal.

Completing this section is optional but recommended, we offer a free template in case your business doesn't already have its own policies. Should you use the template, be sure to review all content thoroughly and replace the placeholder with your business name where indicated.

Modules

Take some time to review and enable the options and features that you will provide to your contacts through your app. Keep in mind that some options can't be disabled and will, therefore, appear in the app.

Note that in order to set up your app's features properly, you need to configure certain settings within CRM.COM. In the next step of this guide, we will walk you through each features required configuration.

Step 3 - CRM.COM Set Up

Contact Authentication

Navigate to Settings > Contacts & CRM > Contacts > Contact Authentication & Identities and choose how your contacts will register and sign in to the app (i.e. how they will identify themselves). You can set up the same authentication method for multiple apps, for example select email/OTP for both your mobile app and web portal.

Optionally, you can set the accepted country calling codes, which are necessary if you choose the Phone/OTP authentication method and when contacts want to link their CRM.COM Wallet with their phone number.

Find out more about Contact Authentication here.

Community Relations

If you allow your contacts to create and manage their own Communities, then make sure that you also set up Community Relations in Settings > Contacts & CRM > Contacts > Community Relations. Note that in the front-end, contacts can invite others to join their community only if they specify their relation to them.

Product Catalogue

If you plan to showcase your product offerings through the app, make sure that you complete the product set-up in the back end.

Within the app, products are displayed:

• To promote your offerings and promotions, such as a SKU-based reward offers.

• During the ordering flow (if enabled in the app’s settings). In this case, products are displayed hierarchically to facilitate contacts in their ordering process. If you wish to support such a flow, then you have two options:

  • Set up Product Categories in the back-end and assign to products OR

  • Set up an Order Catalogue and categorise your product offerings in this catalogue.

Note that if an Order Catalogue is configured, then it has priority over the categorisation based on Product Categories.

To set up your products navigate to Commerce > Products > Product Catalogue. Refer to the Product Catalaogue manual for assistance on setting up your products.

Set Up Products

Improve your product's traceability and the contacts app experience by utilising the following important information:

• Meaningful names and description

• Pricing information (if applicable)

• Categories

• Images

Product Images

For each product you can upload:

• An individual image, used as the product’s primary image in the app.

• A collection of images suitable for showcasing detailed product features in a carousel format.

You can also upload an image for each product category. This is a useful feature if you don’t have an image for each one of your products.

In the app, a product’s image is shown based on the following priorities:

• The product’s primary image or, if there’s no product image

• The product’s category image or

• Your business logo if none of the above are uploaded.

See the Product Catalogue manual for more information about products, categories and the AI tool.

Order Catalogue

Navigate to Commerce> Order Catalogues to configure an Order Catalogue to display products using your preferred categorisation. If an Order Catalogue is not set up, the you must assign Product Categories to display products in a categorised manner. Whether you choose to use the order catalogue or product categories, bear in mind that a maximum of 2 levels of categorisation are supported

When setting up an Order Catalogue:

• Assign a meaningful name

• Give the catalogue categories descriptive names to help your contacts find what they want to order.

• Optionally, upload an image for your Order Catalogue.

Business Network

If your business collaborates with other businesses (either within your internal Business Network structure or via B2B collaborations) or if your business has its own venues, ensure that you keep your partner’s and your own contact and location information up to date:

• Address information with latitude and longitude coordinates to accurately pinpoint locations on a map. This information helps contacts locate the venue, aiding in the promotion of your partner's offers and promotions.

• Phone number so that contacts can get in touch.

• Opening hours for ordering using the supply methods (e.g. delivery, pick up) offered by the location. When ordering is enabled, it is essential to set up the operating hours of the selling locations.

• Images/logos that help contacts to identify the merchants.

• The merchant’s Industry and Sub-industry. This information can be utilised to filter these merchants' reward offers within the app.

To manage your business network, navigate to Business Network > My Merchants/My Venues or Service Providers/Service Points. The Business Network manual will also help you understand its structure.

Reward Offers

Set up your Reward Offers in the backend to award your contacts by navigating to Rewards > Offers.

Pay attention when setting up the following essential reward offer information:

• Meaningful names and descriptions (provide a short and long description) for each offer.

• Your offer’s Terms & Conditions.

• Mark an offer as Featured to appear first in the list of offers.

• Add Tags to your offers so as to allow easier filtering in the app.

• Upload an image to promote it among other offers. If no image is provided, then your business logo will be used.

Reward Tiers

A reward tier is assigned to your contacts based on their awards over a period of time. Within the app, contacts can view their tier level and what is required to maintain it or upgrade to the next tier. In Settings > Rewards > Tiering make sure you set:

• A name for each tier,

• A tier colour

• A tier image - A tier’s image is not shown in CRM.COM’s release app. Upload an image when developing your own app.

Learn more about reward tiers here.

Promotions

Set up your Promotions in the backend to give discounts to your contacts for their orders by navigating to Commerce > Promotions. When setting them up, consider the following essential information:

• Meaningful names and descriptions (Short and Long description) for each offer. Ensure that these descriptions clearly explain how contacts can benefit from the promotion.

• Add Tags to your Promotions to allow easier filtering in the app.

• Upload an image to promote it, among other promotions. If no image is provided, then your business logo will be used.

Refer to the Promotions manual for more information.

Order Queues

Set up your Order Queues to effectively manage the different stages of the ordering process. You can optionally, create a separate queue for each supply method (i.e. pick-up, delivery, direct sale). Note that at least one Order Queue is required if you enable the Orders module in the app settings.

To set up Order Queues navigate to Settings > Commerce > Orders > Queues.

Fulfilment Policies

Set up your Fulfilment Policies to manage ordering for your selected supply methods and state the acceptable payment methods for ordering. You can also set up one policy for each one of your collaborating partners.

You can create or edit the default Order Fulfilment Policy via Settings > Commerce > Orders > Fulfilent Policies.

Service Request Queues

Set up Service Request Queue(s) if you enable this feature on your app to allow your contacts to raise their own service requests. Note that in order for this self-service feature to work properly on the app, at least one Service Request Queue must be configured!

For each one of these queues, make sure you also set up the queue’s app settings. It should be noted that in the case of Service Requests, the app settings are configured within the Service Request queue’s detail page and not in the general App settings.

To set up service requests and queues navigate to Settings > Contacts & CRM > Service Requests > Queues.

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