Communication refers Refers to any all interaction with a physical person or company through the CRM.COM software.

Tags which are not restricted to CRM.COM specific data (i.e.

do not map to a CRM.COM entity).

The tags are replaced

by values

specified by the

User while creating or updating

a Communication, when the value is repeated several times in a Communication or when the value is not a field saved in CRM.COM.

There are several forms of Communication, including of Face to Face, SMS, Email, phone

and letter

.

Email and SMS Communications are added to a Queue from where they are assisted by other processes to reach their intended recipients. Further processing is either handled by CRM.COM (

for Email and SMS) or by an external system

.  External Systems access CRM.COM data through CRM.COM WEB APIs and process information kept in the

CRM.COM

Communication Queue as required.

View Using Communication Queue & Configuring Communication Queue External Systems for more information.

Email and SMS Communications not processed by an external system can be handled directly through CRM.COM.
This is enabled by defining the SMS and/or Email Settings available in the Communication Definitions required for connecting to your email server or one of the SMS Gateways CRM.COM has integrated with.

• • CM. Gateway
  • SMPP Gateway

    Status
    colour Green title Available from CRM.COM R10.0.0

• Email Provider settings also need to be set up in the system accordingly

Reusable Communication Templates which the user can select and quickly address the customer's requests for information, keeping a standard and formal style, can be easily created. 

Communication Tags (text that is automatically replaced by values specific to selected records) come with an auto-complete feature, so that as

the name of the entity is typed, the available tags are

made available for selection. All available tags are available for selection

• Communication Template Email subject OR Communication subject (not using a template)
• Communication Template Email / SMS content OR Communication content (not using a template)

by typing '#'.

#entity_name.field : i.e., #subscription.number

CRM.COM allows you to track the status of emails, which have been sent to contacts via communications as well as allow the contact to directly update information in CRM.COM, related to their contact via specific links included in the links of their emails. This is available via the email tracking utility.

More specifically the following options are available via Email Tracking:

• Track viewed email communications
• Track viewed links included in email communications
• Allow customers to opt in or opt out from direct or affiliate marketing notifications, through links included in email communications
• Allow customer to accept service request response, through links included in email communications
• Allow customer to accept temporary or final service request resolutions, through links included in email communications

In order to be able to use the email tracking feature, you will need to enable email tracking utility and setup the system accordingly via Communication Definitions and use the predefined Dynamic Link Tags when creating Communications, or Communication Templates. In addition the contact should have the email authorisation settings turn on, in order to be allowed to receive emails

CRM.COM allows you to easily track communications via related dashboards. The dashboards are available per Notification Run as such communications will be usually be sent out to customers via configured notification run batch processes.

Visit the following links to check out the 2 related dashboards available, displaying the required information in an easy to read visual format:

• Tracked Communication Links Per Notification Run and Month Stacked Bar
• Tracked Communications Per Notification Run and Month Stacked Bar

• Contact Information Based Entities
• Explicit Viewing Access Entities 

• Controlled Selection Access Entities

• Controlled Selection Access Entities

Communications sent to customers either via SMS or email can be sent using the preferred language of the customer. This is achieved by creating a Communication Template and providing the content in multiple languages; the System will then create the Communication using the customer's preferred language.

Unrestricted Tags are a special type of free text Communication Tags which are not replaced by values saved in the System. Values for Unrestricted Tags are filled in when creating a Communication and are specific to that Communication. 

It is possible to track whether Email Communications and included links have been viewed and/or clicked. Email and Link tracking are available for all Communications or, optionally, for just the ones created through Notification Runs.
Dashboards provide an overview of link and email tracking for Communications created through Notification Runs (usually used for Marketing Purposes).

• Tracked Communication Links Per Notification Run and Month Stacked Bar Component
• Tracked Communications Per Notification Run and Month Stacked Bar Component

Customers can directly update information related to their contacts in CRM.COM, through dynamic links included in Email Communications.

Specifically, customers can:

• Opt-in or Opt-out from mailing lists
• Accept Responses provided to Service Request
• Accept Temporary Resolutions provided to  Service Request 
• Accept Final Resolutions provided for Service Request 

• Contact Information Based Entities
• Explicit Viewing Access Entities 

• A Communication cannot be created unless a Contact Information is selected.
• Communication records can be accessed viewed and modified by Users defined as members of the Communication's Owned By Group, by Users that belong to a Group that collaborates with the Owned By Group, or by Super Users.

• Controlled Selection Access Entities

• Controlled Selection Access Entities

• Communication belongs to Contact Information.

• Referring to entity

• Referring to entity

• Referring to entity

• Referring to entity

• Referring to entity

• Referring to entity
• Communications are created via Notification Runs.

• Referring to entity

• Referring to entity

• Referring to entity

• Referring to entity

• Email and SMS Communications are logged in communication Queuesthe Communication Queue.

• All Provisioning processes that are related to sending mail sendingAll processes will create communications Communications that will be added to the Communication Queue. The Communication Queue External System, in this case, will be one related to the Provisioning Provider.