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Table of Contents
What is Contact Information?
Contact Information is the personal details or corporate information of a person or company respectively. Contacts that have Contact Information are treated as Customers if they also own an Accounts Receivable.
Contact Information Glossary
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
Customer | A customer is a contact which owns an Accounts Receivable |
| Contact Person | A contact person is a physical person, for which contact information is kept |
| Contact Company | A contact company is a legal organisation, for which contact information is kept |
| Opt-in | Contacts can opt-in, in order to receive marketing emails, either from your company or from affiliate companies |
| Opt-out | Contacts can opt-out, so that they will never be sent marketing emails, either from your company or from affiliate companies. |
| Contact Information Life Cycle State | The Life Cycle State distinguishes between contacts which have an Accounts Receivable and are customers (Financial Life Cycle State) and the ones that are either prospective or past customers (Marketing Life Cycle State) This distinguishes between customers that are prospective (Marketing Life Cycle State) or actual (Financial Life Cycle State) |
Contact Information Key Processes and Concepts
| Processes / Concept | Description |
|---|---|
Contact Information Uniqueness Rule | You can define unique Contact Information fields, as well as distinguish between contact persons and companies. When more than one field is defined in the rule, the system will apply uniqueness validation on the combination of fields. |
| Contact Information Life Cycle State | A customer is not an entity but represented by a contact that owns an Accounts Receivable and is indicated by the contact Life Cycle State set to 'Financial'. Contacts who are not customers have a Life Cycle State set to 'Marketing'. |
| Keeping Business and Personal Relation Information | You have the option to keep business and personal relations within your Contact Information separate. For example, you can create a Company Contact for the company, create multiple Person Contacts for the employees, and then relate the contacts to the company by defining them within the Contact Information. |
Define Communication Authorisation Settings | CRM.COM allows you to contact your customers for marketing and informational purposes through Customer Care Notifications. Optionally, the customers can select whether they want to be contacted forDirect orAffiliate marketing. Direct Marketing refers to campaigns promoting your company's/organisation's products, while Affiliate Marketing refers to campaigns initiated from your company/organisation but promoting partners' products.Youcanhowever, choose to ignore the customer's preferences and notify them anyway, which can be helpful in cases where it is imperative for the information to be communicated to your customers. For more information, check out Authorisation Settings of Managing Contact Information and Notification Types
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Contact Information Access & Viewing Controls
Network Characteristics define the level of access for each record. i.e. whether it will be available for selection, viewing or editing.
| Entity | Network Characteristics | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Contact Information | Contact Information records can be accessed, viewed and modified by users defined as members of the contact's Owned By Group, by users that belong to a group that collaborates with the Owned By Group, or by Super Users. |
Contact Information Related Modules
| Entity | Interaction of Contact Information with Entity |
|---|---|
| Accounts Receivable | Accounts Receivable is always related to a Contact Information,and distinguishes a customer from a prospective customer or simple contacts. i.e. the account/contact relation will set the Life Cycle State of the contact to Financial. |
| Communication | Communications are Contact Information based entities. They can only be created for Contact Information. |
| Activity | An Activity can be created directly on a contact who may or may not be a customer yet |
| Leads | Leadsare Contact Information based entities. They can only be created for Contact Information. |
| Notifications | Notificationsare used to automatically create communications that will notify customers in batch processes for marketing or financial purposes. |
Contact Information - Business Examples
The following section provides business examples of how the Contact Information module is used in CRM.COM.
Setting up Contact Information Uniqueness Rules - Contact Company
Business Requirement
Company ZX would like to ensure that no two companies share the same VAT Registration Number in their Contact Information
CRM.COM Solution
- Configuration
The Uniqueness Rule should be set with a check on VAT Registration Number under the Companies Uniqueness Rules.
More Information can be found at:Applying the Contact Information Uniqueness Rule
Setting up Contact Information Uniqueness Rules - Contact Person
Business Requirement
Company ZX would like to ensure that the ID Number in Contact Information is unique for all contacts
CRM.COM Solution
- Configuration
The Uniqueness Rule should be set with a check on ID Number under the Persons Uniqueness Rules.
Business Requirement
Company ZX would like to ensure that the ID Number and Social Security Number (SSN) combination in Contact Information is unique for all contacts
CRM.COM Solution
- Configuration
The Uniqueness Rule should be set with a check on both ID Number and Social Security Number under the Persons Uniqueness Rules.
More Information can be found at: Applying the Contact Information Uniqueness Rule
Financial and Marketing Life Cycle State
Business Requirement
Company ZX registers 2 contacts in the system, one as a new subscriber and another one as a potential lead. See below how their Life Cycle State is set by the system:
CRM.COM Solution
- User Process
Financial
A new contact is registered in the system as a new subscriber. A subscription and financial account (accounts receivable) is created for billing purposes and to track the contact's financial history. The Life Cycle State of the Contact Information record is (then) automatically updated to Financial.
Marketing
A new contact is registered in the system as a lead. The contact does not require a financial account (accounts receivable) and their state remains as Marketing. When this contact becomes a subscriber and requires a financial account (accounts receivable), their Life Cycle State will automatically be updated from Marketing to Financial.
Allow Customers to choose not to be contacted for Direct Marketing - AVAILABLE FROM CRM.COM R9
Business Requirement
Company ZX contacts its customers on a monthly basis to let them know about new offers and to notify them aboutnewavailable channels. In addition to internal organisation (Direct) marketing campaigns, Company ZX also engages in (Affiliate) marketing campaigns for partners. Some of ZX's customers would like to be removed from the Affiliate Marketing campaigns Mailinglist,but would like to remain in the Direct marketing campaigns mailing lists .
CRM.COM Solution
- Configuration
- Include in Direct Marketing Campaigns
Contact Information: The Authorisation Settings (on the)/in Contact Information related to Marketing should be set as follows:- Send me Direct Marketing material: YES
- Send me Direct Affiliate material: NO
- Apply Contact Information Data Protection for Direct Marketing: YES
- Apply Contact Information Data Protection for Affiliate Marketing: YES
- System Process
When the system executes the Notification Run with the specific Notification Type (configured as described above), contacts that meet the criteria will be validated against the Authorisation settings and notifications/communications and those that have the flag for Direct Marketing set to YES will be contacted.
- Exclude from Affiliate Marketing Campaigns
Contact Information: The Authorisation Settings (on the)/in Contact Information related to Marketing should be set as follows:- Send me Direct Marketing material: YES
- Send me Direct Affiliate material: NO
- Apply Contact Information Data Protection for Direct Marketing: YES
- Apply Contact Information Data Protection for Affiliate Marketing: YES
- System Process
When the system executes the Notification Run with the Notification Type (configured as described above), contacts that meet the criteria will be validated against the Authorisation settings and notifications/communications, while the ones that have the flag for Affiliate Marketing set to NO will be excluded.
- Include in Direct Marketing Campaigns