R9 - Understanding Contact Information

Owned by Persia Xenopoulou (Deactivated)
Last updated: Jan 18, 2016
6 min read

What does this section cover?

What is Contact Information?

Contact Information is all the information which is needed in order to contact a customer or a prospect customer, who can either be a physical person or a company. Contacts are considered to be customers only if they hold a customer account (accounts receivable).

Contact Information Glossary

 

TermDescription

Customer

Customers are not an entity in CRM.COM. Physical persons or companies are considered to be customers if they hold a customer account (accounts receivable).

Opt inOpt in email is a term used when someone is given the option to receive email. Typically, this is some sort of mailing list, newsletter, or advertising
Opt outInstead of giving people the option to be put in the list, they are automatically put in and then have the option to request to be taken out

Contact Information  Key Processes and Concepts

Processes / ConceptDescription

Contact Information Uniqueness Rule

Define the Contact Information fields which will be considered as unique. The system differentiates between Contact Persons and Contact Companies.
When more than one field is defined in the rule, then the system will apply uniqueness validation on the combination of the fields. For example if I define the name and the ID as unique then you will be allowed to have 2 contacts with the same Name or the same ID but you won't be allowed to have 2 contacts with both the name and ID being the same.

Contact Information Life Cycle State

A customer is not an entity within CRM.COM. The module used for representing customers is Contact Information. The differentiation of having a contact used for any purpose other than being registered as a customer, and the customers, is based on the Life Cycle State of the contact which is automatically applied by the system.

If the contact is related to an accounts receivable then the Life Cycle State is set to Financial. If no relation exists then the Life Cycle State is set to Marketing.

 

Define Communication Authorisation Settings

AVAILABLE FROM CRM.COM R9

CRM.COM provides you with means to contact your customers for marketing and informational purposes in addition to billing, through Customer Care Notifications.

AVAILABLE FROM CRM.COM R9 - Additional feature provides you with the option to provide the customer with the option to select whether they want to be contacted for either direct or affiliate marketing or not.

Direct Marketing refers to campaigns related to your company/organisation.

Affiliate Marketing refers to campaigns initiated from your company/organisation but refers to partners.

Additionally you are provided with the option to ignore the customer's preference and notify the customer whether they have requested to be contacted or not.

For more information check out Managing Contact Information Authorisation Settings

Contact actions to Subscribe in and Out of Direct and/or Affiliate Marketing via emails

  • Subscribing in (Opt In) and Subscribing Out (Opt Out) of Direct and/or Affiliate marketing material can also be done automatically, from the contact via email links.
    For more information visit Understanding Communications - Email Tracking


Contact Information  Network Characteristics

Network Characteristics define the level of access for each record i.e., whether it will be available for selection, viewing, editing etc.

EntityNetwork Characteristics
Contact Information

 

Contact Information  Related Modules 

Interaction EntityHow
Accounts ReceivableAccounts receivable owned by Contact Information
CommunicationCommunications logged for Contact Information
ActivityActivities scheduled for Contact Information
LeadsLead is created on a Contact Information
NotificationsNotify customers in batch processes for marketing or financial purposes.
Ability to control customers that will be notified for marketing purposes based on authorisations granted by the customer 

 

Contact Information  - Business Examples

The following section provides business examples to help you understand how CRM.COM Contact Information module is used.

Setting up Contact Information Uniqueness Rules - Contact Company

Setting up Contact Information Uniqueness Rules - Contact Company

Business Requirement

Company ZX would like to ensure that no Contact Information for a company has the same VAT Registration Number with another company.

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

Setting up Contact Information Uniqueness Rules - Contact Person

Business Requirement

Company ZX would like to ensure that no Contact Information has the same ID Number with another contact.

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 no Contact Information has the same ID Number and Social Security Number (SSN) with another contact i.e., 2 contacts can have the same ID Number with a different SSN or they can have the same SSN with a different ID Number, but they cannot have both ID Number and SSN the same.

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


Address Types for Company ZX

Address Types for Company ZX

Business Requirement

Company ZX keeps the following addresses for its customers:

Home, Business, Invoice and PO Box but the Home address is mandatory and hence needs to make sure that it will always be added.

CRM.COM Solution

  • Configuration
    Home, Business, Invoice and PO Box address types should be flagged as Supported and Home should also be flagged as Automatically Display. This way when the user creates a new Contact Information the address tab will be populated with an empty address record of type Home where the user will be able to define the mandatory Home address.

 

Financial and Marketing Life Cycle State

Financial & Marketing LCS

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 person is registered in the system as a new subscriber. The person will also need a subscription and a financial account (accounts receivable) which will be used for billing the customer and keeping the financial history. Once the financial account (accounts receivable) is created the life cycle state of the contact information record will be automatically updated to Financial.

    Marketing

    A new person is registered in the system as a lead. This person will not need a financial account (accounts receivable) and therefore his state will remain as Marketing. If this person becomes a subscriber and thus requires a financial account (accounts receivable) then the life cycle state will be automatically switched from Marketing to Financial.

 

Allow Customers to choose not to be contacted for Direct Marketing - AVAILABLE FROM CRM.COM R9

Financial & Marketing LCS

Business Requirement

Company ZX contacts customers on a monthly basis for new offers and new channels available. In addition to inner organisation marketing campaigns, Company ZX also engages into campaigns for partners. Some of its customers do not want to be contacted at all and would like to be removed from their Marketing Mailing list related to Inner (Direct Marketing) campaigns, but would like to be contacted for campaigns for Compaby's ZX partners.

CRM.COM Solution

  • Configuration

    Exclude from Direct Marketing Campaigns

    Contact Information: The Authorisation Settings on the Contact Information related to Marketing should be set as follows
    • Send me Direct Marketing material: NO
    • Send me Direct Affiliate material: YES
    Notification Type: The Notification Type that will be used for the monthly direct marketing campaign should have the Authorisation Settings set as follows: (In order to take into consideration the contact information settings with relation to Direct marketing)
    • Apply Contact Information Data Protection for Direct Marketing: YES
    • Apply Contact Information Data Protection for Affiliate Marketing: NO
    Notification Run: Use the Customer Care Notification Type created with the settings configured as above

  • System Process
    When the system executes the Notification Run with the Notification Type (configured as explained above), any contacts that meet the criteria, will be validated against the Authorisation settings and notifications/communications and the ones that have the flag for direct marketing set to No will not be contacted


    Include in Affiliate Marketing Campaigns

    Contact Information: The Authorisation Settings on the Contact Information related to Marketing should be set as follows
    • Send me Direct Marketing material: YES
    • Send me Direct Affiliate material: NO
    Notification Type: The Notification Type that will be used for the monthly affiliate marketing campaign should have the Authorisation Settings set as follows: (In order to take into consideration the contact information settings with relation to affiliate marketing and ignore the option for Direct Marketing, so it won't be blocked)
    • Apply Contact Information Data Protection for Direct Marketing: NO
    • Apply Contact Information Data Protection for Affiliate Marketing: YES
    Notification Run: Use the Customer Care Notification Type created with the settings configured as above.

  • System Process
    When the system executes the Notification Run with the specific Notification Type (configured as explained above), any contacts that meet the criteria, will be validated against the Authorisation settings and notifications/communications and the ones that have the flag for affiliate marketing set to Yes will be contacted.


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