I've seen studies indicating it is cheaper to cultivate an existing Customer than it is to acquire a new one. Seems reasonable to me. That means monitoring Sales.Orders to be sure they are shipped, confirming receipt by the Customer, and "asking for the re-order" when appropriate. That means a LOT of follow-up.
The Call Back button on the Main.Window Toolbar has evolved to act as a "tickler file" to assist in the follow-up activities. Originally its sole purpose was to assist in locating the Customer when only the telephone number was recorded by Caller-Id. It now includes a list of "Reminders" created as Sales.Orders are entered and Invoices recorded. The background color of the button indicates the urgency of Reminders:
Black - There are no OPEN Reminders
Red - There are OPEN Reminders with the current system date to be acted upon
Yellow - There are OPEN Reminders to be acted upon dated prior to the current system date
Green - There are OPEN Reminders to be acted upon dated with in the next 10 days.
In a nutshell, there are three sources of Reminders. Based on the parameters you define in Company Options and in the Call.Back/Planner Events Table, SAMS will create a Reminder based on Sales.Order and also Invoice entry. You can manually create a Reminder based on your contacts with the Customer.
Sales.Order Entry - The default is to have a reminder posted with a call-back date 30-days after the requested Ship.Date
Invoice Entry - The default is to have a reminder posted with a call-back date 30-days after the Invoice Date. When the Invoice Callback.Reminder is posted, any Sales.Order Reminder for the Order is deleted (the Invoice CallBack.Reminder supercedes the Sales.Order Reminder).
Manual Entry - There will be times when you need a Reminder based on something other that an Order or an Invoice. These Reminders may be entered and will be tracked along with those created by SAMS.
Click on the Call Back button, the Call-Back Reminders (51.35) window is presented. Press the F1-Key and the Help.Document information is presented with "everything you ever wanted to know, and then some". If you get lost in all of the verbiage, grab the phone and call.
Lessons from the School of Hard Knocks
These notes are the result of telephone conversations and email exchanges over the years. The purpose here is twofold:
Share the information resulting from those exchanges with everyone so it may be applied where it makes sense to you.
Point out capabilities you have with WeLoop.SAMS that you may not be taking full advantage of.
