Tips for Making Telemarketing Easier in Dynamics CRM 2011

For organizations using Microsoft Dynamics CRM to track telemarketing activities, PowerObjects has a few tips to help increase efficiency in collecting your telemarketing data. 

Telemarketing can present pain points within an organization.  Often times, the caller gets a voicemail or a quick response.  For a 30 second phone call, a user does not want to spend 2 minutes entering information into CRM.  However, management often wants this data tracked for reporting.  Here are some ways Dynamics CRM 2011 can be configured and used to ease the pains of telemarketing:

1. Use a Dialog.

By creating a dialog on the Contact and sharing it with the users, you can make the process of entering a Phone Call much quicker.

1. Use Quick Campaigns.

By training your users on how to use Quick Campaigns, they can schedule and create multiple Phone Call records at one time instead of individually.

1. Use On-Demand Workflows.

Creating and sharing some on-demand workflows with the users can allow them to complete Phone Calls in bulk, denoting that a voicemail was left.

In this post, we are going to look at how to use a Dialog to ease telemarketing pain.  Below you will find instructions for creating a Phone Call Dialog.

1. Go to Settings > Customizations > Customize the Entity.
2. Go to Processes and click New.
3. Set the Process name.  Set the Entity to Contact and Category to Dialog. Click OK.

1. For this dialog, you don’t need any Input Arguments or Variables.
2. Click under Steps.

1. Click the Add Step button and select Page.

1. Name the Page, then click the line below.

1. Click on the Add Step button and select Prompt and Response.

1. Click Set Properties.

1. There are many options for prompts- to keep the Dialog short and simple, stick with 2-5 prompts.  The Statement Label will not be seen by the users.  The Prompt Text will tell the users what data to enter in the field.  It is important to only prompt the users for Require Fields. The less data they are required to enter, the more likely they will provide accurate data. Here are some examples of prompts you may want to use:
   1. Due Date of Phone Call: Note that the Default is set to the Execution time. This will allow the user to skip over the field if they run the dialog during or immediately after the phone call.

1. Whether or not the Phone Call was Completed:

1. Subject: If the Subject line is important to contain good data, prompt the user to enter it.  Otherwise, have this auto-populate with the Contact’s Name and Due Date.
2. Left Voicemail:

1. Once you have all of the prompts required, you are ready to create the Phone Call.
2. Highlight the entire Page by clicking just to the left of the word Page.

1.  Click the Add Step button and select Create Record.

1. Select Phone Call then click Set Properties.

1. Fill in the fields on the Phone Call.

1. Click Save and Close.
2. If you opted for a “Left Voicemail” prompt, click on the Add Step and select Check Condition.

1. Set the IF statement to “If Left Voicemail Response Label Equals Yes.”

1. Select the row below and click Add Step button.

1. Select Update Record.

1. Click the dropdown to Create Phone Call and click Set Properties.

1. Enter “Left Voicemail” in the text box.

1. Click Save and Close.
2. Add other Conditional Statements as needed.
3. Once completed, Activate the Dialog and share with users.

If you like this method, you should consider a similar process for all activity types, not just phone calls.  Keeping consistent processes in the system will ease training and user adoption. 

Happy CRM'ing!