Skip to main content

Notifications

Announcements

No record found.

News and Announcements icon
Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Archived) / Using CRM to Track Res...
Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Archived)

Using CRM to Track Research Contacts and Progress

(0) ShareShare
ReportReport
Posted on by Community Member Microsoft Employee

Hi,
My company currently uses excel file to create lists of contacts and track engagement with them. 

We take a list of companies that we want to talk to on a specific subject, identify the contacts at each company, then we track who has been contacted, who responded, what information we have sent, if we have had a phone call, etc. All done in a spreadsheet. 

Now that we are working on Dynamics CRM I want to make this process more automated and worked on suing CRM rather than a spreadsheet. 

Can anyone suggest where to start? I heard that Processes can be created to do this but not sure how to do this, perhaps there is a template already available?

Thanks!

*This post is locked for comments

  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member Microsoft Employee on at
    RE: Using CRM to Track Research Contacts and Progress

    Thanks very much Ivan, I will look at your suggestion.

  • Suggested answer
    Ivan Ficko Profile Picture
    Ivan Ficko 1,380 on at
    RE: Using CRM to Track Research Contacts and Progress

    I can suggest you use Campaign entity for this kind of tasks.

    You can filter the contacts by accounts and add them to marketing lists and then assign that marketing list to a campaign. Then you need to create campaign activity for each of your tasks that you want to do (calling the customer, sending an email,...) and distribute that particular activity on the campaign entity.

    You can check basic campaign configuration on this link. 

    You can store relevant information on the customer or campaign response entity. There is a notes section on almost every entity where you can store file attachments (recorded transcripts) related to that entity.

    If you integrate your CRM with Exchange you can also sync that with your calendar so you see the tasks or similar entities in your Outlook calendar.

    There is an OOB CRM integration with Skype for Bussines, but I can't help you much there because I have no experience with this integration.

    I mostly work with telemarketing solutions which are pretty similar to this one as I can see, so if you have any other questions feel free to ask.

  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member Microsoft Employee on at
    RE: Using CRM to Track Research Contacts and Progress

    Thanks Ivan.

    Below is an example of the excel tracker (sorry the table doesn't format correctly in the post). 

    I'd like to have a process with a few steps:

    Select a number of relevant accounts/companies from the CRM, then select relevant contacts. This will be the base list.
    I'd like to be able to add comments. Also to have a place to past any transcripts of the conversation had in calls. 

    Then have the ability to track each of the stages in the columns. 

    Maybe this could also be integrated with appointments made on Outlook with these contacts. We use Skype for Business to make the calls and appointments are made in the Outlook calendar. 

    Company Name Name Comments Proposal Sent  Interview Requested Chased Response Emailed Questions Interview Committed Call Scheduled Interview / Questions Completed Follow Up Email Sent Brochure Sent Participant Summary Sent Purchased
          (Y/N) (Y/N) (Y/N) (Y/N) (Y/N) (Y/N) (Date) (Date) (Y/N) (Y/N) (Y/N) (Y/N)
    5 2 3 0 5 5 0 0 0 0 0
             
             
    Account/Company 1 Contact 1 called Oct 5 y y y y 22-Sep      
    Account/Company 1 Contact 2          
    Account/Company 1 Contact 3     y 29-Sep      
    Account/Company 2 Contact 1          
    Account/Company 3 Contact 1 y y y   y 03-Oct      
    Account/Company 3 Contact 2          
    Account/Company 4 Contact 1 contacted via linked in y y y y 04-Oct      
    Account/Company 5 Contact 1 y y y y y 28-Sep      
    Account/Company 5 Contact 2          
    Account/Company 5 Contact 3          
    Account/Company 6 Contact 1 y y        
    Account/Company 6 Contact 2          
    Account/Company 6 Contact 3          
    Account/Company 7 Contact 1          
    Account/Company 8 Contact 1          
    Account/Company 8 Contact 2          
    Account/Company 9 Contact 1          
    Account/Company 10 Contact 1          
    Account/Company 10 Contact 2          
    Account/Company 10 Contact 3          
    Account/Company 11 Contact 1          
    Account/Company 12 Contact 1          
    Account/Company 13 Contact 1          
    Account/Company 14 Contact 1          
    Account/Company 15 Contact 1          
  • Ivan Ficko Profile Picture
    Ivan Ficko 1,380 on at
    RE: Using CRM to Track Research Contacts and Progress

    Most of the dynamic things in CRM are done via Processes, but you need to explain us more in detail what do you want to achieve.

    Which communication channels do you use, how do you track responses from your customers,...

Under review

Thank you for your reply! To ensure a great experience for everyone, your content is awaiting approval by our Community Managers. Please check back later.

Helpful resources

Quick Links

December Spotlight Star - Muhammad Affan

Congratulations to a top community star!

Top 10 leaders for November!

Congratulations to our November super stars!

Tips for Writing Effective Suggested Answers

Best practices for providing successful forum answers ✍️

Leaderboard

#1
André Arnaud de Calavon Profile Picture

André Arnaud de Cal... 291,280 Super User 2024 Season 2

#2
Martin Dráb Profile Picture

Martin Dráb 230,214 Most Valuable Professional

#3
nmaenpaa Profile Picture

nmaenpaa 101,156

Leaderboard

Featured topics

Product updates

Dynamics 365 release plans