Tasks allow you to track actions that need to be completed within your organisation i.e. call a potential donor, call a customer or even a lead. Tasks can be added against a customer’s account or from the dashboard. The toolbar shows Today’s Tasks and Total Assigned Tasks as a reference that you can click on to go to your dashboard. From the dashboard, you can create customer and non-customer tasks (i.e. change the phone rotation for the day or remember to turn on an alarm).
We give you complete control over your CRM. We’ve provided you with a default list, however you can edit or create your own Task Grouping, Action Required and Result. E.g. Task Group: fundraising, Action: call now, call in six months and Result: completed, donated, call in 3 months. It’s all your choice how you want the Task/s to play out.
You can add alerts by email, screen or directly from your alert bell. Customise the content that is sent by email. Add priority types and colours for your alerts and sounds as they appear in your alert bell and even allow snoozing for set tasks. Your dashboard has all of your allocated tasks and tasks can also be created from there. Assign tasks to yourself, other roles or individual users. Ultimately any interaction with your customer can be recorded.
Let’s now review how to setup this area.
ACTIVITY NAME
- Activity Name: Examples include Events, Tours, Donors, Customer Complaints, Merchandise etc. We’ve provided a list of default activities. You can always change the title ‘activity name’ by simply clicking on the pencil icon i.e. change Activity name to Task Name.
You can turn an Activity Name on or off by flicking the ‘active’ switch. You can delete any of the existing pre-defaults by clicking on the bin delete icon.
You also have complete control to edit any of the Activity Names. By clicking on the EDIT button, in the modal overlay, you can change your activity name, and add/edit/remove any of your activity tasks and activity/results. It’s your choice. For example, if you click to edit the pre-default of Donations (accepting money from customers for fundraising), the current defaults are call, meeting, to do etc. You are in control of deleting an activity task or adding a new one. You might want to be more specific for activity tasks such as to segment this further and add a call regarding a New Year gifting campaign or call regarding donating to the theatre ‘new seats’ program. You can be as specific and broad as you like. Also take control of your Activity Results/Status. We’ve generically added completed, in progress, waiting for response, urgent and incomplete but you can edit/add as you like.
NOTE: Once you setup your Activity structure on all 3 levels, Activity Name, Activity Task, Activity Result/Status, when your staff create a task, they’ll be restricted by what is in this task area.
ACTIVITY TASK
- Activity task: Once you’ve determined what your Activity Names are, add/edit/delete current tasks. By default, we’ve added Call, Meeting, To do, Appointment and Email Customer. You may want to add new tasks such as Call Urgent, Call re donating, Meeting re Sales Opportunity. If you add an Activity task, simply click “ADD ACTIVITY TASK”, then enter the name of the new Activity Task. Your newly created Activity Task MUST also be associated with an Activity Name – at least one but you can select it to be available against all. For example, if your activity name is call urgent, this could apply to donors, memberships etc.
You can then select the Set Scheduler. This allows you to define if a staff member selects the Activity Task, when does it need to be undertaken? E.g. If it’s a Donor urgent call, you may set the (x) number of days options which allows you to set Days, Hours and/or Mins. The urgent call may have a pre-default of 30 mins so that when the staff member selects this, the system will show a pre-defaulted 30 mins to set the expectation of attempting the task in that timeframe.
You can always change the ‘Activity Task’ title name by simply clicking on the pencil icon.
Options are:
Set Scheduler
Allow Select From Calendar? Gives control to the staff member to select from the calendar when the item needs to actioned. I.e. you need to speak to a customer about donating in 7 days from now (on a particular date).
X Number Of Days Option? You are able to set pre-defaulted Days, Hours and/or Mins. For example, if it’s a Donor urgent call, you may set the (x) number of days options which allows you to set Days, Hours and/or Mins. The urgent call may have a pre-default of 30 mins so that when the staff member selects this, the system will show a pre-defaulted 30 mins to set the expectation of attempting the task in that timeframe.
You also have the power to set whether the user is allowed to change the default value for the “(x) number of Days option?”. If this option is activated, the staff member will be able to override the value i.e. 30 mins to 1 hour etc. It would be expected that the staff member completes the task in the nominated value (days, hours and/or minutes) from creating the task.
No Date Range? Allows the staff member to simply keep this Activity task in the system for an indefinite date range.
ACTIVITY RESULT/STATUS
- Activity Result/Status: These are the results of your tasks above such as completed, incomplete, in progress, waiting for response and urgent. If you call a donor or prospect, and the outcome is they donated, this would be considered as completed. If the prospective donor didn’t answer their call, you can set a follow-up action such as in progress, or you can create a customised result/status. You are in complete control. When you add or edit a result/status, simply review the result/status name and which Activity Name it’s associated with and choose if it’s completed or not.This is crucial for the system to then understand which tasks are completed so they are removed from your task dashboard. All results/status’ need to be associated to an Activity Name (i.e. in progress is associated to events, donors etc).
You can always change the Activity Results/Status title by simply clicking on the pencil icon i.e. change it to Status.
IMPORTANT: It’s crucial you carefully review all your Task options and when adding or editing, this is an organisation wide impact.
Additional Options:
Activate Enter Duration?
Enter duration allows the staff member to enter days, hours and/or minutes as to how long the Task is expected to take. For example, if a call scheduled was expected to take 5 minutes, you can enter the duration. Through analysis, you’ll be able to identify how long tasks are expected to take.
Mandatory: Tick mandatory to make this field compulsory for your staff to complete. It’s your choice.
Add Subject?
When adding a task to do, can the staff member also add a Subject against the task? For example, you could have selected Activity Name: Donations, then Activity Task: Call and the subject entered will explain specific details such as ‘call John about donating to the ABC fund’. In any instance, you could have created under Donations the various Activity Tasks such as Call ABOUT ABC Fund, Call about XYX Fund etc. However, depending on your organisation’s preferences, the subject will lead to less Activity Tasks being created. Again, it’s always your choice.
Mandatory: Check the mandatory option to stop staff bypassing the entering of a subject input field.
Force notes to be entered?
When adding a task, staff members can add a note to provide any additional details. By selecting YES, staff will be required to enter notes against any/all Tasks added.
Activate Related Transaction?
Allows tasks to be assigned a transaction/confirmation number which can make it easier to then reference when speaking to a customer/prospect.
Mandatory: Click mandatory to make this related transaction option compulsory.
Activate Add attachment?
When adding a task, you can give your staff the privilege to add an attachment to the task. For example, you may need to speak to the customer about a medical form so having this information at your fingertips is key.
Mandatory: Select if the attachment adding is mandatory or not by checking this box.
File Options
Select the preferred way for documents to be loaded for tasks such “as upload” (i.e. upload from your desktop) or “as a link” (simply enter the link to your server). At least one file type must be selected if you activate this option (you can also select both options).
Activate Priority?
We set priorities to ensure that tasks allocated are given differing levels of importance than other tasks. Activate Priority to set defaulted status’s such as Urgent, High, Medium, low etc.
Click “ADD PRIORTIY” to add a new priority.
- Enter the Name of Priority e.g. Urgent, High etc.
- Select a Colour Code for the priority by clicking on the colour field. When the priority appears across your dashboard, it will appear with this colour code. Hence urgent would be red, while a low priority task could be a softer colour.
- Add a Sound File, so that if you are away from your computer or out of the page, the sound will notify you of the task you need to complete. Select from available options or click the ‘Add Audio File’ sign to add your own sound.
- Click “SAVE” to save your priority.
The priority table shows your list of priorities and whether they are active against the organisation or not. Flick the active switch to turn the priority on or off for selection in creating a task.
The priority name is also listed as well as the colour code and sound file (if assigned). Click the edit icon to edit your priority or the bin icon to delete it.
Mandatory: Select if you would like to make priorities mandatory when creating a task.
Activate Location?
By activating the location field, staff will be able to add an address against the task. For meetings that are held away from the organisation, track where the meeting is located. The system also displays a visual map of the location.
Mandatory: Click mandatory to make a location defaulted on for your organisation and cannot be therefore bypassed.
Allow user to make task private?
Can all users mark their tasks as private which means only they can see them? It could be that specific staff members require this function to deal with important customers of the organisation such as donors. Again, only they will be able to see this note.
Activate ability to allocate to another user/role?
Allows tasks to be allocated to another user/role. For example, a user could allocate a task for support to action rather than sales or to a specific user.
Activate Reminder?
Mandatory: Allows you to activate reminders to alert you of the task. Is it mandatory that all tasks must have reminders? It’s your choice. Choose from a range of settings below if you have selected YES.
Activate Custom Options?
By default, when adding an alert, a date and time input is preselected. You can also activate the options below by clicking YES which are “Minutes before Activity”, “Hours Before Activity”, “Days Before Activity” or “Weeks Before Activity”. Whatever you select below, staff adding tasks will be able to see these options.
Reminder Options:
By email
By Screen
- By Alert Bell
Set reminder options by:
Email: The system will send the task as a reminder to your nominated email address. The system uses the default email alert template that can be located under Tools & Templates > Email Templates. You can customise the auto generated email template by going to this section. Your default task details and any customer related info is automatically added.
Screen: A screen alert appears as shown below underneath the tool bar.
Alert Bell: The alert bell is in your toolbar and displays how many alerts you have by a count. Click on the alert bell to display all of your alerts.
Allow user to set colour for alert or leave as defaults?
By default, if you have pre-defaulted your alert colours, such as red for Urgent, can the staff member override the colour to their own preference as shown on their user profile only.
Can the alert be closed by clicking on the x option?
Default Time
When an alert pops up as a Screen or Alert Bell option, this will allow the staff member to (x) the alert (close it) and complete it at a later time. It could be that they are on a current call etc. You can then also set a default time that the alert will re-appear so that staff don’t miss these important tasks that need to be completed. The default time in the system is 30 minutes.
Change the x option at per task level? [heading needs to be changed on the system]
Can the staff member pick and choose at a per task level whether the (x) option to close the task is allowed? This means that tasks may or may not be closed with an (x) depending on its priority level.
Change Default time Period per task Level?
The default in the system is 30 minutes for a task to reappear after you’ve (x) out of it. If you would like the staff member to set the period when creating the task of how long the task will reappear after removing it, depending on the priority of the task based on their understanding, this setting should be activated.
Activate Snooze options for an alert?
By allowing snooze, staff will see a similar screen to the below where they can set the snooze time period i.e. 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or a custom date/time or even a custom time in days, hours and/or minutes. The task alert will then re-appear as set in the snooze period.
