Welcome back to our blog series on my favourite CRM tips and tricks. Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM improves how you interact and do business with your customers. But are you using the system to its fullest potential? I’ve got you covered with another handy trick to make your day-to-day use of the system easier!
Jennifer Davison, Dynamics 365 Consultant, Bam Boom Cloud
Tip #3: Creating Activities / To-Dos
Did you know you can create activities/to-dos within Sales Professional?
Not only that, but we can see what needs to be done, when it needs to be done by and for what purpose, all via the use of activities. An activity can be assigned to any entity record that contains a timeline, including Accounts, Contacts, Leads and Opportunities.
An activity can include scheduling an appointment, email, phone call and a task. To add a new activity, first navigate to the required record, then click on the ‘+’ button at the top of the timeline:
Clicking on any of these options will display a very similar window, where you can capture the details of the activity. For example, imagine we need to book in a follow-up call with a client in 6 months’ time. When we click on the ‘Phone Call’ option, we will be displayed the following options:
Here, we can add a subject (a top-level title for the call), confirm the telephone number and log the reason for the call (always helpful if the call is scheduled for a while in the future). You can also enter the date, time and expected duration for the call:
Once the activity has been saved, it will appear on the timeline and an ‘Active’ tag will also be displayed. This ‘Active’ tag shows that the activity has a due date in the future and has not yet been completed:
Once the activity has been completed, hover over the activity and click on the tick. This will mark the activity as complete:
Should an activity still be outstanding and have passed its due date, the tag will change to a red ‘Overdue’ tag:
When marking an activity as complete, a confirmation message will be displayed, checking that the activity is indeed ready to be closed. This is also useful for recording whether you made the call yourself, or if the call was received:
The tag on the activity will then be updated to reflect the closure of that activity:
This is a great way of not only being able to create activities, but also of being able to see what actions have already been taken that are related to this specific record.
Happy Planning! Come back next week to take your planning in CRM to the next level.
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