The foundU CRM, operations contacts and prospects

If you want to use your platform's CRM feature, you can access it in multiple ways. How you access the CRM will depend on the action you want to perform. 

Navigate to the CRM via the Main Menu to:

• Add Prospects (potential clients) to your platform
• Add Contacts to any Operation 
• See a List of all CRM contacts in your platform (for all Operations)

Navigate to a specific Operation > CRM to:

• Make comments/notes against the Operation
  
  

In foundU, we refer to prospective or potential clients as Prospects.

If your business involves acquiring or engaging in relationships with new clients, then using the CRM Prospects section will be of value to you. You may want to use this feature to:

• Add Prospective clients to capture their details.
• Convert a Prospective client to a Pending or Approved Operation.
• Add notes against your Prospective clients to track their progress and keep records during the acquisition phase.
• Report on Prospect CRM comments using the Prospects report.
   

Creating a new prospect

To add a new Prospect to your platform:

1. Navigate to the Main menu > CRM > Prospects.
2. Select Add Prospect, and fill in the relevant details.
3. Once finished, select Add Prospective Operation. You'll now see this new Prospect in the list of all of your Prospective clients.

To see a Prospect being added, watch our short video below. 

To add further important information to the Prospective client, navigate to the Prospective operation profile > Details > Details > Edit to add information such as:

• Estimated Client Value
• Conversion probability
• Expected Conversion date
• more Contact details for the Operation

The above details will flow through to the Prospects Report, which we will cover at the end of this article.

Through the foundU Implementation process, the Operation registration process page can be tailored to your business needs.
 

Using the prospects page

Like many other Operation menus in foundU, you have a global search on the right-hand side (should you have many prospects to search through), a Show filter option and a Bulk Actions Menu.

Use the 'Show filter' to refine your Prospects by:

• Suburb
• State
• Manager
• Office Code
• Pay period
• Tag groups

You can perform actions in Bulk by using the 'Bulk Actions' button such as:

• Export Prospects information
• Export Operation contacts for Selected
• Assign a manager or office code
• Send SMS
• Assign tags
• Apply Clock setting Overrides
• Update Financial Features for selected

Once a Prospects signs with you and becomes a Client, you'll want to move them to become a Pending Operation and assign the relevant financial details to progress through to Approving the Operation.
 

To convert to a Pending Operation:

1. Locate the Prospect via Main Menu > Prospects or via the global search in the top right-hand side of your platform.
2. You'll want to begin by Assigning a Manager and Office Code, as well as Uploading a Client Summary if you wish.
3. Optionally, you should upload a Client Summary. Think of this as a resume of the new Operation. To do so, select Upload Client Summary and Choose File.
4. Next, upload an operation photo, and adjust the toggle settings in the Quick Settings tab for your business. For example, turning on purchase orders or position groups if your business uses these.
5. Select Convert to Pending Client from the prospective Operation profile (CRM > Prospects) to transfer this information directly to a Pending Operation profile. When selected you'll be prompted to confirm the Employer registration details.
   
   
6. Press Accept Operation to move it to your Approved Operations if you are ready to do so. You will be prompted to Confirm this choice and asked whether or not you would like to send the welcome email to all users linked to this Operation. 

You're able to add CRM records directly from the Prospective client page. When adding a CRM record you can add details around:

• Date
• Status of Comment
• Choose a staff member (the person making the record)
• Upload a file (I.e. contract or paperwork sent to the client)
• Assign a follow-up date
• and make Notes as well

You can report on these records using the Prospects Report, we will cover this below.

Your CRM records will flow through to the CRM section for the Prospect. Here you can:

• Add more CRM records Via +Add CRM
• Edit CRM records
• Delete unwanted CRM Records

You'll also notice these will come up in the Comments section on the right for the potential client.

Customise record types for prospects

If you would like to create a new Record for CRM status, this will be done in the Comment types for your platform.

To do so:

1. Navigate to Platform Settings > Comment Types.
2. Select Add New > Fill in the label type > select 'Prospective Operation' for Comment type and Save.
3. The new category will now display in the CRM Records for Prospective.

  Hot tip: You can also archive types of records here that are no longer used.

Adding Contacts to an Operation will give you the ability to have a growing list of Client Contacts, Actively use your CRM, log notes against Contacts and Operations, and maintain vital information you will need in sales.

There are multiple ways that you can add contacts in your foundU CRM:

• Through the main menu > CRM  > Contacts
• In a specific Operation (Pending or Approved) profile, by selecting the CRM icon
• By Importing Bulk Contacts via CSV
   

Add a new contact via the main menu

Use this method to add multiple contacts to multiple operations easily.

To do so:

1. Navigate to the main menu CRM > Contacts.
2. Select Add Contact.
3. Fill in the contact details including:
   • Name
   • Email
   • Contact numbers (landline and mobile)
   • Position
   • Description (why you have added this person as an Operation contact)
   • Assign to an Operation
   • Can receive comms- switch the toggle to if you will send communications to this contact through email templates.
     • For example, you may have the IT manager listed as a contact and they will receive admin email notifications when a new starter commences employment to set up their laptops.
4. Select Add Contact to save.

This contact can now be viewed under the relevant Operation > Contacts. If this contact needs to be removed from the Operation, you can do so via Operation > Contacts > edit contact.

Add a contact to an operation

Use this method should you want to add contacts directly to an Operation.

To do so :

1. Navigate to the relevant Operation > CRM > Contacts.
2. Select Create New Contact.
3. Fill in the contact details, including:
   • Name
   • Email
   • Contact numbers (landline and mobile)
   • Position
   • Description (why you have added this person as an Operation contact)
   • Assign to an Operation
   • Can receive comms- Switch the toggle to on if you will be sending communications to this contact through email templates.
     • For example, you may have the IT manager listed as a contact and they will receive admin email notifications when a new starter commences employment to set up their laptops.
       
       
4. Select Create Contact and Assign to xxx to save.

The option to Import Bulk Contacts CSV will allow you to:

• Add bulk contact details at one time.
• Utilise the CRM function of the platform more fully by having many contacts readily available. 

As time goes on, you may want to edit your Contact List in your platform to ensure it is more accurate. To do this you may want to:

• Editing a contact's details to keep them current, or
• Delete a contact entirely
   

View your entire platform contact list

Before you manage your Contact List, it is a good idea to view the entire list. You can do this via the Main menu > CRM > Contacts. This will show all Contacts for any Prospective Operations as well as Pending, Approved or Decline Operations as well. Use the search box on the right-hand side to locate a specific contact.
 

Edit a contact

As details from a contact change, you may need to Edit these details against the Contact. 

To do so:

1. Navigate to the main menu > CRM > Contacts.
2. Select the Contact you wish to edit from your list of Contacts.
3. Change the appropriate details:
   • Edit any details
   • Make notes against the contact
   • Change the status of 'Can receive Comms' if you want this Contact to receive comms from your platform
4. Save your changes.

To see a Contact being edited, watch our short video below. 

Delete a contact

To Delete a contact from a Prospect or Operation, you will do this from the Prospect or Operation directly.

To do so:

1. Navigate to the Prospect or Operation> Contacts. 
2. Select the 'Edit Contacts' button, this will open a list of all contacts against the Operation.
3. Select the 'x' for any contacts you would like deleted. 
4. Save contacts once finished.

To see a Contact being deleted, watch our short video below. 

You may be wanting to update all your contacts in your foundU platform in bulk. You can export your contact list to do so and make changes in bulk.

To do this, you'll follow the basic process below.

• Export all your Operation contacts from the appropriate Operations list.
• Once exported, make adjustments as required.
• Once you have your updated new contact list you can bulk import your contacts per operation as needed.

  Permission Reminder: 'Exporting contacts' is a permission-controlled feature. If you do not see the option to Export Operations Contacts, speak to your Super User to have this enabled where required. 
 

To export your contact list:

1. Navigate to Operations > either Approved Operations or Pending Operations.
2. You can either export contacts of all of your operations or a select group by:
   • Applying or loading a filter - Expand your page size to export all of your operations at once.
   • Selecting operations - If you are looking to export specific operations, you can select the checkbox next to their name. 
3. Navigate to Bulk Actions and choose from:
   • Export Operation Contacts - This option is available when exporting with a filter.

   • Export Operation Contacts For Selected - This is available when individual operations have been selected.

     

4. Select your desired options from the drawer and select Export CSV.
   
   

This will export your operations contacts along with all of the fields you have selected. (see the example below). 

Once you have made your changes, you'll be ready to bulk import your contacts per operation as needed.

  You can also filter and export a variety of information in bulk from Approved Operations; for further reading, refer here. 

You're able to add a comment to an Operation's profile in 2 places. Whether or not you would like to upload a file and/or set a follow-up date will determine which method you may use.

The options include:

• Via the Operation profile > Add Comment.
• Via the Operation profile > CRM > Add CRM. Use this option if you would like to upload a document and assign a follow-up date.
   

Adding a comment using add comment

To add comments this way:

1. In the quick menu select Operations > Approved or Pending Operation. 
2. Select the Operation’s name to access their profile.
3. Select the Comment Type from the drop-down box.
4. Add in the details of your comment.
   • You can use the @ feature to tag an admin/employee in your comment. This will also show up on the admin/employee's profile in a yellow box.
5. Once complete, select Add Comment.
6. To keep a comment at the top you have the ability to 'pin' the comment, by selecting the pin image. This will ensure this comment stays at the top (usually these order by date).

Below is the view of a tagged comment on the Employee's profile.

  Please note: These comments can only be seen by admins with the appropriate permissions on the profile.

Adding a comment using a CRM entry

To add a CRM note:

1. In the quick menu select the appropriate Operation > CRM > Add CRM.
2. This will open up a Record for you to fill in the details including:
   • Date
   • Descriptio (Comment type)
   • Staff member
   • File Upload
   • Follow-up Date
   • Note
3. Select Save once complete.

The notes that are submitted here will appear on your CRM overview page (as below) where you can note the details at a glance.

If you need to erase a CRM comment due to an error, you can by pressing the 'x' under Actions.

  Please note: Erasing a CRM comment will also erase this entry from your Manager Activity Report.

To track activity with your Operations/clients, you can use the Manager Activity report on all notes against any or all clients. We cover this lower in this guide.

The Manager Activity Report can be used to report all comments made against Operations and Employees on your platform.

Use cases for the Manager Activity report might be:

• To see all comments made against a Specific Operation to see the comments made over a long period.
• To report on your team's activity (by filtering by manager and activity type), including any comments made on employees (candidates).

  See our section on comment reporting in the Employee & Operation Profile Comments/Notes article for a complete guide on how to use this report. 

The Prospects Report can be used to report on any CRM notes for your Prospective Clients including comments and conversion statistics. If you're using foundU to add Prospects via the full menu > CRM > Prospects this report will allow you to see your hot leads.

  Please note: This report only contains notes for Prospective Operations. It does not include any Operation data.
 

To use the Prospects Report:

1. In the quick menu, navigate to Reports > Business and select Prospects Report.
2.  In the filters choose from:
   • An applicable date range.
   • Filter by Activity date.
   • Filter by Manager.
   • Filter by Status
   • Office Code.
3. Select Submit. Your report will appear below.
4. The report can be Exported to CSV or PDF or there is an option to Print.