Recording Unscheduled Activities

Have you ever hung up the phone after talking with a customer or prospect and wanted to record the event? Or have you returned from an unscheduled meeting and wanted that event memorialized? Perhaps you also wanted to schedule a follow up activity to that unscheduled event? This week's tip will show you how to record activities of this type.

Of course you always have the option of "Looking Up" your contact's record, and adding a description of the activity using the "Insert Note" function. But this doesn't classify the activity nor allow for easy scheduling of a follow up activity.

To accomplish all this and more, use the "Record History" function under the "Contact" drop down menu. Or use the "Ctrl" + "H" keyboard shortcut.

The dialog box that appears will default to the last contact record opened, the current date and time. It will also default to the most current activity on your calendar for that contact, if one is scheduled.

DO NOT WORRY! You can change all of this data to suit any event you may wish to record. By clicking into the contact field you can scroll to any contact in your database (or use the "type ahead function" starting with the contact's last name).

For someone not currently in your database, click the "New Contact" button in the dialog box to initiate a new contact record. That contact will then default into the contact field.

Enter a brief description in the "Regarding" field, and, for ACT! 2000 users, add any details of the event that you desire in the "Detail" field. If you are still using a previous version of ACT!, to add more detailed information, click into the "regarding" field in the "Notes/History" section of the contact's record. You can then type as much detail as you wish.

The "Follow Up Activity..." button (sorry, ACT! 2000 users only) can be very useful at this point to schedule that follow up letter you need to send, or that phone call next month when you need to get back to the contact.