Siebel Life Sciences Guide > Planning Calls > End-User Procedures >

Creating a Contact Call

End users track details about calls made on a contact with contact call records. Although users can create and display contact calls on the Contacts screen, they enter details about the actual call on the Activities screen. Also, as activities, contact call records can also be viewed in the Calendar screen as planned events.

For more information on entering call details, see Recording Contact Calls.

NOTE:  Before user can enter information about products detailed, samples, and promotional items dropped during a contact call, they must set up their personal lists. For more information, see Creating a Personal List.

To add a contact call from the Activities screen

  1. Navigate to the Activities screen.
  2. From the Show drop-down list, select My Activities.
  3. In the Activities list, click New Contact Call.
  4. In the Contact Call form, add a record and complete the necessary fields.

    5. Some of the fields in the Contact Call record are described in the following table.

    Field
    Comments
    Cost
    The cost you want to include the call in an expense report generated by Siebel Expenses. Also do the following before submitting the call:
    • Specify the actual start time for the call.
    • Check the Expense flag for the call in the My Activities view. For more information, see Adding a General Activity.
    Last Name
    The contact to be visited during this call. Make a selection from the Pick Contact dialog box and click OK.
    Ref #
    A reference number for this call. This reference number becomes the transaction number (Transaction # field) for a samples transaction corresponding to this call. For information on samples transactions, see Managing Samples.
    Smart Call
    The Smart Call template to be associated with this call. Make a selection from the Pick Smart Call dialog box.
    A Smart Call is a template that you apply to contact calls that defines information about the products detailed, samples and promotional items distributed, and issues discussed on a call. Once you apply a Smart Call template to a call, you can make additional edits any fields in the Contact Call Detail view. For more information on Smart Calls, see Creating Smart Calls.
    Status
    The status of this call. The default value is Planned. This value changes to Synchronized after synchronization.
    Be aware, you cannot select the value Submitted. To change the status of the call to Submitted, you must submit the call. For more information, see To submit a completed contact call.

For more information on how to enter information in Call Products Detailed, Sample Products Dropped, Promotional Items Dropped, and Issues lists, see Recording Contact Calls.

NOTE:  If you applied a Smart Call to the call (as described in Step 4), you may only need to verify that all the information in the four lists is accurate.

To automatically schedule a contact call using the Schedule button

  1. Navigate to the Contacts screen.
  2. From the Show drop-down list, select My Contacts.
  3. In the Contacts list, select a contact.
  4. Click the Schedule button.

    5. The Auto Schedule dialog box appears, displaying the date range specified on the best-times-to-call information on the Addresses view tab.

  5. In the Auto Schedule dialog box, review the displayed values, make any needed changes, and click OK.

NOTE:  The auto-scheduling function does not check for scheduling conflicts. Therefore, users need to verify that automatically scheduled calls do not conflict with other activities in their calendar.

To manually schedule a contact call in the Calls view tab

  1. Navigate to the Contacts screen.
  2. From the Show drop-down list, select My Contacts.
  3. In the Contacts list, select a contact.

    4. NOTE:  When selecting the contact, do not click a hyperlink (underlined field), or you will go to another view.

  4. Click the Calls view tab.
  5. In the Call list, add a record and complete the necessary fields.

    6. NOTE:  You cannot change the call's Status field to Submitted from this view. To change the status of the call to Submitted, you must submit the call. For more information, see To submit a completed contact call.

  6. To go to the Contact Call Detail view, drill down on the date hyperlink in the Start Date field.

    7. The Contact Call Detail view appears.

For more information on recording calls, see Recording Contact Calls.

To schedule a contact call in the Calendar

  1. Navigate to the Calendar screen.
  2. From the Show drop-down list, select My Calendar.

    3. The My Daily Calendar view appears, displaying the current date.

  3. Select either the My Daily or My Weekly view tab.
  4. Navigate to the day on which you want to schedule the call and click New Contact Call.

    5. The Contact Call Detail view appears.

For more information on recording calls, see Recording Contact Calls.


 Siebel Life Sciences Guide 
 Published: 18 April 2003