5Managing Contacts
Managing Contacts
This chapter describes how to manage contacts. It includes the following topics:
About Managing Contacts
Contacts are entities or individuals with whom the company does business with or with whom it expects to do business with in the future. Contacts includes employees of other companies, independent consultants, vendors, or personal acquaintances. Contacts can belong to only one company, but they can be part of many opportunities, including opportunities that do not involve their companies. Within Siebel Insurance, contacts are presented in a single view of the customer and your relationship with the customer.
End users can:
Enter and track information about contacts, which includes products bought, details of signed agreements or contracts, and products previously recommended to the customer.
Document marketing campaigns and details of each customer’s response.
Maintain a history of service requests, insurance claims, and product applications that the customer has made in the past.
Analyze a customer’s financial health as well as a customer’s needs.
The Contacts screen provides an alternative view of data that is available in other screens. Many tasks that can be performed in the Contacts views can also be performed in other screens. For example, users can create activities for a contact either in the Contact Activities view, or they can go to the My Activities view to enter a new activity, and then associate it with the contact. For more information on basic contact functionality and administration, see Siebel Applications Administration Guide. You can save time and reduce keystrokes by using a workflow to automate steps that are repeatedly performed by end users. For more information, see Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide.
Scenario for Adding a New Contact
This scenario features sample tasks performed by a sales representative in the insurance industry. Your company might follow a different workflow according to its business requirements.
Sales Representative Adds a New Contact
At a conference, a new account representative meets a potential customer. The potential customer gives the new account representative his business card and informs her that he had recently moved to the area and works for a medium sized software company.
The new account representative returns to her office and enters her new acquaintance into Siebel Insurance as a new contact. She can also enter his company information and associate the company with the contact. In the Relationship Hierarchy view, she can enter the relationships for this contact, including all companies he is associated with, the contact's business partners, lawyer, his family members, and other influential relationships. As the creator of this new contact record, she is automatically added to the coverage team as the primary representative for the customer. If necessary, she can also add the small business manager and other product experts to the coverage team so they can see this new contact in their My Contacts view.
As the customer is looking for personal and business services, the account representative can create separate opportunity records in Siebel Insurance associated with the contact. In the opportunity records, she records the products and services the customer is interested in as well as other follow-up activities to serve the customer's needs.
In the scenario, end users are the new account representatives who manage company information in the field. They enter information to:
Add a new contact and associate him/her with companies
Use the Relationship view to enter all the contact's influential relationships
Add other account representatives to the coverage team
Create new opportunities associated with the contact
Create follow-up activities and assign them to the right representatives to close the potential opportunities
Process of Managing Contacts (End User)
This topic details sample tasks often performed by administrators and end-users when managing contacts. Your company might follow a different process according to its business requirements. The following list shows tasks end users typically perform when managing contacts:
Managing Contact Information (End User)
Contacts are entities or individuals with whom the company currently does business with or with whom it expects to do business with in the future. End users manage contact information by:
Adding new contacts. See Adding Contacts.
Creating contact categories and notes. See Creating Categories for Contact Information and Creating Notes About Contacts.
Managing contact referral information. See Managing Contact Referral Information.
Adding Contacts
When end users meet someone in the course of business, they add a contact record for that individual to track pertinent personal information and possible potential future business.
To add a contact
Navigate to the Contacts screen, then the Contacts List view.
In the Contacts form, click the show more button, add a record, and complete the necessary fields.
To specify a privacy level, drill down on the contact name link, scroll down to the Privacy Option field, and select one of the following:
Opt-In. Sharing of nonpublic personal information is allowed without restrictions.
Opt-Out - Affiliates. Sharing of nonpublic personal information with affiliates is not allowed.
Opt-Out - Third Party. Sharing of nonpublic personal information with third parties is not allowed.
Opt-Out - All Parties. Sharing of nonpublic personal information with any affiliate or third party is not allowed.
United States law requires that financial institutions disclose their privacy policies regarding the sharing of nonpublic personal information with third parties, and fair credit reporting, that impacts the sharing of nonpublic personal information with affiliates. End users can specify a privacy level by making a selection from the Privacy Option field.
The Privacy Option field is for registering the privacy level requested by the contact; it does not impact record visibility in any way.
Associating a Contact with a Company
Use the following procedure to associate a contact with a company.
To associate a contact with a company
Navigate to the Contacts screen, then the Contacts List view.
In the Contacts list, drill down on the desired contact.
Click the More Info view tab.
In the Account Name field, select a record from the list of available companies.
The application automatically associates the company with the contact and populates the address with the default company address information.
To change the address, click the select button in the Address Line field, and select an address.
To specify an address as the contact’s primary address, click the Primary field.
Note: The primary address in the Contact Addresses dialog box appears in the address fields on the More Info form.In the Time Zone field, select the contact’s time zone.
Creating Categories for Contact Information
If the default Contacts list and More Info form do not contain fields to track the type of information that end users must track, they can add additional categories. A manager might have set up a list of values from which users can select.
To add a category to a contact
Navigate to the Contacts screen, then the Contacts List view.
In the Contacts form, query for the desired contact.
Drill down on the Last Name link, click the Categories view tab, and create a new record.
In the Categories list, select a category from the list of values or create a new category.
Complete the necessary fields.
Create additional categories by repeating Step 4 through Step 5.
Creating Notes About Contacts
As end users work with contacts, they learn things they might want to remember. Often these tidbits of information are best stored as notes. Users can create notes that everyone with access to the contact record can see, or they can create notes that only they can see.
To create a note regarding a contact
Navigate to the Contacts screen, then the Contacts List view.
In the Contacts list, drill down on the desired contact.
Note: If the contact does not exist, add it. For more information, see Adding Contacts.Click the Notes view tab.
From the link bar, select one of the following:
Public Notes. Notes that others can see.
Private Notes. Notes that only their creators can see.
In the Notes list, add a record and complete the necessary fields.
Note: You can perform a spell check in Private Notes, but not in Public Notes.Some fields are described in the following table.
Managing Contact Referral Information
The Referrals view tab allows end users to enter referral information associated with contacts. Referrals are potential opportunities.
In the Referrals tab view, end users can record both referrals they give to their contacts, as well as referrals received from a contact.
To create a new contact for a referral
On the Contacts screen, create contacts. For more information, see Adding Contacts.
Associate those contacts with the new company. For more information, see Associating a Contact with a Company.
On Referrals view tab, select the Contact from the Pick Contact dialog box associated with this field.
Entering a Referral Received from a Contact
Use the following procedure to enter a referral received from a contact.
To enter a referral received from a contact
Navigate to the Contacts screen, then the Contacts List view.
In the Contacts list, drill down on the desired contact.
Click the Referrals view tab.
From the drop-down list, select Referral From This Contact.
Note: View all referrals from the contact by selecting Referrals From This Contact in the drop-down list.In the form, add a record, and complete the necessary fields.
Some fields are described in the following table.
Field Comments Company
Select an existing company or create a new one. The company selected represents the potential opportunity for your organization.
Last Name
Select a contact to associate with the referral company, as selected in the Company field; if you entered a Company, the list of Contacts is restricted to those associated with the selected company.
Referred By
Select the employee who made the referral.
Creating a Referral to a Contact
Use the following procedure to create a referral to a contact.
To create a referral to a contact
Navigate to the Contacts screen, then the Contacts List view.
In the Contacts list, drill down on the desired contact.
Click the Referrals view tab.
Scroll down to the Referrals to This Contact list, and from the drop-down list, select Referrals To This Contact.
In the list, add a record, and complete the necessary fields.
Some fields are described in the following table.
Field Comments Disposition
The status of the referral.
Company
Select an existing company or create a new one. The company selected represents the potential opportunity for your service provider.
Last Name
Select a contact to associate with the referral company, as selected in the Company field; if you entered a Company, the list of Contacts is restricted to those associated with the selected company.
Referred By
Select the employee from your organization who made the referral.
Creating Customer Assessments (End User)
The Contacts Assessments view can help end users qualify contacts. Contact assessments are created in the Contacts Assessments view.
A customer assessment evaluates a contact based on defined criteria. Each assessment template has a group of assessment attributes that make up the different measurement points of the assessment. A Siebel administrator can create new templates and add or modify assessment attributes. For more information on assessment templates and how to define and manage them, see Siebel Applications Administration Guide.
To create a customer assessment
Navigate to the Contacts screen, then the Contacts List view.
In the Contacts list, drill down on the contact for whom the assessment will be added.
Click the Assessments view tab, and create a new record.
In the Template Name field, select the desired template.
Assessment attributes, as defined for the template, are automatically created in the Assessment Attributes list.
Scroll down to the Assessment Attributes list, and where possible, select a value for each attribute by clicking the select button in the Value field.
Setting the Customer Value Icon (End User)
In addition to the customer value assessment tool described in Creating Customer Assessments (End User), there is an alternative customer value measurement device in Siebel Insurance.
The customer value icon is a series of five stars visible on the contact form. The number of stars activated indicates the perceived value of the contact.
To adjust the customer value stars
From the Contacts screen, then the More Info view, adjust the value in the Tier field.
Viewing a Contact Summary (End User)
The Contact Summary view provides a comprehensive view of a contact’s relationship with an end user’s organization in an editable format. This view displays the customer’s contact information, financial accounts, applications, alerts, campaigns targeted at the customer, and service requests and opportunities associated with the customer.
The Customer Value stars on the Contact form indicates the customer’s value to the organization. For more information, see Setting the Customer Value Icon (End User).
To view contact summary information
Navigate to the Contacts screen, then the Contacts List view.
In the Contacts list, drill down on a contact.
Click the Summary view tab.
For more information on editing summary view information, see Configuring Summary Views.
Viewing Contact Relationship Hierarchies (End User)
A contact’s relationships are those of influence. End users might have a contact who relies heavily on the opinions of others when making purchasing or other decisions. If so, they might want to keep track of the relationships between a contact having purchasing authority and those who might influence his purchasing decisions.
End users use the Contacts Relationship Hierarchy view to identify and capture key relationships for a contact. This view features a graphical tree that provides a visual representation of a contact’s relationships. The tree displays both the natural hierarchy of a contact’s parent-child relationships to entities such as companies and households, as well as custom-defined relationships.
Custom-defined relationships are dynamic associations between the contact and any other contact, organization, or household. End users can record custom-defined relationships between any two entities in the adjacent Party Relationships list.
To view a contact’s relationship hierarchy
Navigate to the Contacts screen, then the Contacts List view.
In the Contacts list, drill down on the contact for whom you want to view a relationship hierarchy.
Click the Relationship Hierarchy view tab.
The Contacts Relationship Hierarchy view appears.
Defining a Relationship Between Contacts
Use the following procedure to define a relationship between contacts.
To define a relationship between contacts
Navigate to the Contacts screen, then the Contacts List view.
In the Contacts list, drill down on the contact for whom you want to describe relationships; if the contact does not exist, add it.
For more information on adding contacts, see Adding Contacts.
Click the Relationship Hierarchy view tab.
In the Party Relationship list, add a record, and complete the necessary fields.
Some fields are described in the following table.
Field Comments Relationship
Categorizes the relationship between the contacts. The field has an LOV for Custom Defined Relationship values. Predefined values include Reports To, Spouse, Child, Lawyer, Board Member, Primary Contact (Backup), Admin Assistant, Competitor, Referral, Service Provider, Investor, Wealth Management Rep, Related Subsidiary, Bank Attorney, Trustee Attorney, and Debtor Attorney.
The Siebel administrator can modify this LOV. For more information, see Configuring Lists of Values.
Type
Defaults to Contact. Other values include Household, Organization, and Employee.
Value
Identifies the other member of the relationship. The values are constrained by the Type field selection. For example, if Type equals Contact, then clicking the select button displays the Select Contact dialog box.
The newly defined relationship is expressed in the Relationship Hierarchy explorer.