How To Manage Prospect & CRM Follow Up

How To Manage Prospect & CRM Follow Up

The 'Prospect Activity' screen can be used to manage the dealerships Prospect and CRM Follow Up Activity.  This type of follow up often will not qualify as a Lead and as such it might not be desirable to have this type of activity cluttering up your Lead Dashboard and skewing your Lead reporting.  

You can access the 'Prospect Activity' screen when the 'Manage Prospects' role is enabled.  If you are a manager in this role you will be able to see all users Prospect & CRM Follow Up records, and if you are not a manager you will just see your own Prospect & CRM Follow Ups.



The 'Prospect Activity' screen is designed to work via integration with your DMS - though it is possible to manually create Prospect Activity - read MORE.

In the scenario where integration is available the DMS is the home of this activity.  When CRM Follow Up or Prospect Activity is generated in the DMS it is automatically exported to AutoPlayAuto.com.

Prospect and CRM Activity can be searched via the 'Prospect Activity' screen.  
  1. Date Range - Defaults to whatever is set as the 'Default Date Range Preset' for Prospect Activity on My Users/My Details.  Read more about these settings HERE.
  2. User - Defaults to the logged in user.  The user can filter to any user they manage in the Manage Prospects role
  3. Activity - Defaults to 'Any Activity'.  Users can filter to different types of Activity including CRM Follow Up, Marketing, Pre-existing CRM or Prospect Activity (set up may differ from dealer to dealer)
  4. Action -  The list of actions is customisable by dealership.  May include items such as 'End Of Finance Follow Up' or '12 Month Follow Up' 
  5. Type - The 'Type' filter is used to classify the way you are following up such as 'Phone Out' or 'Email Out'
  6. Pending/Completed - Defaults to 'Pending' follow ups that have yet to be completed.  Can filter to 'Completed' follow ups or 'All'
When viewing the 'Prospect Activity' screen you can differentiate your to-do follow up from whats already been done via the tick in the 'Completed' column.

To complete a scheduled follow up activity click on a record to manage it.




The customers information will all be visible in the 'Customer' section.

You can read about what action is required via the 'Event' section.  All Prospect Activity that is imported from a DMS will be scheduled for a set date and time that the follow up is due.  Like the Lead Dashboard this controls when the follow up becomes visible.  The 'Details' section will detail what type of follow up is required along with any specific notes relating to the follow up.




Once you have reviewed what sort of follow up is required you can action in several ways.

1.  Contact the Prospect Directly 
The 22.7.1 release now allows for direct communications from within the prospect detail screen. The SMS, Email and Call Scripts options now appear to be able to send directly from the record. The Standard response options also appear so that scripted communications can be sent. 



2.  Record an Attempted Contact
The 'Attempted Contact(s) section can be used to record all the times you attempted to make contact with the customer but was unsuccessful.  You can record as many attempted contacts as required.  To add an attempt click on the 'ADD' button within this section.



3.  Complete The Follow Up Activity
If you have made contact with the customer you can mark the follow up as 'Complete'.  This can be done by the tick icon in the grey action menu, or via the 'Completed' check box in the 'Event' section.



When you complete a Prospect or CRM Follow Up Activity you can add the contact to a group for future comms, and add any relevant notes.  Any Prospect record completed will disappear from your 'Pending' follow ups on the 'Prospect Activity' screen, and where integration is available trigger an update to your DMS.




4.  Convert The Prospect Activity To A Lead
If you have made contact with the Prospect or CRM Follow Up and they look like they are ready to buy a car again you can convert your Prospect Activity to a Lead.  To do so click on the + icon in the grey action menu.  When you convert a Prospect Activity record to a Lead it will mark the Prospect as complete and trigger an update back to the DMS.   




The contact now has been qualified as a Lead and can be managed with all your other Leads from the Dashboard.  The Source on your new lead will be set as 'Prospecting'





If you have the 'Allow Close To Prospects' role you can also close your Lead as "lost"  and downgrade it to a Prospect Activity for future follow up.  Alternatively you can close a lead as "won" and drop into the CRM Activity list to follow up without having the record clutter your Lead Dashboard.  

Enabling this role will display the 'Close To Prospect' button when closing a lead as WON or as LOST. This role is controlled by Company only. There is no ability to turn this on/off by Yard or User.

To see this option simply Close the lead as WON or LOST as per normal, but make sure to tick the 'Close to Prospect' checkbox on this popup.



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