Add a New Activity with a Follow-Up Activity

Introduction

Activities serve as indicators of how often and how reps are engaging with their customers. You can enter an activity either on your own behalf or for a user who needs to complete a task with a customer, such as a meeting to discuss issues.

Process

1. Start Adding a New Activity

You can begin adding an activity from two primary locations in Equipment CRM:

From the + in top right hand corner and “Add New Activity”

From the customer information menu as either an Outstanding or Completed activity..

If you initiate the activity from the customer’s information screen menu, the customer details will be pre-populated.

2. Fill in the Activity Details

Complete the required fields for the initial activity:

Field	Instructions/Details
Customer Information	If adding from the calendar, you must choose the customer. Options include: Not Customer Related: For activities like internal meetings or time spent updating customer data in Equipment CRM. New Customer: Click 'New' to enter the customer name. Existing Customer: Use the magnifying glass to search by customer name or number. Once the list appears, select the appropriate division on the right to add it to the activity.
Subject	Enter a short sentence summarizing the activity.
Owner	This defaults to the logged-in user but can be assigned to another user or rep by using the search icon. The activity will be saved on that individual’s calendar.
Date/Time	If you are adding from the calendar, the date will be populated. Otherwise, use the calendar icon to set the date. Time defaults to half-hour intervals, but you can check the box beside ‘Show 15 min interval’ for finer granularity.
Type	Select the appropriate type (e.g., Email, Fax, Letter, Meeting, Message, Special Event, Telephone). For a meeting, keep notes in the notes section and create a follow up activity with any outstanding items.
Contact	If the customer is existing, influencers will appear in the drop-down list. For a new contact, click the 'New Contact' box to enter their name.
Main Purpose	Choose the primary reason for the activity from the drop-down list.
Other Purpose	Select the '+' sign to select and add any additional reasons that apply to this activity.
Important Notes	Enter any notes or detailed information pertaining to the activity.

3. Enable the Follow Up Activity Option

To ensure the follow-up activity option appears, you must set the status of the current activity correctly:

Change the Status field to ‘Completed’.

Note: The option to schedule a follow up activity is only visible if the activity status is set to Completed.

Select 'Yes' for the Follow up Activity option.

4. Schedule the Follow-Up Activity

When you choose 'Yes' for the follow-up activity, new activity fields will appear.

The system will suggest when to make the next activity based on the customer’s PAR (Planned Activity Rate).
If the activity is 'Not Customer related' or pertains to a new customer, the PAR is assumed to be 0.
Fill in the details for the future activity (Subject, Date/Time, Type, etc.)

5. Save the Activities

After filling out all the required information and the details for the follow-up activity, save the entry.
Upon saving, the system will automatically add the follow-up activity to the user’s calendar.
The saved activity will include a link to the new activity via the activity number