Make a Big Impact with CRM Customizations

TopLine Results prides itself on being able to help people be more effective while using their CRM system.  We always recommend using out-of-the-box functionality where possible.  Sometimes a little extra customization can have a huge impact on the efficiency of users.  If we can spend a couple hours adding a customization, we may be able to save hundreds of hours for users.  Need some examples?

·         Cancel unneeded quotes
When you have an opportunity with multiple quotes we added a button to automatically cancel all quotes that are not won without having to close each one manually.  Imagine how much time this saves for users, so they don’t have to open each quote and cancel it!

·         Copy line items on demand
Automatically copy, on-demand, quote line items to opportunity line items to maintain consistency between the two.  Again, if you have an opportunity with multiple quotes, you may want to ensure that your opportunity products closely match the most likely winnable scenario.  This is a huge time saver!

·         Assess approval progress with custom labeling
If you have a multi-step opportunity process that requires approvals from different managers, engineering teams and others, we have developed a simple automated process to help push the opportunity along with colorful, customizable, approval stages for quick visual assessment.

·         Auto-schedule follow-up calls
Automatically schedule a follow-up phone call for a contact “X” days after you completed the last phone call.  The number of days out that the follow-up phone call is scheduled is based on how important the contact is.  Automatically schedule a follow-up call 30 days out for high priority customers, 60 days out for medium priority customers and 90 days out for low priority customers.  Never forget to schedule your follow-ups again!

·         Auto-format phone numbers
Take 2626911444 and automatically change it to (262) 691-1444.  Nobody likes unformatted phone numbers.  And nobody likes inconsistent phone numbers either!

·         Simplify product searches
Create a fully customized product search screen using multiple product characteristics.  Example:  You have a large inventory of products and need to search on a lot of different product properties.  Quickly find the product and add it to the opportunity or quote.  Yes, we’ve done it.

·         Obtain easy access to contact card
On the contact form, we created an Address Label field.  We combined all different fields into a single box so users can copy/paste a complete “contact card” to other applications.

·         Upload images
Allow users to upload image files of products, store the images in the database and show those images on a report.  Add one image or 6 images of the chosen product.  Print out a report containing information about the product along with all the images.

·         Compare data
Calculate percent change of numbers for year-over-year comparisons.  No reports needed, and no mental math required.  See it right on the screen.

·         Auto-create related records
When winning a quote that contains certain products, automatically take other actions in the system.  For example, if your quote includes a line item for a product warranty, then automatically create a warranty record in the system.

We have done all this and a lot more.  Do you need some efficiency improvements to your system?  We are always finding newer and better ways to help.  Contact us today to review.

About the Author
Dan Boehm is our senior developer and lead engineer for CRM implementation projects. With more than ten years of Microsoft .NET and CRM experience, Dan specializes in complex CRM development and migration projects with an emphasis on creative solutions which meet and surpass client expectations.