The Accounts and Contacts modules contain all the key organization and contact details of your prospects and customers.
In this chapter, we will recap on the relationships between Deals, Accounts, and Contacts before taking a detailed look at the Accounts and Contacts modules separately. You will learn which fields should be kept (and why) and will be provided with examples of custom fields to add that will help you build a highly effective customer database. This will help you to successfully set up your customer database and to add value not just to your Customer Relationship Management (CRM), but to your business overall.
Topics covered within this chapter include the following:
By the end of this chapter, you will have optimized the perfect Accounts and Contacts modules for your business and future-proofed them for working well with other CRM modules and other system integration.
Before going into detail on both Accounts and Contacts modules, it is worthwhile recapping how they relate to the other foundation modules Leads and Deals. This relationship is illustrated in the following diagram:
The general rule that is applied here is that when a lead is qualified, it is converted into three records: Account, Contact, and Deal.
Let's take the following scenario as an example:
A health and safety training company using Zoho CRM specializes in the delivery of a range of training courses for manufacturers of food and drinks.
They receive an inquiry from Bob Brown from ABC Foods who is interested in finding out more about the training courses they provide. These details are recorded initially within our Leads module.
Once the Lead has been Qualified, it will be converted as follows:
While Figure 4.1 depicts the relationship when the original lead for ABC Foods was converted, during their customer lifetime there may be additional contacts that are involved in communications as well as additional deals (repeat business).
When this occurs, the relationships change, as follows:
This can be illustrated as follows:
Once this structure is understood and implemented, your business will have established a solid foundation. Let's now look at how we should set up the Accounts module.
When accessing the Accounts module for the first time, for the same reasons as in the previous chapters we must review then remove any of the standard (pre-existing fields) that we do not need.
A list of these standard fields can be found here:
The following is a list of these fields you should keep along with the reason(s) why:
The following standard fields are used to capture the address to which you will be sending invoices or postal communications.
The billing address fields are listed as follows:
It is vital that you keep all these standard address fields as they will be needed if we are using any of the Quotes – Orders – Invoices modules at a later date. Another reason to keep these fields is to validate and maintain the address details for which you may find address lookup/validation tools available on the Marketplace. See Chapter 8, Supercharge CRM With Marketplace Extensions, Custom Functions, and Integrations.
The following standard fields are used to capture the address to which you will be shipping goods to your customer.
The shipping address fields are as follows:
If you are shipping products to addresses that may be different from the billing address, then you must keep these standard address fields. Otherwise, remove them.
In keeping with other modules, it is important that we keep the Accounts module concise. A best practice is to populate as much of this information as possible when converting a lead and keep manual research and data entry to a bare minimum.
It is important that data held within an account record be static, meaning that it is not something that will change regularly. If there is a requirement to record transactional data (for example, number of units sold), this needs to be recorded elsewhere. Refer to Chapter 5, Working with Other System and Custom Modules, for further details.
Here is a selection of custom fields that many Zoho CRM users find valuable:
Once you have removed and added the fields as required, it is a best practice to organize them in suitably named sections as this will ensure that records in this module are intuitive and easy to read.
An example of how we might do this is shown as follows:
With this completed, you are ready to set up the fourth and final module of the foundation: Contacts.
When accessing the Contacts module for the first time, we must review and remove any of the standard (pre-existing fields) that we do not need.
A list of standard fields can be found here:
Here is a list of these fields you should keep, along with the reason(s) why:
Tip
If you are providing goods and services to businesses, it is recommended that you remove all mailing address fields as they will be already present in the related Account record.
If you are providing goods and services to consumers only, it is recommended that you keep the mailing address fields exactly how they are.
Once you have reviewed the Contact standard fields, you may need to add some custom fields specific to your business.
It is also important that we keep the Contacts module concise. A best practice is to populate as much of this information when converting a lead and keep manual research and data entry to a bare minimum. Here are some custom fields that many Zoho CRM users find valuable:
In the preceding screenshot, Contact Type and Sector will be crucial for us to segment our contact list for reporting and marketing purposes.
Tip
Liaise with the marketing team and discuss the fields and picklist values that will help marketing communicate the right messages with the right contacts through segmentation. This will help the marketing function and add internal value to your CRM.
Once you have removed and added all the required fields, you will need to organize the layout similar to the example provided in the following screenshot:
With the layout complete, you will have a Contacts module that will be a key hub for all communication and the value of complete, well-managed Accounts and Contacts modules will be clear for all to see.
One of the biggest issues with any CRM system is record duplication, which we will consider now.
Having duplicate account or duplicate contact records is one of the biggest issues any CRM user can face. It can lead to inaccurate reporting and communication and can be potentially damaging to customer relationships.
However, this can be easily be avoided with just a few simple settings within the Accounts and Contacts modules.
Let's consider Accounts first, as follows:
The system will no longer accept two account names with the same value.
Now, let's complete a similar action in the Contacts module, as follows:
The process is illustrated in the following screenshot:
As shown in the preceding screenshot, we can avoid duplicates on the Email field only. It is possible for two contacts to share the same name, and this is also on rare occasions possible for two people from the same company. Therefore, Email is a unique field that may be applied to a contact.
In addition to the unique fields discussed here, there a few other best practices you should be aware of.
The following guidelines will help you to manage and maintain the integrity of your core customer database and should be adhered to as much as possible:
In this chapter, you have learned how to set up and optimize your Accounts and Contacts modules.
You now have an understanding of the important standard fields and custom fields to ensure that we are building and maintaining a great customer database.
The integrity and accuracy of both these modules will provide your team with the confidence that the CRM is helping them in their roles and supporting your future aspirations as a business. You now understand the need to avoid duplication of Account and Contact records. In addition, you learned some best practices to follow to protect your system from duplication.
Now that you have reached the conclusion of Section 1, Laying the Foundation of the book, you should have a comprehensive understanding of the foundation modules and how they are the building blocks of success.
In Section 2, Take Your CRM to the Next Level, you will begin with Chapter 5, Working with Other System and Custom Modules.
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