ACT! - Customer Relationship Management

12 Frequently Asked Questions about ACT! Software

1. What is ACT! Software
(a) ACT is a Contact and Customer Management program.
(b) It is an SQL based database that starts with records of people that you do business with. These records can be customised to have an almost indefinite number of fields in which to record various elements of information about the contact.
(c) It is designed to help develop and maintain relationships with people, businesses and organisations you communicate with.
(d) It is a system of recording ALL interaction details between your staff and the client, prospect, supplier or other contact that you deal with.

2. Can ACT Software manage email?
(a) ACT is great with email. It can keep track of all email communication in a number of ways.
(b) You can attach any important email message to the contact record for future access BY ALL USERS of ACT.
(c) You can mail merge to email to 1 or 1,000's of contacts.
(d) You can use ACT with Outlook email to get the best of both worlds.
(e) There are powerful email marketing programs available to work with ACT!.

 

3. We want to send electronic newsletters to our distributors, can ACT! handle this?
(a) ACT! is wonderful for mass email initiatives because it records what has been sent to whom.
(b) With ACT!'s dynamic group membership, as you add new contacts, these can be added to pre-defined groups automatically so you don't have to remember to add them to the mailing list.

4. Does ACT! work with Outlook?
(a) ACT and Outlook integrate seamlessly with email.
(b) ACT! can synchronise all contacts and the ACT Calendar with Outlook. While a 2 way synch is supported our recommendation is to use it One Way ie from ACT! to Outlook

5. Can ACT! CRM do Mail merges?
(a) ACT! comes with its own word processor to do mailings.
(b) It will also work with Word 2000 or later.
(c) Mail merges can be done to Documents; Email; or Fax.
(d) ACT! will also print labels and envelopes.

6. How does the ACT! diary work?
(a) ACT! can record all diary details for all the users.
(b) These can be viewed by all users with the appropriate access rights.
(c) One can even enter private meetings with private records and the detail of these will remain private.
(d) ACT! Software Tracks meetings, phone calls to be made and to-do lists. All this information can be shared with the other users of ACT!.


7. Can I restrict access to some records to selected staff members?
(a) Any user can create private records which will not be visible to other users.
(b) With ACT! Premium, you can also have complete control over who has access to which records.
(c) Restrictions are based on team or user access rights.

8. Some systems are now Web Based. Does ACT! have a web based solution?
(a) ACT! for Web Premium, is such a solution.
(b) The greatest advantage is that clients can have a mixed solution. This means that:
i. Some users can access the data via the web. (All that is needed is high speed Internet access and Internet Explorer.)
ii. Other users can access the same database on the local area network.
iii. Finally some users can access the system by means of a remote synchronised database. This is for people who need access when off line.

9. We have a salesperson who is based interstate. How can we share our information with her?
(a) See point iii above.
(b) Synchronisation can be done inside the firewall via LAN( Local Area Network) and WAN (Wide Area Network) or outside the firewall via VPN (Virtual Private Network)or through the Internet using IIS (Microsoft’s Internet Information Services, that comes with Windows).

10. What do they mean when they say that ACT! is Contact centric rather than company centric?
(a) Some programs have the company as the primary record and contacts are attached to the company.
(b) Act has traditionally worked on the basis that one communicates with an individual. Therefore the individual is the basis of all links.
(c) The latest version of ACT enables one to combine the best of both approaches. You can create company records and attach contacts to those or you can simply use contacts only or a combination of both.

11. How does ACT! work with handhelds?
ACT! Can be synchronised with all the major handhelds. I-Phone, Android and Blackberry are all supported by various suppliers as an add-on solution. We can assist in the selection of the best solution.

12. What are the key benefits of using ACT!?
(a) All relevant client and other contact information is kept in one place and all users can share this information – access depend on their user rights and team membership.
(b) A record can be kept of every type of contact between your staff and other people.
(c) It is a centralised diary for all users with total control of tasks, appointments and calls. This includes recurring events like call cycles for sales staff.
(d) Files can be attached to contacts for future reference.
(e) Mail merged email and documents can be attached to contact records for future reference.
(f) All important inward email can be kept in one place. This removes the frequent duplication of email records, resulting in bloated Outlook and Exchange file systems.
(g) Access to resources can be managed through ACT!.
(h) The most important aspect of ACT! is its flexibility to customise it for each business combined with the intuitive interface. Users simply love ACT! once they become familiar with the program.
(i) With millions of users ACT! has an impressive range of support solutions. You are never on your own with ACT!. All users also have direct access to the ACT!
knowledge base, regarded as one of the best of all software support bases.