How To Track Prospective Clients

Last month we had a regional training in Fort Myers, Florida, it was my first rodeo so-to-speak. While the essence of that instruction was to explain and reinforce the many modules in ESC, the real magic came from the conversations I overheard between different clients who were discussing the unique ways that they make ESC work for their business.

This reminded me of a conversation I had with a client who had implemented a way to track leads (or prospects) in ESC. This enabled them to easily send out email blasts, run reports, and organize these hopefuls in their ESC database without cluttering the customer list. I'll outline the process below as it was explained to me.

First, we'll want to add a customer into our database that will be the primary storage for our future prospects. In my example, you'll notice that I utilized "Prospect 2014" as the Company/Last Name. You won't need much more than this to get started. Though, I also like to assign a Default Priority so future dispatches are automatically color coordinated and will really standout on the EDB. When you're finished customizing the primary customer, select Save. At this point, you are ready to enter your first prospective customer into the database.

When entering your lead, you'll want to recall the customer you created to house your new prospects. You can do this a multitude of ways: Enter Customers (F2), Qualification (F3), Customer List, whichever way you're comfortable looking up customers. Once you recall the correct information, navigate to the 2 Locations tab and click the Add New Location button.

As soon as you select Add New Location, you'll notice that the field labeled Location Name will be highlighted. Replace the currently selected information with the clients name. You can also be as detailed as possible, filling out Address 1, City, State, Contact Name, Email Address, Phone, or Notes. After you have entered all of the relevant information that you need, select Save.

Alternatively, if you need to create a dispatch or a quote for this lead; select Create Dispatch or Create a Quote and then select Yes when you are asked, Do you wish to save your customer?. Another important thing to remember when you are creating a prospective customer; any information you add to the remaining tabs, such as Equipment or History, will be saved for that specific lead.

What you've done is create a framework that will empower you with the ability to organize, track, and expedite communication with your future clients through Report Generation and the Customer List.

Every day we talk to businesses, just like yours, who are doing incredible things with ESC. This concept is just one-of-many ways to bring your company's efficiency to the next level. If you've discovered something clever, effective, and time-saving, that helps push your business to the next level, we'd love to hear about it. After all, there might be another company out there looking for the procedure you implemented. If so, we encourage you to send those ideas to us at [e-mail] so we can pay-it-forward to other ESC users!

Written by Scott Haugsjaa
Featured in March 2014 Newsletter