Managing Accounts and Contacts

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, you can manage, share, and collaborate on accounts Companies that might do business with your organization. and contacts People who represent customers or potential customers, or individuals related to accounts. For example, an individual who purchases products or services for their own use, or an employee of an account. A contact may also be a person involved in a business transaction, such as a supplier or a colleague. within your organization. The logging and tracking features benefit the person who makes the sale, his or her sales team, other supporting teams, and their management. All activities Actions to be performed, such as tasks, or communication items that are sent or received, for example, e-mails, phone calls, letters, faxes, and appointments. The status of activities is tracked and the activity history is stored in the system, so users can view the open and closed activities., such as e-mail, phone calls and meetings, are logged and a running history of every activity with the account or contact is kept.

You can enter accounts or contacts individually or you can use Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online to import lists of these records into the database. You might already have customer The account or contact with which a business unit conducts a business transaction. records in Microsoft Office Outlook or Microsoft Office Excel that you can import using the Import Data Wizard, and then use the account list or contact list to view or open the records to make sure that all the information is imported successfully. You can bulk add Microsoft Office Outlook contacts into Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online with the Add Contacts Wizard. More information: Resource Center

Deciding between Using Accounts and Contacts

Accounts are companies that you do business with, whereas contacts represent individuals or specific representatives for an account. Therefore, if you have mostly businesses that you sell to, then you will primarily create account records. However, if you typically provide goods or services to individuals, then you will want to create contact records.

Even if you only sell to individuals, you might still find accounts useful for tracking your competitors Companies or organizations that might compete for sales opportunities with your business unit. Competitor records can be linked to opportunity, product, and sales literature records so that they are available when you are competing for a sale. or vendors. You can have one or more contacts associated with a single account, but only one of the contacts can be designated as the primary contact. You can create and edit accounts or contacts from the Workplace, Sales, Marketing, and Services areas.

You can create a relationship between accounts and contacts, specify the type of relationship between them, and define the relationship role A definition of one side of a business relationship between accounts, opportunities, or contacts. that the account or contact has with regard to the primary record. For example, if you add a contact as a relationship to an account, anyone who views the contact data will see that the individual can influence the purchasing choices of the account.

Adding Sales Transactions

You can start a sales transaction, such as a quote A formal offer for products or services, proposed at specific prices and related payment terms, which is sent to an opportunity, account, or contact., order A confirmed request for delivery of goods or services based on specified terms. An order is a quote that has been accepted by a customer., or invoice An order that has been billed. An invoice is also a record of a sale to a customer, including details about the products or services purchased., from within an account or a contact record. The advantage of starting sales transactions this way is that much of the information is automatically entered based on the account or contact data. You can also view any sales transaction records from within these customer records to track the overall sales process and expected revenue.

Adding Services

You can create a case A customer service issue or problem reported by a customer and the activities that customer service representatives use to resolve it. or contract An agreement to provide support during specified coverage dates or for a specified number of cases or length of time.When customers contact customer service, the level of support they receive is determined by their contract. from within an account or contact record. When you save the record, it is automatically linked to the account or contact. This information provides sales staff with important details about the type of service the customer is entitled to receive.

Managing Customer Records for Campaigns

You can add customer records to marketing lists Lists of accounts, contacts, or leads that match a specific set of criteria. that already exist as part of your marketing efforts directly from the account or contact form. You can also view related campaign A marketing program that uses many communication vehicles to accomplish a specific result. For example, using advertisements and direct mail to increase market share, introduce new products, or retain customers. information from within a customer record. In addition, you can use a quick campaign A communication method that creates a single activity for distribution to a group of accounts, contacts, or leads, or to a single marketing list. Contrast with campaigns, which support end-to-end marketing programs that have multiple activities. to run an activity for either a selected customer record, a page of customer records, or all customer records for a particular view.

Note

If you are working offline, you can create a relationship between two records and specify details about the relationship. However, you must go online before the changes take effect.