This tutorial will go over the activity process of the Automation Formula.
Activity Processes help us to take our email/text templates and set them to perform a task chosen in the settings in this process.
If you have not created your templates, then please go back to Part 1 here.
To get to the Activity Process maintenance page, go to the Admin Page and then look for the header of Process Setup and click the link for Activity Process.
Here is the area that will house all the various activity processes in your database. If you don't have any in here, that is fine. In time you will be creating them for various purposes to make the system perform tasks in an efficient manner.
At the top of the Activity Process Maintenance page, click the blue button "Add Process".
In this example, we will create an activity process that will send out the email template we created in Part 1.
As you can see the Add Activity Process box requires us to input information much like the template box from Part 1. As a matter of fact, this is the process for much of the way MarketSharp functions, you have to input the data and it will then work in conjunction with that data be it, reports, sales, or activities. Seen below is the blank activity process. Let's work through this together to setup the Activity Process.
Starting with the name, for this case, name it Activity Process Example. In this example let's say the business does not operate on the weekends and we do not need this process to be used in the production process, so leave all of those unchecked. The only thing that needs to be check is the Active checkbox, otherwise we would not be able to use this process at all.
You will see below the Process name box another category labeled Activity Process Steps. Whenever you create a new activity from scratch, MarketSharp will always include the first process step automatically. Depending on the nature of your activity process, you can have multiple steps under one activity process. To add steps, you will click the Add Process Step button over on the right hand side. For this example we only need the one step as we only want this activity process to complete one action and that is to email our client.
In the process step, you will start with the Type drop down box. The type is key as it tells MarketSharp what kind of activity are you trying to do. Select Email Out for the type.
Notice a new box will display on the right hand side labeled Email Template. MarketSharp intuitively knows that for this email activity process to work, you will need to choose which template to send, otherwise if a template is not chosen, the process will not work properly.We will comeback to the template section later.
The next drop down, Reference, is there to remind you the reason you have created this activity process. The reason that this is important is because outside of this activity process screen, the activity on the contact's record will not tell you what activity process this activity represents. As an example I have attached the activity process to a contact's record. Note that without the reference, there is no clear representation of what this activity process is and can cause confusion over time.
Back on our activity process we are creating, click on the blue icon to the right of the drop down.
This will open a separate dialog box that will display all the references your database has. Click the button on the top left labeled "Add New Item".
This will insert a new item into your list. Type in the box "Activity Process Example". At the top of the list under the add new item button you will see is a gray column. This will feature a description label which represents the text box in which we are naming this reference and then also 3 check boxes. We always want to make sure the Active check box is on, but we can leave the other two boxes left unchecked.
Before moving on, I want to help define these other two boxes for a moment. If left unchecked, you will be able to choose our newly created reference when adding an activity without issues. However, if we selected Inquiry Required, this tells MarketSharp that we cannot choose this reference unless the contact record has an inquiry. The same thing applies for Appointment Required. If this is selected and the contact record has no appointment, you will not be able to choose this reference on the activity.
Click on save. Now click on the Reference drop down list and choose the reference that was just created.
The Assign To drop down is used to assign this activity to the employee who will be responsible for making sure this process goes out and since the activity is an email, the employee's name listed here is whom the email will say its from in your contact's email box.
(Note: if you wish to have your contacts get emails that say they are from your Company Name, I have a great tutorial on that here: How to send emails to contacts with your company name.)
For this example, choose your name from the list. If your name is not on this list, then you will have to adjust the List Permission under your permissions section on the Employee Maintenance page in Admin. If you do not have Admin access, please speak with your admin to see if they will allow you to have this permission turned on. The list permission will be the "Activity Assigned To" option and they will just need to check that permission and save. You will be able to see your name listed now. Select it and we will move over to the right side of the process.
The Due Date/Time drop down is to be used if you want this activity, once assigned, to be completed by a certain time parameter. It could be due Immediately when added, some time after being added or even some time before the appointment date.
For our example, choose No Due Date/Time.
Reminders are pretty useful tools to help us to remember that we need to complete a task.
For Example, if we had set the due date to be on the 1st of July, and we set our reminder to be one day prior, then on June 30th, you would start seeing a reminder on your initial login as well as a reminder box on the lower left that will show a reminder. (To know more about reminders, I have an excellent tutorial on that here: Adding Reminders to Contact Records).
Select No Reminder and then move down to the last drop down, Email Template. Choose the Email Tutorial template you created in Part 1. Click save to finish the activity process.
Pro Tip:This is a good time to test your activity process and the email template. If you have not already done so, I suggest you create yourself as a new lead in MarketSharp. This allows you to test emails and text templates to make sure that firstly they work and secondly that they have the aesthetics that you are looking for. This will help you make necessary changes to your templates before it reaches the contact.