Redtail CRM offers subscribers many opportunities to customize their CRM, both at the individual and at the database level. These opportunities for customization are important because they allow you to set your database preferences and lists up in ways that work the best for both you as an individual as well as for your office. Taken together, these customization options will help drive user adoption and, ultimately, help you streamline your processes while at the same time personalize and improve the client experience your firm provides.

You can browse all prior posts in this series here. In this post, we’ll take a look at how you can manage Database Lists, particularly those associated with your Contacts.

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To manage those contact data fields within Redtail CRM that are customizable, you can go to Manage Your Account -> Admins Only -> Manage Database Lists (note: if you are not an admin user of the database or the database owner, you would not have access to customize these lists):

You’ll see the Contact fields that you can manage are listed in the second section of the Manage Lists area:

By altering these lists, you can add or remove items from the dropdown menus for specific fields related to your contacts. For example, if you edit the “Contact Servicing Advisors” list and remove an option, it will no longer appear as a dropdown option when a database user is editing the Servicing Advisor field for a particular contact.

Conversely, if you add a new item to the list, it will become available as a dropdown selection for the relevant field when editing the contact.

Overall, the changes you make to these lists will impact the available options for database users, potentially improving the accuracy and consistency of data entry, as well as ensuring that all necessary options are available for the specific fields related to the contact.

The process for customizing most of the available Contact Lists within your database is the same, so we’ll only walk through customizing your Writing Advisors list here as an example. We’ll then move on to customizing your Membership Codes and Contact User Defined Fields lists after that, as the process is different for them than for the other Contact lists.

So, let’s take a look at customizing your Writing Advisors.

After you’ve clicked Writing Advisors from the Manage Lists area, your page will display the list of Writing Advisors currently available in your CRM, an example of which is below:

You can add new Writing Advisors by clicking the add button in the top right corner.  You’ll then see the below:

Just type in the name for your new Writing Advisor and click the add writing advisor button. After adding your Writing Advisor, they will then be available in the Writing Advisor menu when adding or editing a contact record:

Note: many of your Contact Lists have system field values entered (Writing Advisors being one of the exceptions), and those system field values are not editable/deletable. For any Contact List field values you add to your database, you will see that you have the ability to edit or delete those later if needed:

 

Manage your Contacts User Defined Fields List

Now, let’s take a look at customizing your Contacts User Defined Fields list. To access that page, you’ll need to click User Defined Fields from the Contacts area under Manage Lists:

After you’ve clicked User Defined Fields under the Contacts header, your page will display your current list.  Below is an example of a portion of a Contact User Defined Fields list:

You can add new UDFs by clicking the add button in the top right corner.  You’ll then see the below:

Contact UDFs can be set up in six different ways, where the value you enter for them is either text, a list of predefined values, a Number, True/False, Yes/No, or a Date. You can provide any name for your individual UDFs you would like; you’ll just want it to be clear what each name represents since database users will be selecting them from a dropdown menu. The name should spell out each UDF’s purpose as much as is possible.

Let’s take a look at each of those below.

 

Any Text

UDFs set up with a Field Type of “Any Text” allow you to enter any value for the UDF when assigning it to a contact. You’d want to use this Field Type when the Field Value is likely to be different for most contacts to whom you might assign it. As an example, you might want to track your contacts’ pets’ names. Let’s say you are going to break that down by dogs, cats, horses, etc. In this example, we’ll add a UDF for tracking contacts’ dogs. Here’s what the Add User Defined Field dialog would look like after naming the UDF and selecting the “Any Text” Field Type:

Click the “add user defined field” button and this UDF is then available to assign to your contacts, either individually or in bulk (though for the Any Text UDFs, bulk assignment is unlikely to be something you would use much).

When you go to add this UDF to a contact, after selecting the UDF “Pet’s Name — Dog”, the Add User Defined Field dialog would look like the below, with a Value box that you can type whatever you would like into:

After clicking “add udf”, the User Defined Fields area for this contact will reflect that they have a Pet Dog and that the furry fella’s name is Fido:

 

List of Values

Contact UDFs set up with a Field Type of “List of Values” allow you to set up a predetermined list from which to choose when assigning it to a contact. You’d want to use this Field Type when the Field Value is likely to be limited to a certain number of viable options. As an example, you might want to track your contacts’ favorite local golf courses. In this example, we’ll add a UDF for tracking their preferred golf course. Here’s what the Add User Defined Field dialog would look like after naming the UDF and selecting the “List of Values” Field Type:

Your next step would be to then add that List of Values from which you can choose when assigning the UDF to a contact. To do so, click the “+” icon indicated above. You’d then see the below:

You can then enter your first List item in the box highlighted above, and continue clicking the “+” icon and adding more until you’re done. When finished, this area might look similar to the below:

Click the “add user defined field” button and this UDF is then available to assign to your contacts, either individually or in bulk.

When you go to add this UDF to a contact, after selecting the UDF “Favorite Local Golf Course”, the Add User Defined Field dialog would look like the below, with a Value box that allows you to select from your List of Values:

After selecting the appropriate course and clicking “add udf”, the User Defined Fields area for this contact will reflect your selection:

 

True or False / Yes or No

While True or False and Yes or No offer distinct choices as a Field Type for UDFs, they both work in the same way. Here we’ll take a look at setting up a UDF with a Field Type of “True or False” — if you need one with a Field Type of “Yes or No” it works in the exact same fashion. UDFs set up with a Field Type of “True or False” allow you to select either “True” or “False” as the value for the UDF when assigning it to a contact. You’d want to use this Field Type when the Field Value can only be one of those two choices for any contacts to whom you might assign it. As an example, you might want to track whether or not contacts have opted-in to receive your monthly newsletter. Here’s what the Add User Defined Field dialog would look like after naming the UDF and selecting the “True or False” Field Type:

Click the “add user defined field” button and this UDF is then available to assign to your contacts, either individually or in bulk.

When you go to add this UDF to a contact, after selecting the UDF “Monthly Newsletter Opt-in?”, the Add User Defined Field dialog would look like the below, with a Value box that allows you to select between True or False:

After clicking “add udf”, the User Defined Fields area for this contact will reflect your selection here:

 

Date

You might use a UDF that requires a Date as the Field Value for any number of reasons. As an example, you might want to track when a set of clients became members of the Board of Education. Here’s what the Add User Defined Field modal would look like after naming the UDF and selecting the “Date” Field Type:

Click the “add user defined field” button and this UDF is then available to assign to your contacts, either individually or in bulk.

When you go to add this UDF to a contact, after selecting the UDF “Board of Education Appointment”, the Add User Defined Field modal would look like the below, with a Value box that displays a Date Picker after you’ve clicked inside it (this is to ensure uniformity in how dates are entered in your database):

After selecting a date and clicking “add udf”, the User Defined Fields area for this contact will reflect your selection here:

 

Number

You might use a UDF that requires a Number as the Field Value. Perhaps you want to track the number of grandchildren your clients have. Here’s what the Add User Defined Field dialog would look like after naming the UDF and selecting the “Number” Field Type:

Click the “add user defined field” button and this UDF is then available to assign to your contacts, either individually or in bulk.

When you go to add this UDF to a contact, after selecting the UDF “# of Grandchildren”, the Add User Defined Field dialog would look like the below, with a Value box that displays an up/down arrow when you hover over it (this is to allow you to scroll up or down to select a number):

After selecting a number and clicking “add udf”, the User Defined Fields area for this contact will reflect your selection here:

When working with your UDF List, be aware that User Defined Fields have both Edit and Delete options available from their Actions menu, meaning you can edit their name or delete them entirely. Or, in the case of those with a Field Type of “List of Values”, you can also add or remove options from the list.

 

Manage your Contacts Membership Codes List

Memberships provide you with a method for linking one database contact to another, outside of the familial links you establish for Family Heads, Spouses and their Dependents. When you click the Membership Codes option from your Contact list options, you’ll then see a display of the current Membership Types within your database (a sample portion of which is provided below):

To add a new Membership Code, click add in the upper right corner here. You’ll then see the below:

Then, you can just type the new Membership Name in the appropriate box and choose the contact types for the two types of records you’d use when adding this Membership Code.  Then, click add membership type.  As an example, if you were adding the Membership Code “Board Member,” you’d set “Contact (source) Type” to Individual and “Linked Contact (destination) Type” to Association (or Business or Union), as when utilizing this Membership Type you’d likely be linking an Individual contact record to one of those Contact Types. For your particular circumstances, you may need three different types of Membership Codes for “Board Member” to account for this. Below is an example when choosing Association for the Linked Contact:

 

Just click the “add membership code” button and you can then begin applying this membership code between contacts to establish these types of relationships in your CRM.

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As always, if you have any questions you can reach out to our team at support@redtailtechnology.com or 800.206.5030. We are always happy to help you understand any aspect of Redtail CRM better so that you can better put it to use in your business!

1135-OAT-4/21/2023

Redtail CRM offers subscribers many opportunities to customize their CRM, both at the individual and at the database level. These opportunities for customization are important because they allow you to set your database preferences and lists up in ways that work the best for both you as an individual as well as for your office. Taken together, these customization options will help drive user adoption and, ultimately, help you streamline your processes while at the same time personalize and improve the client experience your firm provides.

You can browse all prior posts in this series here. In this post, we’ll take a look at how you can manage Database Lists, particularly those associated with Client Accounts.

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To manage those account data fields within Redtail CRM that are customizable, you can go to Manage Your Account -> Admins Only -> Manage Database Lists (note: if you are not an admin user of the database or the database owner, you would not have access to customize these lists):

You’ll see the Client Account fields that you can manage are listed at the top of the Manage Lists area:

By altering these lists, you can add or remove items from the dropdown menus for specific fields related to the account. For example, if you edit the “Account Types” list and remove an option, it will no longer appear as a dropdown option when a database user is editing the Account Type field for a particular account.

Conversely, if you add a new item to the list, it will become available as a dropdown selection for the relevant field when editing the account.

Overall, the changes you make to these lists will impact the available options for database users, potentially improving the accuracy and consistency of data entry, as well as ensuring that all necessary options are available for the specific fields related to the account.

The process for customizing the available Account Types, Account Tax Qualified Types, and Account Asset Types within your database is the same, so we’ll only walk through customizing your Account Types list here. We’ll then move on to customizing your Account User Defined Fields list after that, as the process is somewhat different than for the first three Account lists.

So, let’s take a look at customizing your Account Types.

After you’ve clicked Account Types from the Manage Lists area, your page will display the list of Account Types currently available in your CRM.  Since the Account Types list is typically lengthy, a sample of only a partial list is below:

You can add new Account Types by clicking the add button in the top right corner.  You’ll then see the below:

Just type in the name for your new Account Type and click the add account type button. After adding your Account Type, it will then be available in the Account Type menu when adding or editing an account:

Account Type is also a searchable field from your Advanced Search page (this applies to Account Tax Qualified Types and Account Asset Types as well).

Those Account Types that have been manually added to your database—as opposed to being System Account Types—will have both Edit and Delete options available from their Actions menu, meaning you can edit their name or delete them entirely, as necessary:

 

Now, let’s take a look at customizing your Account User Defined Fields list. To access that page, you’ll need to click User Defined Fields from the Accounts area under Manage Lists:

You’ll then see the currently available Account UDFs that can be assigned to your Accounts:

You can add new Account UDFs by clicking the add button in the top right corner.  You’ll then see the below:

Account UDFs can be set up in six different ways, where the value you enter for them is either text, a list of predefined values, a Number, True/False, Yes/No, or a Date. You can provide any name for your individual UDFs you would like; you’ll just want it to be clear what each name represents since database users will be selecting them from a dropdown menu. The name should spell out each UDF’s purpose as much as is possible.

Let’s take a look at each of those below.

Any Text

Account UDFs set up with a Field Type of “Any Text” allow you to enter any value (any string of text) for the UDF when assigning it to an account:

You’d want to use this Field Type when the Field Value is likely to be different for most accounts to which you might assign it and when none of the other Field Types will work for the input value required. After naming your UDF and selecting this Field Type, click the “add account udf” button and this UDF will be available to assign to your accounts as needed.

 

List of Values

Account UDFs set up with a Field Type of “List of Values” allow you to set up a predetermined list from which to choose when assigning it to an account. You’d want to use this Field Type when the Field Value is going to be limited to a certain number of viable options. After naming your UDF and selecting “List of Values” as the Field Type, you’d then see a “Values” area beneath the Field Type:

Your next step would be to then add that List of Values from which you can choose when assigning the UDF to an account. To do so, click the green “+” icon shown above. You’d then see the below:

You can then enter your first List item in the Field value box, and continue clicking the “+” icon and adding more until you’re done:

After naming your UDF and selecting this Field Type and adding all appropriate values, click the “add account udf” button and this UDF will be available to assign to your accounts moving forward as needed.

 

True or False / Yes or No

While True or False and Yes or No offer distinct choices as a Field Type for Account UDFs, they both work in the same way. Here we’ll take a look at setting up an Account UDF with a Field Type of “True or False” — if you need one with a Field Type of “Yes or No” it works in the exact same fashion.

Account UDFs set up with a Field Type of “True or False” allow you to select either “True” or “False” as the value for the UDF when assigning it to an account. You’d want to use this Field Type when the Field Value can only be one of those two choices for any accounts to which you might assign it:

 

After naming your UDF and selecting this Field Type, click the “add account udf” button and this UDF will be available to assign to your accounts as needed.

 

Date

You might use an Account UDF that requires a Date as the Field Value for any number of reasons:

After naming your UDF and selecting this Field Type, click the “add account udf” button and this UDF will be available to assign to your accounts as needed.

 

Number

Account UDFS can also require a Number as the Field Value:

After naming your Account UDF and selecting this Field Type, click the “add account UDF” button and this UDF will be available to assign to your accounts as needed.

When working with your Account UDF List, be aware that all of your User Defined Fields have both Edit and Delete options available from their Actions menu:

This allows you to edit their name or delete them entirely. Or, in the case of those with a Field Type of “List of Values”, you can also add or remove options from the list of values.

One final thing to mention: each of these four account fields mentioned above is searchable and/or reportable, which allows you to easily find every account that shares a common value for any of them.

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In our next Manage Your CRM series post, we’ll take a look at Managing Database Contact Lists in Redtail CRM.

As always, if you have any questions along the way as we address these, you can reach out to our team at support@redtailtechnology.com or 800.206.5030. We are always happy to help you understand any aspect of Redtail CRM better so that you can better put it to use in your business!

0846-OAT-3/23/2023

Redtail CRM offers subscribers a ton of opportunities to customize their CRM, both at the individual and at the database level. These opportunities for customization are important because they allow you to set your database preferences, templates, and lists up in ways that work the best for both you as an individual as well as for your office. Taken together, these customization options will help drive user adoption and, ultimately, help you streamline your processes while at the same time personalize and improve the client experience your firm provides.

You can browse all prior posts in this series here. In this post, we’ll take a look at how you can manage Workflow Templates.

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Redtail CRM provides you with the ability to create Workflow Templates, allowing you to systematize your processes within Redtail CRM and creating an easily accessible record of accountability to help your office eliminate bottlenecks. Going forward, you’ll be able to select from any Workflow Templates you’ve established and attach them individually or in bulk to contact records. You can also attach a Workflow Template to an opportunity or a seminar. Or, they can stand alone as processes not tied to a contact, opportunity, or seminar.

Workflow Templates offer you a streamlined and orderly method for ensuring that your common processes are handled in a consistent and efficient fashion each and every time they are performed; this is particularly important in both smaller offices where fewer people are handling everything as well as in larger offices where many hands may be involved and templates can help ensure consistency.

Creating and Using Workflow Templates in Redtail CRM

To begin setting up a Workflow Template, select Manage Your Account after clicking your Name from the Top Right Menu within Redtail:

Then, click “Workflow Templates” in the Manage Templates area:

Redtail CRM offers subscribers a ton of opportunities to customize their CRM, both at the individual and at the database level. These opportunities for customization are important because they allow you to set your database preferences and lists up in ways that work the best for both you as an individual as well as for your office. Taken together, these customization options will help drive user adoption and, ultimately, help you streamline your processes while at the same time personalize and improve the client experience your firm provides.

You can browse all prior posts in this series here. In this post, we’ll take a look at how you can manage Note Templates.

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Redtail CRM provides you with the ability to create Note Templates, allowing you to pre-define many of the default field values as well as any formulaic descriptive text for types of Notes that are typically handled in a similar manner. Going forward, you’ll be able to select from any Note Templates you’ve established whenever you’re creating a new Note.

Note Templates offer you a streamlined method for ensuring a certain level of consistency for specific types of Notes; this can be particularly useful if you have multiple staff members adding the same types of Notes and would like the formatting and content of those Notes to follow a more uniform pattern.

Creating and Using Note Templates in Redtail CRM

To begin setting up a Note Template, select Manage Your Account after clicking your Name from the Top Right Menu within Redtail:

Then, click “Note Templates” in the Manage Templates area:

Redtail CRM offers subscribers a ton of opportunities to customize their CRM, both at the individual and at the database level. These opportunities for customization are important because they allow you to set your database preferences and lists up in ways that work the best for both you as an individual as well as for your office. Taken together, these customization options will help drive user adoption and, ultimately, help you streamline your processes while at the same time personalize and improve the client experience your firm provides.

You can browse all prior posts in this series here. In this post, we’ll take a look at how you can manage Mail Merge Templates.

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Redtail CRM provides you with the ability to upload mail merge templates that you can then use as the basis for labels, envelopes, or form letters which automatically pull your desired data from Redtail contact records. These can prove very useful when sending physical mail to large numbers of your clients.

Let’s take a look at the things you need to know in order to put mail merge templates to work for your office in Redtail CRM.

Create And Upload A Mail Merge Template For Use With Redtail

When you’re ready to begin preparing mail merge templates for use with Redtail, it’s a good idea that you become familiar with what fields Redtail supports as available for mail merge documents. In the links at the bottom of this post, we include a link to available Mail Merge Fields in Redtail CRM.

Preparing Your New Mail Merge Template

Open up Microsoft Word and pull up either a blank document or an existing document that you would like to make available as a Mail Merge template.

Date and Time

If you are preparing a letter or some other document and you want to include the date and/or time, be aware that Redtail has no mail merge field for this because Microsoft Word has this function built in as an Insert. Within Microsoft Word, select Date & Time under the Insert menu. You will then see the dialog box below with many available Date and Time formats from which to choose:

Redtail CRM offers subscribers a ton of opportunities to customize their CRM, both at the individual and at the database level. These opportunities for customization are important because they allow you to set your database preferences and lists up in ways that work the best for both you as an individual as well as for your office. Taken together, these customization options will help drive user adoption and, ultimately, help you streamline your processes while at the same time personalize and improve the client experience your firm provides.

You can browse all prior posts in this series here. In this post, we’ll take a look at how you can manage Custom Export Templates.

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Redtail CRM has many Standard Reports built in to your database.  Additionally, there are standard exports and reports available as Result Options on your Advanced Search page.  Still, you may find that none of our default reports or exports contain the exact information that you need to produce in Excel format.  This is where Custom Exports come in handy, as they allow you to handpick the fields within Redtail that you’d like to see in your Exports, and then run those Custom Exports for individual contacts or in bulk.

You can think of Custom Export templates as DIY Reports. While there is no end to the uses you might make of these, one very common usage is in the data cleanup process, as exporting your desired data field(s) for your desired contacts will allow you to quickly determine where data is missing in your CRM or where the style guide conventions you’ve established for specific fields have not been followed. In either case, when you have that information laid out in front of you in Excel, it’s much easier to make bulk updates to correct any issues you see, something we’ll address more fully later in this post.

Let’s take a look at creation and usage of Custom Export Templates in Redtail CRM.

Creating your Custom Export Templates

To begin setting up a Custom Export Template, select Manage Your Account after clicking your Name from the Top Right Menu within Redtail:

Then, click “Custom Export Templates” in the Manage Templates area:

You’ll then see displayed an alphabetical list of all of the custom exports that have previously been created within your database, along with the dates they were created or updated:

We’ll cover later how to edit existing custom exports, but first let’s look at how you create new ones and how you actually run an export after creation.

To create a new custom export, click the New button in the top right corner of your Custom Export Templates page.  You’ll then see your Export Builder, a sample portion of which is displayed below:

Redtail CRM offers subscribers a ton of opportunities to customize their CRM, both at the individual and at the database level. These opportunities for customization are important because they allow you to set your database preferences and lists up in ways that work the best for both you as an individual as well as for your office. Taken together, these customization options will help drive user adoption and, ultimately, help you streamline your processes while at the same time personalize and improve the client experience your firm provides.

You can browse all prior posts in this series here. In this post, we’ll take a look at how you can manage Automation Templates.

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Within Redtail CRM, you have the ability to create Automation Templates for ongoing use by all users of your CRM. Automations allow you to stipulate that if certain Events occur within your database, further Actions will be triggered and happen automatically.

Automation Templates can be built by any of your database users, and, once built, are accessible by all of your database users. Let’s take a look at creation and usage of Automation Templates in Redtail CRM.

Creating your Automation Templates

To begin setting up an Automation Template, select Manage Your Account after clicking your Name from the Top Right Menu within Redtail:

Then, click “Automation Templates” in the Manage Templates area:

You’ll then see the below (if there are currently no Automation Templates set up in your database):

Click “add” and you’ll arrive at the page where you can begin setting up your Template:

Setting up Automation Templates involves four tabs: On This Event, Do This Action, If All Conditions True, and If Any Conditions True.

Above we are looking at the On This Event tab. Here you will provide your Automation Name, the Trigger Event, and a Description of the Automation. I’ve done this in the screenshot below:

Redtail CRM offers subscribers a ton of opportunities to customize their CRM, both at the individual and at the database level. These opportunities for customization are important because they allow you to set your database preferences and lists up in ways that work the best for both you as an individual as well as for your office. Taken together, these customization options will help drive user adoption and, ultimately, help you streamline your processes while at the same time personalize and improve the client experience your firm provides.

You can browse all prior posts in this series here. In this post, we’ll take a look at how you can manage Activity Templates.

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Within Redtail CRM, you have the ability to create Activity Templates for ongoing use by all users of your CRM. We like to think of templates as starting points (or head starting points) as they can save you a bunch of clicks and selections when you’re creating something in Redtail that allows you to use templates.

Activity Templates can be built by any of your database users, and, once built, are accessible by all of your database users. Again, their purpose is to make things easier by allowing users who are creating a common activity to have as much data on that activity as is possible pre-filled. It’s also important to note that any of the pre-filled data in an Activity Template can be overridden during the creation of an individual activity using that template, i.e., just because data is pre-filled doesn’t mean you are stuck with it if circumstances warrant a different selection for a given field.

Now, let’s move on to creation and usage of Activity Templates in Redtail CRM.

Creating your Activity Templates

To begin setting up an Activity Template, select Manage Your Account after clicking your Name from the Top Right Menu within Redtail:

Then, click “Activity Templates” in the Manage Templates area:

You’ll then see existing Activity Templates in your database (if any):

Click “new” and you’ll arrive at the modal where you can begin setting up your Template:

Let’s break down all of the available template fields:

• Name – whatever you enter here will serve as the name of the activity template. Be very descriptive here, as you (and all users of your database) will need to be able to distinguish between your Activity Templates when selecting one during the activity creation process. If you scroll back up to the existing Activity Templates above, you’ll see that we’ve broken a common activity, Client Meeting Follow-up, down into three separate templates, as some of the details will change based upon how that follow-up occurs.
• Subject – this will serve as the subject of the activity, and will display on your Calendar and in Activity reports.
• All Day box – checking this off will set this template to create activities as All Day, rather than timed, events by default.
• Type – choose from one of your CRM’s system or custom Activity Types. Learn more about creating Activity Types for your CRM here.
• Category – choose from one of your CRM’s system or custom Activities and Notes Categories. Note: there is a “filter” option above your Templates that will allow you to filter which Activity Templates you are viewing by Category, should you desire. Learn more about creating Activity Categories for your CRM here.
• Description – You can enter as little or as much as you like here. We recommend entering formulaic text for the type of activity you are creating that will not vary much from instance to instance of this particular sort of activity, leaving room to add the details that will vary. Note as well that you have a formatting bar above your Description box that allows you to format data here in several different ways.
• Attendees – Select the database user(s) that should be linked by default to activities using this template. Note the “Assign to Current User” checkbox, which, if checked off for the template will automatically link the individual who is using the template as an Attendee when creating an activity.
• Importance and Priority – select default importance and priority for activities using this template.

Note again: for all of the fields above (other than the Name), you can edit these on-the-fly when actually using a Template to create an activity.

Let’s go back to your Activity Templates screen before looking at how you would use these to create an Activity:

As you can see above, if you click the Actions icon for an Activity Template on this page, you can Edit or Delete the template. If you choose the Edit option, you’ll see the same modal that you saw above when adding a new one – of course, it will already be completed. You’ll just need to make any necessary changes and save the template to complete those edits.

Using your Activity Templates

Now, let’s take a look at using an Activity Template to create a new Activity. In this instance, let’s say we want to follow-up with client Elizabeth Adams via phone about some outstanding items from a recent meeting. After selecting to add a new activity from Elizabeth’s record, you’ll see the below:

As indicated above, the very first option in your Create Activity modal is the selection of an Activity Template. If you click inside that box, you’ll see all available templates within your database:

If you were to select “Client Meeting Follow-up: Phone Call” here, you might see something like the below:

What you’ll find is that all fields that you established a value for in your template will now be updated here to reflect those values. Also, note the text at the top alerting you that default information has been entered for the activity’s description. If you want to go ahead and take a look at that, or make any additional edits to it, click “create & edit” here, rather than simply clicking “create activity”. You’d then see the new activity’s Details page:

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In our next Manage Your CRM series post, we’ll take a look at Managing Automation Templates in Redtail CRM.

As always, if you have any questions along the way as we address these, you can reach out to our team at support@redtailtechnology.com or 800.206.5030. We are always happy to help you understand any aspect of Redtail CRM better so that you can better put it to use in your business!

Redtail CRM offers subscribers a ton of opportunities to customize their CRM, both at the individual and at the database level. These opportunities for customization are important because they allow you to set your database preferences and lists up in ways that work the best for both you as an individual as well as for your office. Taken together, these customization options will help drive user adoption and, ultimately, help you streamline your processes while at the same time personalize and improve the client experience your firm provides.

You can browse all prior posts in this series here. In this post, we’ll take a look at how you can manage Broadcast Emails and Email Templates.

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Within Redtail CRM, you have the option to bulk send the same email message to multiple contacts at one time, with those emails being sent individually rather than to groups or as CC or BCC emails. Within Redtail these are called Broadcast Emails.

In order to send Broadcast Emails from Redtail CRM, you must first set up your Email Preferences in order that these messages can be routed through your email host for successful delivery. You can see an earlier installment in this series for a walkthrough of setting up these preferences.

You should also be aware that you can establish Email Templates within Redtail CRM to save time on those communications where much of the information to be included in the email will be used again and again.

Here, we’ll first take a look at how you go about establishing your Email Templates. We’ll then turn to the process for sending  and managing Broadcast Emails.

Setting up your Email Templates

You can set up Email Templates within Redtail, allowing you to type up an Email once and then use it as a time-saving starting point going forward for individual or broadcast emails.

To begin setting up an Email Template, select Manage Your Account after clicking your Name from the Top Right Menu within Redtail:

Then, click “Email Templates” in the Manage Templates area:

You’ll then see existing Email Templates in your database (if any):

Click “New” and you’ll arrive at the modal where you can begin setting up your Template:

• Name – whatever you enter here will serve as the name of the email template. This will not be visible to your recipients, but when selecting between templates, their Names are what you will see, so make them
  descriptive enough to make this choice clear.
• Subject – this will serve as the subject line of the email, and as such it is a field that you should take your time with in hopes of improving the open rate for your emails.
• Category – choose from one of your CRM’s system or custom Categories, if you’d like to categorize your Email Templates. Note: there is a “filter” option above your Templates that will allow you to filter which
  Email Templates you are viewing by Category, should you desire.
• Body – this is where you type the body of your email message. You have a formatting bar above the Body that allows you to insert Images or tables and use a number of other formatting options.
• Add User Signature When Sending – if you check off this option for your template, your signature will automatically pull from whatever you’ve set up for your signature within your Site Preferences.
• Save Copy as Note – if you check off this option for your template, a copy of the email will be saved as a Note on the record of all recipients to whom the email is delivered.
• Send User a Copy – if you check off this option for your template, you will receive a copy of the email each time you use it.

Also, you have the ability to personalize your Broadcast Email Templates through the use of acceptable Email Merge Fields in the Body of your email.  Below is a list of those acceptable fields:

##Firstname##
##Lastname##
##Middlename##
##NicknameFirstname##
##Salutation##
##Suffix##
##SpouseFirstname##
##SpouseNicknameFirstname##
##Name##
##Familyname##

As an example, if you wanted your email template to begin with “Dear” as a salutation followed by the first and last name of your contacts, you would enter the following above the rest of the body of your message:

Dear ##Firstname## ##Lastname##,

Then, all of your emails using this template would be addressed to each client using their First and Last Names.

Once you’ve made your entries here, you can click Save Email Template at the bottom and you’re ready to begin using the template.

Let’s go back to your Email Templates screen and look at available actions from that page:

As you can see above, if you click the Actions icon for an Email Template on this page, you can Edit or Delete the template. If you choose the Edit option, you’ll see the same modal that you saw above when adding a new one – of course, it will already be completed. You’ll just need to make any necessary changes and save the template to complete those edits.

Sending Broadcast Emails

Let’s now take a look at how you go about sending out a Broadcast Email (accessible from the Contact Options —> Bulk Actions menu on the Advanced Search  page in Redtail CRM after running your search, or sending QuickLists, Tag Groups, or other contacts to your Advanced Search page):

 

After you have selected the group of Contacts you want to include in your Broadcast Email from the Advanced Search page, you can then click the Broadcast Email option that appears after clicking Bulk Actions, as indicated above:

This will open a Compose Broadcast Email dialog for you to begin composing your message:

1.  Select a Template – this allows you to select an Email Template from your database to use for the Broadcast Email. We covered how to set these templates up above.

2.  From – The From field is the email address that will be displayed to the recipients of your Broadcast Email. You can set this up under Manage Your Account —> Change Site Preferences in the Email
Options section in the SMTP Username field.  Details are here.

3.  To – The To field indicates how many records you selected on the Advanced Search page to include in your Broadcast Email.

4.  Subject – Whatever you type in the Subject line will show up as the Subject of the Broadcast Email for your recipients.

5.  Attachments — you can click Choose Files to then browse your computer or network for files to attach to your Broadcast Email:

Please Note: Files must be 3MB or smaller to attach to Broadcast Emails. Also, you can attach more than one file but they must be stored in the same location on your computer so that you can attach them at the same time. Otherwise, when you browse to find/attach an attachment stored elsewhere, it will replace those you’ve already attached.

6.  Body– The Body area of your Broadcast Email is where you can create the message you would like to send:

Note that above the text box for entering your message you are provided with some common formatting tools.  You can use these tools to format any of the text you enter into your Message Body.

Additionally, you have the ability to create a standard signature to use in all Broadcast Emails under Manage Your Account –> Change Site Preferences –> Email Options in the Email Signature field.  Once you have set up an Email Signature there, it will automatically populate your Broadcast Emails.  Details are here.

Also, you have the ability to personalize your Broadcast Emails through the use of acceptable Email Merge Fields.  Those fields were covered above in the section on setting up your Email Templates.

As a last note about composing the body of your Message, you can insert images into your Broadcast Emails, as long as the image is available on the web somewhere which will allow you to link to it.  To include an image:

• Prepare the rest of your message in the Broadcast Email window.
• Locate the image on the web, wherever you have it stored.  Right-click on the image and select the option that allows you to copy the URL for the image itself.  Depending upon where the image is, this might be accessible by selecting Properties after right-clicking.  Once you’ve located the URL for the image, copy that URL.
• Then, within your Broadcast Email, click the Insert Image button in the toolbar:This will open up an Insert Image modal, where you can then copy the URL for the image you want to include:
• Enter the URL for the image in the highlighted area above – you should then see a preview of it in the Preview area above. Then click the OK button.

7.  Send Broadcast Email – Note that there are two selection boxes and three buttons here: Save Copy as Note, Send Me A Copy, Cancel, Send Broadcast Email and Send Test Broadcast Email:

If you select Save Copy as Note, your Broadcast Email will be saved to each contact record to whom it is sent as a Note.

If you select Send Me A Copy, you’ll also receive the Broadcast Email.

If you click Cancel, you will be returned to your Advanced Search results and no Broadcast Email will be sent.

If you click Send Broadcast Email, your email will be sent to all recipients on the list that have an Email  address marked “Primary” within their record.

If you click Send Test Broadcast Email, a copy of the Broadcast Email will be sent to your email address w/o sending to everyone else on this list. This is always a good idea as it allows you to proof the final look of
your Broadcast Email prior to sending it to everyone on your list. Note: you won’t lose your work if you send yourself a test. You can carry on from this same place after doing so.

These are the basics of creating and sending Broadcast Emails within Redtail.

Managing Broadcast Emails

Now, let’s take a quick look at managing your Broadcast Emails within Redtail CRM. To access the area where you can do this, select Manage Your Account:

 

Then, select Manage Broadcast Emails from the Email Management area:

 

From there you can check the status of both pending and completed Broadcast Emails you have sent from your database. After clicking Manage Broadcast Emails, you’ll first see any pending Broadcast Emails (meaning those which have been queued for delivery, but have not yet completed – typically there won’t be any jobs here unless you are currently in the middle of sending a Broadcast Email):

In the above case, there is one Broadcast Email job pending. If you want to see Completed jobs, simply click the Completed tab next to the Queued tab, at which point you’ll see any Broadcast Emails sent over the past 30 days.

What you’ll see for both Pending and Completed jobs are eight columns:

• Sent On — displays the date and time the Broadcast Email was sent.
• Subject — displays the Subject Line of the Broadcast Email.
• Processed — displays the number of emails that have been processed in the job to that point.
• Succeeded — displays the number of emails that were successfully delivered.
• Failed — displays the number of recipients whose Broadcast Emails were not delivered successfully.
• Total — displays the number of all intended recipients (Succeeded number plus Failed number).
• Status — displays the status of the job, followed by the Processed Count number over the Total Count number).
• Updated At — displays the date and time of last update for the job. On the Completed page, it will likely be the same as the Date Sent column, though it may not always be the same for larger jobs.

The Actions Menu to the left of each Queued Broadcast Email provides you with an option to view details for the email or Cancel the email:

 

The Actions Menu to the left of each Completed Broadcast Email provides you with an option to view details for the email, retry a send if the previous attempt failed, or delete the email:

If you click the Details option for one of your completed emails, below is an example of what you might see:

First, you’ll see the Subject and Body of the email itself. To the right of that, you’ll see:

• Processed Contacts – in the example above, that number is 0. If any of the emails had been successfully sent, you’d see that number here, with those contacts listed below (as they are in the Failed Contacts section beneath). Clicking the “search” button next to Processed Contacts would send any contacts from the Processed Contacts to your Advanced Search page.
• Failed Contacts – in the example above, that number is 10. You can send those contacts to your Advanced Search page by clicking the “search” button next to Failed Contacts. Clicking a contact’s name in either of these two areas will take you to their Overview page. Hovering over the red information icon in the Failed Contacts area will display a tooltip as to why the email failed to send to them (most likely they don’t have an email address marked “Primary” on their contact record, which is the email address Broadcast Emails send to).

 

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In our next Manage Your CRM series post, we’ll take a look at Managing Activity Templates in Redtail CRM.

As always, if you have any questions along the way as we address these, you can reach out to our team at support@redtailtechnology.com or 800.206.5030. We are always happy to help you understand any aspect of Redtail CRM better so that you can better put it to use in your business!

Redtail CRM offers subscribers a ton of opportunities to customize their CRM, both at the individual and at the database level. These opportunities for customization are important because they allow you to set your database preferences and lists up in ways that work the best for both you as an individual as well as for your office. Taken together, these customization options will help drive user adoption and, ultimately, help you streamline your processes while at the same time personalize and improve the client experience your firm provides.

You can browse all prior posts in this series here. In this post, we’ll take a look at how you can manage Team Notices as well as Web Links.

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Manage Team Notices

When logging into your database, the default login page is your Today page (which is otherwise accessible by clicking Today on your Left Menu Bar):

One of the areas you’ll see on your Today page is the Team Notices area:

Team Notices can be particularly useful if you have multiple database users. You can choose to display whatever type of information you would like within the Team Notices section as well as adding as many of these as you would like. They will display here in a scrolling fashion that refreshes every few seconds, as in the example above.

To add a Team Notice, go to Manage Your Account:

Then, click Manage Team Notices in the Preferences section:

On the resulting page, you will see any existing Team Notices that have been added to your database:

From here, once a Team Notice is no longer needed, you can click the Actions menu to its left to edit or delete the Notice:

Or, click the new team notice button to add a new one.  You would then see the below:

We’ve already given this Team Notice a Title and Message for demonstration purposes. You can place whatever types of information you would like in this section.  Note as well that you have formatting options for the Notice itself, should you want to format the text. Then click add team notice.  You’ll then see a list of all of the Team Notices within your database, with your new one reflected there as well:

 

If you return to your Today page, you’ll see the Team Notice you’ve just added is now a part of the scrolling messages within that area:

 

Manage Web Links

Situations may arise where you’re working on a different machine than the one in your office or a laptop that you commonly use. In those cases, you might not have access to your bookmarks or tabbed browser settings. If, however, you’ve stored common website addresses that you use frequently in this area within Redtail, you wouldn’t have to go digging for them. They would just be a click away, from the Redtail menu accessible by clicking your name in the upper right corner:

After clicking Web Links, you’ll see a list of any web links already set up within your database:

In our example above, six Web Links have been added to this database. You can add as many as you would like here though.

Let’s say you wanted to add a Web Link for Google Finance. If you go to Google Finance’s home page on the web, you can copy the Link URL directly from their home page. Next, within Redtail’s Web Links area, click the new button in the top right corner (which you can see above). You’d then see the below:

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In our next Manage Your CRM series post, we’ll take a look at Managing Broadcast Emails in Redtail CRM.

As always, if you have any questions along the way as we address these, you can reach out to our team at support@redtailtechnology.com or 800.206.5030. We are always happy to help you understand any aspect of Redtail CRM better so that you can better put it to use in your business!