schedule appointment or tasks from the actual appointment screen when completing

Question

I use to use Goldmine and when you completed the appointment/task, etc. there was a check box on that screen to "schedule a follow-up call"  It was very handy because once you completed the tasks at hand it opened another screen where you could immediatly schedule your next call with that contact.  With CRM I have to complete and then remember to schedule another task from scratch.  Does anyone have ideas to simplify this tasks?

Answer 1

Hi, you could create a Dialog Process which you can run on an Appointment or Task (2 separate dialogs). This could prompt for a follow-up date/time, and then automatically create the follow-up on that date/time using the same details as the originating task/appointment, but with 'follow-up' in the subject, for example, so you know it is a follow-up.

Here are some blog posts on using Dialogs:

http://www.magnetism.co.nz/blog/10-12-29/How_to_use_Dialogs_in_Dynamics_CRM_2011.aspx
http://www.magnetism.co.nz/blog/11-12-31/Dynamics_CRM_2011_Dialog_Processes_-_New_Features_Rollup_5.aspx
http://www.magnetism.co.nz/blog/12-01-10/Dynamics_CRM_2011_Dialog_Process_Conditional_Branches_Paths.aspx

Hope that helps!

-Paul

 

Answer 2

Great advise Paul...thanks!

Answer 3

Hi,

Did you have any problems setting up the dialog?

If it's working how you wanted and the previous reply answered your question please Vote as Helpful and Mark as Answer. This will close the thread and allow other users to find the solution more quickly.

Thanks!

-Paul

Answer 4

Building the follow-up data entry fields directly on the appointment, task or phone call form is also one option. Instead of a dialog process, you would then have an asynchronous workflow process triggered on the background once you save the activity with the "create follow-up" tickbox selected. The end result is basically the same, so you could just collect feedback from your users on which kind of a UI they'd prefer to use.

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Jukka Niiranen - My blog: Surviving CRM - Follow @jukkan on Twitter