Capturing interactions with prospects and customers

An activity is used to capture customer interactions, such as meetings, calls, or emails, by recording what happened during the interaction and linking it to a sales entity, such as an opportunity. A task, on the other hand, is used to capture follow-up actions or to-dos that need to be completed after an interaction, helping to track what needs to be done next.

This video shows how to capture customer interactions by creating activities and tasks that are linked to opportunities.

Terry Mason, a sales representative, has just returned from a meeting with Smoke Detection Systems for Apple Inc. During the meeting, the company requested technical specifications for the Wireless Nano Smoke Detector they are interested in purchasing. Back at the office, Terry wants to capture this customer interaction. Customer interactions are recorded by creating activities and tasks.

To create an activity, first locate the sales entity you want to update. In this case, it's an opportunity, so open the Opportunities page.

Select the type of opportunity you want to update. To quickly locate it, you can filter by the company name, then open the opportunity to add an activity.

On the Opportunity page, in the header of the summary panel, click Actions > Add Activity.

Fill out the form with the meeting details and the outcome. Click Submit to add the customer interaction to the opportunity.

The activity is added to the opportunity as a Pulse message. It can also be accessed on the Activities and Tasks tab of the summary panel.

Next, Terry needs to follow up on the technical specifications requested by the customer. Follow-up actions or to-dos are captured by creating tasks. To add a task, click Actions > Add Task.

Fill out the form with the task details. You have the option to receive a reminder prior to the due date. Click Submit to add the task to the opportunity.

The task is added to the Smoke Detection System for Apple Inc. opportunity and can be accessed in the Activities and Tasks tab of the summary panel.

Terry has now captured the customer interaction and added a follow up task.

You have reached the end of this video. You learned:

• How to capture customer interactions.
• How to create activities and tasks linked to opportunities.