Adding and managing end users

Creating and editing customer records, and the handful of fields that are worth filling in because an agent reads them before replying.

Creating and editing customer records, and the handful of fields that are worth filling in because an agent reads them before replying.

Add one

1. Search for the address first.
2. If there is no record, create the user.
3. Set the name, address and organisation.
4. Fill any custom fields your team relies on.
5. Save.

Always search first

The single most useful habit here. Creating a record for somebody who already exists splits their history, and the duplicate is usually found months later by somebody confused about a customer's history.

The organisation is the field that matters

It gives you reporting by customer, shared visibility for their colleagues, and a place to hold plan and segment. A user with no organisation falls out of every organisation-level report silently.

Custom fields, used sparingly

Plan level, account manager, region, contract type. Fields agents actually read before replying.

Anything nobody reads is a field somebody has to maintain for no benefit.

Get the name format right

It appears in every email you send them. A record created from an automated message often has a name like an address, and the customer sees that in the greeting.

Keep it accurate rather than complete

A half-filled record everybody trusts beats a fully-filled one where half the values are guesses from two years ago.

Watch what you record

Notes on a user record are held indefinitely and read by every agent. Keep them factual and about the account, not about the person.

See also

• Merging duplicate users
• Creating and managing organisations
• Custom fields for users and organisations