Ever hear the term “The best of both worlds”? Oh come on, I know you have. For those of you who haven’t heard of this, here’s what it means:
“The best of both worlds” is to have the best aspects of one choice and the best aspects of another choice when you have been asked to select between two choices.
Every now and again though, we find a way to have “The best of both worlds”. Now that would be the ideal situation wouldn’t it? I thought so. So how does this sound?
- Keep your existing QuickBooks desktop version that you know and love and add instant online functionality to it so it can be accessed anywhere in the world via a web page while any changes you make will be updated in real time. PLUS…
- Add CRM capabilities to QuickBooks so you can keep track of your sales campaigns, opportunities, inbound and outbound calls and provide your customers with online access to their account information.
Does that sound too good to be true? It’s not. Method has just stepped it up a notch and added CRM functionality to its already powerful Customer/Vendor/Employee Center. So what features are available now?
Sales Center
The Sales Center first welcomes you with the ‘Sales Center Dashboard’. The dashboard provides the signed in user with a quick glance of any tasks, new opportunities and appointments for that day.
Want to have a way to track the success of your marketing projects? Campaigns allow you to do just that! By assigning both ‘Opportunities’ and ‘Activities’ to ‘Customers’ and ‘Leads’, you can determine how many of your leads are converting into sales.
To help drive your marketing initiatives, use the ‘List Builder’ to create mass emails for all of your customers or a selected group. The best part is you can also automatically create follow-up activities for your sales team, to help seal the deal and close sales.
Call Center
Just like the Sales Center, the Call Center prompts you with a 'Call Center Dashboard'. This dashboard shows information related to both ‘Cases’ and ‘Solutions’.
A ‘Case’ is a way of tracking and detailing Customer and Vendor problems, feedback and questions. These cases would be created whenever a Customer or Vendor contacts your company via phone, email, fax or via your Third Party Portal (if you have that setup).
Ever have those questions that get asked time and time again and you have to stop what you are doing to answer it. I know it happens to me ALL the time. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a central location to store all this information so it could be easily referenced? A ‘solution’ is just that. Solutions are detailed descriptions of common customer questions or issues, along with the appropriate answers or steps to resolve the issue.
Customer Portal
Now a days, customers demand having access to their account at any time. They want to be able to see their current balance, most recent transactions or simply ask a question after hours when the office may be closed. The ‘Customer Portal’ gives your Customers or Vendors the ability to tap into this information. All they would need to do is click on a link. Simple enough isn’t it?
This adds SO much power to a QuickBooks user. You have just enhanced the ability and functionality of your accounting software to a whole new level, online, available anywhere and with CRM capabilities. Not to mention, we are talking about Method here. So if there is something you need to change to fit YOUR needs? Do it. Customize it. Love it!
So how do you get your hands on this new functionality?
Current beta testers
In order to have access to the Sales Center, Call Center and Customer Portal, you will need to create a new Method account. Follow the same steps that you received from me when doing the initial setup interview. If you have old screens you want to use with your new account, you will need to import them. You can do so under the Customize – Screens area and clicking the Copy/Import Screen button.
New beta testers
Later today, you will be receiving invitations to begin participating in the beta. Follow the steps in the setup email and your account will automatically have the new functionality, as well as the Customer Center, Vendor Center and Employee Center.
It’s nice to have ‘The best of both worlds’ isn’t it? We tend to think so.
Till next time!
Danny Do Couto
Method Integration