Method Community

We have over 10,000 customers in our database and List Builder takes a LONG time to fill itself with our entire customer list.  

First, 2 suggestions. It would be a lot more efficient if we could set additional criteria before filling the list such as filter by rep, customer type, etc. And it would be WONDERFUL if we could save these criteria so I could easily return to this section and select my saved list by state, rep and customer type!

Second, once I start the process of filling a list, if I navigate away from that screen will it continue to fill the list in the background while I work in other Method screens? 

Hi Pdirect,

Thanks for the suggestions.

We are have some changes planned for the List Builder which do include filters but at the moment I don't have a timeline on when these changes will be implemented.

You could navigate away to another screen but until the List Builder finishes processes other processes will be put on hold, so if you go to another screen and select a customer or try to save you will see the spinny until the List Builder completes.

-Michael

ok, and while you're at it, you'll need to work on the folllowing error I receive when sending email via list builder. And it would be nice if there was a much easier way of managing email templates.  As it is, I have to go into a customer, create a new activity, check the send to email box and then click the elipses by the template line.  That's crazy.

ERROR
****************

Error Action Sequence:20. Error with sending recipients; Server says: 501 Syntax error in arguments ;

And one more thing about list builder. I just sent out an embarrassing email to our customers. I had inserted the Customer.FirstName code and I thought that Method would eliminate that if the first name field was empty. But instead, it left it to look like "Customer.FirstName" if the first name field was empty.  So our customers just got a nice impersonal email.  The default action should be to show nothing if a requested field is empty.

pdirect-

The error you are getting is normally produced when you try to send an email to a email address that is not properly formatted(For example missing the @).

pdirect:

As it is, I have to go into a customer, create a new activity, check the send to email box and then click the elipses by the template line.  That's crazy.

Under the Home tab their should be an Email Template tab link.

-Michael

pdirect-

pdirect:

And one more thing about list builder. I just sent out an embarrassing email to our customers. I had inserted the Customer.FirstName code and I thought that Method would eliminate that if the first name field was empty. But instead, it left it to look like "Customer.FirstName" if the first name field was empty.  So our customers just got a nice impersonal email.  The default action should be to show nothing if a requested field is empty.

The emails that the list builder sends out only merges fields from the User table and from the ListBuilder table, that's why Customer.FirstName was not replaced. If you want to use the FirstName you could link it to the ListBuilder table and use ListBuilder.FirstName .

-Michael

Like I just wrote in another post, this is way too hard.  How in the world is anyone supposed to know that?!

I don't have a home tab.  The update to the latest version was so confusing, I'm left with a mix of old and new tabs . . . but no home tab.

pdirect-

I am going to put in a suggestion to make this screen more clear as to what fields it merges.

-Michael

pdirect-

pdirect:

I don't have a home tab.  The update to the latest version was so confusing, I'm left with a mix of old and new tabs . . . but no home tab.

You can also just add the CRM_EmailTemplateList screen to any tab which is the screen that comes up when you click ... for email templates.

-Michael

I had the same issue with the list builder and leaving the Contacts.FirstName text in an email where it was supposed to personalize it.  What makes me really angry about this is that Method's own "what is a merge field" dialog says to do it this way on the email template screen.  If an email template isn't going to work when using listbuilder, why require that an email template be used?  And oh by the way, that syntax does work as intended when sending the same email template from an individual activity screen.  How can this kind of inconsistency be tolerated?  And as with PDirect's problem, I agree 100% with the statement of "How are we supposed to know about this?" We pay for Method to make this kind of mass email easier, and instead you just make us look stupid.  Nice.  Do I really need two separate templates to send the same message - one if sending from listbuilder and one if sending from the activity screen?

Hi rcclarkcpa,

We're sorry for the frustration this has caused you, but to help clarify this topic, check out our List Builder Help Centre Article, in particular, look at the Automatically Merged Fields section.

- Ashur