The Customer Order Notifications program is your pathway to contacting customers who have a pending Customer Order. You will need to contact customers manually, either via e-mail, phone, or mail, but the Customer Order Notifications program houses all of the pertinent information you need to make an informed decision as to when to notify a customer concerning his or her Customer Order. The program also logs which customers have been notified, and when.
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Note: |
The Customer Order Notifications program does not apply to Customer Orders that are tagged "Charge & Send." |
To access the Customer Order Notifications program:
From the Main Menu, select Modules-Customer Orders-Customer Order Notification. This will open the Customer Order Notification Manager window.
When you first access the program, the grid at the bottom of the screen will be blank. You will notice three buttons on the top left portion of the screen. They are as follows . . .
"Initial Notification" calls up a Query window, where you determine the search criteria to call up a list of customers who have a pending Customer Order and who have not yet received a notification.
"Follow-Up Notification" calls up a Query window, where you determine the search criteria to call up a list of customers with a pending Customer Order and who have already been notified.
"Problem Notices" calls up a Query window, where you determine the search criteria to call up a list of customers with a pending Customer Order in which at least one of the products involved has an applicable Problem Code attached to it..
The Query window functions the same, regardless of which button you select. Let's take a look at this Query window, and how you determine the search criteria.
For simplicity's sake, we will assume you selected "Initial Notification." This calls up the Query window.
The upper left of the window is where you select a date range for the Customer Orders you want to select, with this query. Fill out the Order Date From and Order Date To fields with the desired date range.
At this point, you can either select to run an existing query or create a new query. Let's learn how to create a new query first . . .
Click on the "Manage saved queries" button at the top right of the query window. A dropdown menu appears.
From this dropdown menu, select "Create a new query to save". A small window appears, prompting you to name the query you are about to create.
Key in the name of your new query in the blank line where the cursor displays, then click on the OK button. The name you just keyed in will display in the "Select saved query" field back in the Query window.
Now it is time to select the criteria for the new query. What do you want your query to include? Which Customer Orders? Your query can be as narrow or as wide as you want it to be.
Choose the category you want to define your query by in the Select Field field by clicking on the down arrow at the right of the field. A pulldown list of categories appears. Click on the one you want. Once selected, it displays in the Select Field field. For an example, let us say you selected Customer Type.
In the Select Operation field, choose Like, equal to, From, To, between, NULL, Not equal to, or Not Null.
In the Choose Value field, choose the value or values that define the selection criteria. With the Customer Type example, say you chose "equal to" in the Select Operation field. If you then select "R/Regular" in the Choose Value field, the query will be run for all Customer Orders created for a Customer Type of Regular ("R" being the code, "Regular" being the description).
For applicable categories (such as Customer Type), there will be a binoculars icon at the right of the Choose Value field. If you need to view information on how to select a parameter in a code-driven field, please click here.
If you selected "between" in the Select Operation field, two fields will display under Choose Value. In the top field, choose the start value. In the bottom field, select the ending value. For example, if you selected Needed By Date in the Select Field field and you want to run the query for Customer Orders with Needed By Dates between 1/01/09 and 3/01/09, you would select "between" in the Select Operation field, key in 1/01/09 in the top Choose Value field, and key in 3/01/09 in the bottom Choose Value field.
For Date categories (such as Needed By Date), a calendar will display if you click on the down arrow at the right of the Choose Value field(s). This is a convenient way for you to select a particular date, if you'd rather not key it in.
Note:
If you choose any date-related category in the Select Field field, the Choose Value field will automatically default to the current day's date.
Once you have set the query fields the way you want, click on the Add button at the right of the Query window. The query criteria you just set will display in the Selected Ranges box. For example, if you selected a Customer Type of R (Regular), then "Customer Type = R (Regular)" will display in the Selected Ranges box.
Note:
If you want to blank out the query fields and begin again (prior to clicking on Add), click on the Cancel button. The query fields are blanked out.
Repeat the above process as many times as you want to define the criteria for your query. Each time you establish a new set of criteria and click on the Add button, the new criteria will display in the Selected Ranges box. The more sets of criteria you select, the more specific the parameters of the query will be. So, for example, you may set criteria for multiple categories in order to run a well-defined, highly specific query. Perhaps you want to run the query with the following specifications: Customer Type = Regular, Needed By Date between 1/01/09 and 3/01/09, and Order Type = Internet. Simply define these criteria, one after the other, until all are set. When the query is run, it will only display results that fall under all of these specifications. For example, if a Customer Order had been made by a Regular customer, and the Needed By Date was within the range of 1/01/09 and 3/01/09, but was not an Internet Order Type, then the Customer Order would not be included in the list the query generates. To run a less-defined query, simply remove some of the criteria. There is no limit to the criteria. If you want to define 100 sets of criteria, you can.
After creating the criteria for this new query, click on the Manage saved queries button and select "Save the current query". At this point, you can run the query immediately, or you can exit the query without running it.
Let's take a closer look now at the other selections under the Manage saved queries button.
Two choices allow you either to view the list of queries saved only by you or the list of queries saved by everyone on the system. This is user-definable and up to you. Choose whichever makes the most sense. You can switch back and forth anytime you like, but the system will always default to the way you left it the last time you were in the Query program.
These two selections have a direct impact on the Using saved query field to the left. This field has a pulldown arrow. Click on the arrow and a dropdown menu displays, listing all of the saved (existing) queries you can choose from. When you select one, that query's criteria will display in the window. At that point, you can run the query.
If you selected only to view queries you yourself created under the Manage saved queries button, then only queries you created and saved will display under the Using saved query field. If, however, you chose to view all queries on the system under the Manage saved queries button, then all queries (created by all the users on the system) will display under the Select saved query field.
The last choice under the Manage saved queries button is a "Delete the current query" option. Clicking on this will call up a dialogue box that asks you if you want to delete the query that's displayed. If you do, simply click on "Yes". The query will be deleted.
To run the query, click on the Submit the query button at the bottom of the Query window. (Click on Exit without searching if you do not wish to run the query.)
Once the query has been run, a list of applicable Customer Orders appears in the grid at the bottom of the Customer Order Notifications Manager screen.
The first thing to do at this point is select how you want to notify the customers, and what type of notification to send.
In the Notification delivery method field, click on the drop-down arrow and select one of the three choices to determine how you will contact the applicable customers . . . Email, Mail merge file, Telephone.
In the Notification message to deliver field, select the Customer Notification parameter to use for the notification.
At this point, we recommend that you browse through the Orders individually, just to make sure the information is correct. (You do not need to do this. You can choose to create notifications for all of the Customer Orders at once, without browsing, if you desire.)
Let's take a look at how to browse through individual Orders.
Highlight one of the Customer Orders in the grid, and then click on the "Browse orders" button. The Customer Orders Notification List window will display for the selected Order.
There is a lot of information listed on this screen--customer's phone number, e-mail address, mailing address, along with information on the Order itself. In the Customer Order Notification Log, any previous notifications for this Order are listed (logged). If this is an Initial Notification, this log will be blank.
At the lower left, there is information on the notification category (initial or follow-up?), notification delivery method that you had selected back at the Customer Order Notifications Manager screen, and the notification message.
At the lower right, you have a series of tabs to choose from.
Log notification done by phone opens the Confirm Customer Order Notifications Specifications window, with the "Notification delivered via" field set to Telephone. Key in any notes that might be useful to you, and then click on "Yes." Obviously you will only use this option if you have already called the customer and now want said call to be logged in [i] Merchant.
View complete order takes you to the complete Customer Order Properties screen, where you can review all of the information for the Order. You can also change Order information, if needed.
Remove from this selection will remove the Order from the list back at the Customer Order Notifications Manager screen.
E-mail the notification requested will open the Confirm Customer Order Notifications Specifications window, with the "Notification delivered via" field set to E-mail. Key in any personalized messages, and then click on "Yes." This will automatically send an e-mail to the customer (provided that their Properties page has a valid e-mail address listed) as well as log the notification in your system
Important:
For the e-mail function to work, be sure to fill in the necessary e-mail fields in Tools-Options. Click here for general e-mail field information, and here for the Customer Order Notification field information. All of these fields need to be filled in.
Create notification requested will open the Confirm Customer Order Notifications Specifications window, with the "Notification delivered via" field set to the default you had established back at the Customer Order Notifications Manager screen. Key in any personalized messages, and then click on "Yes."
If you chose the Mail Merge method of delivery, a dialogue box will appear, asking you to select the file location where you want to write and save the Customer Order Notification information.
To create notices for a batch of Orders simultaneously:
In the list of Orders at the bottom of the Customer Order Notifications Manager screen, highlight the Orders for which you want to create a notification. Then click on "Create notices." The Confirm Customer Order Notifications Specifications window will open, with the "Notification delivered via" field set to the default you have established. Key in any personalized messages, then click on "Yes." This will send the notifications to each customer simultaneously, if e-mail is selected. Otherwise, it will log the notification if telephone or mail merge is selected. It is up to you to physically telephone the customers or send notices to them via the mail.