Posts Tagged ‘customization’
Online Training for New Agencies
AgencyIQ makes email marketing and lead management easier, and now AgencyIQ makes learning and setting up your new agency a snap! Make sure to watch these quick videos and complete your set up within the system. You’ll certainly learn new tips and tricks by watching these videos.
Set Up Menu
Online Training:
Online training for new agencies and new producers is a vital part of making the AgencyIQ system successful for your agency. To aid in the initial setup of your agency, we have added a set up menu to walk you through the initial customization process for new producers and new agencies. This section can be found in the top right hand corner of your screen directly below the “My Settings” link.
The “Quick Training I” video provides a basic walk through of the system, covering how to set up your AgencyIQ account. This includes the producer based settings (time zone, email signature, security login) and the agency based settings (address, email footer, lead statuses, and basic email marketing).
The “Quick Training II” video will walk you thru the CRM portion of AgencyIQ, and show you how to work your leads within the system.
Each section that requires set up is itemized on the set up menu, and the text is a direct link to the specific screen where you can complete each task. As each section is finished a check mark will be placed in the appropriate location. As you check off more tasks, the status lights on the menu will turn from orange to green, until you’ve completed all aspects of the setup process.
Watch for additional updates to our support and online training library over the next few weeks as we add more videos and options for you to make the most from AgencyIQ!
Hey, where did my Auto-responders and Auto-assignments go?
If you’ve taken a peek at your agency configuration lately, you may be wondering where the tabs for Auto-responders and Auto-assignments went. And oh, by the way, what’s this new “Workflow Rulesets” tab? We’ve recently rolled out our next-generation automation system for AgencyIQ, which combines the concepts of Auto-assignments and Auto-responders into an even more powerful workflow process that will deliver huge flexibility and customizability.
What’s this Workflow Stuff?
Gone are the days of only being able to send and schedule e-mails when a lead first enters the system. With the introduction of Workflow Rulesets, you now have the ability to select from a large range of criteria to describe to the system how you want to manage your on-going automated communication with your prospects. Rulesets allow you to describe a series of conditions and actions that are evaluated whenever leads change inside the system.
For example, you may want to assign new leads to producers based on more granular criteria than lead provider, such as zip code or last name (i.e. “Distribute all leads A-M to Bob, and N-Z to Sally”). You may want to cancel pending scheduled e-mails and set up a new set when the lead moves from “New lead” to “Active lead”. The new Workflow system allows you to do this.
Building Blocks
The Workflow system is made up of simple building blocks that you use to assemble your particular configuration. First, you start off by creating a “Ruleset,” which is just a fancy way of saying “If this happens, do this.” In the “my agency” settings in the system, select the “Workflow Rulesets” tab:
The new Workflow Rulesets tab under "my agency"
This tab displays any Rulesets that you have defined. In the above example, I have two rulesets set up represented by the large gray tiles; one for auto-assignments, and one for auto-responders. The small icons show an overview of what the ruleset consists of (you’ll see more of this later). As I hover my mouse over the ruleset tiles I notice actions hilight on the right-hand side, “edit” and “duplicate.” I can also drag the tiles around to reorder them on the screen. This ordering is important, as the system will process these rules in the order you have them listed, from top to bottom.
If I click “edit” on the “Autoassignment – Steve” tile, I’m taken to the definition for that ruleset:
The Conditions and Actions for a Ruleset are displayed here
Reading this screen from top to bottom I see that “If ALL of the following conditions are met” (followed by a list of conditions), “Then the following actions occur” (followed by one or more actions). In this case, I have a simple rule that states “If a new lead enters the system and the lead is unassigned, then assign the lead to the agent ‘Steve DeVoll’.”
Rulesets are made up of conditions and actions. All of the conditions for a given ruleset must be met in order for the given actions to be completed. If one or more of the conditions are not met, none of the actions are performed and the system moves along to the next ruleset in your list. Using this simple construct, you can build up complex scenarios that help automate your sales process.
Notice that the small icons representing the type of condition or action are present here as well. These map back to the Rulesets screen, allowing you to get an overview of what the ruleset is dependent on and what it will do, visually. You can hover your mouse over any icon to have a tool-tip pop up and describe it, if you need clarification.
Pulling down the “-add new condition-” drop-down menu, we see that there are a number of conditions I can use to narrow down this ruleset:
- A change in status (for example, if the lead’s status changes from “New Lead” to “New Policy”)
- Comparison of a Field to a value (for example, if the lead’s ZIP Code field contains “75001″. You can use comparisons such as Less Than/Greater Than, Begins With, Ends With, Contains, etc.)
- A new lead enters the system (to differentiate between when a lead is first received versus a lead being edited)
- Lead is from one or more Lead Vendors (so you can specify one lead provider’s leads from another)
- Lead is of a particular LOB (so you can differentiate Auto from Home, etc.)
- Lead is assigned to a particular user
- Lead is unassigned
These powerful condition building blocks should let you be very specific about when certain actions should occur. Notice that in the case of conditions, order is unimportant. All must be true in order for the actions to occur. However, you can drag the condition tiles around to reorder them to your liking, if you wish.
Pulling down the “-add new action-” drop-down reveals the following actions:
- Send/Schedule an auto-responder
- Assign the lead to a user or a member of a group
- Cancel any previously scheduled (but unsent) auto-responders
- Stop processing rules
The last option, “Stop Processing Rules” is a special action that tells the system that it should not process any rulesets after this one. Use that to end workflow processing in the event a certain set of criteria has been met.
For actions, as opposed to conditions, order is important. For example, if you combined assignment and auto-responders into the same ruleset, you’d want to assign the lead before you scheduled the auto-responders. Drag and drop the actions to reorder them to fit your needs.
In the coming weeks we will be adding additional powerful actions to this list to let you do additional things such as set up ToDo’s or Reminders, send out notifications, and more.
Beyond Initial Auto-responders
These rulesets are evaluated any time the lead is changed. Using the conditions for detecting a change in the status of a lead, you will now be able to cancel any pending auto-responders and schedule new ones. Or, if you have a user in your office that does the quoting, you can have the system assign a lead to them when the status changes to “Quoting”. The possibilities are wide open.
The Workflow system is in place now. We’ve jumpstarted you by migrating your existing auto-assignments and auto-responders into the new structure. If you’d like help or would like to discuss how to extend your workflow beyond what you could do in the past, let us know!
Customizable Statuses! and other updates…
Customizable Statuses
In a recent survey, agents indicated that they would like the ability to determine their own statuses inside of AgencyIQ, so that the system would more naturally fit within their sales process. To accommodate that very popular request, we have now added the ability for either the Agency Owner or an Agency Manager to customize the labels, ordering and number of statuses each Line of Business can be assigned to throughout the sales process. We have kept as defaults the same labels we have always offered, but you can now create, name and order the statuses however you would like. Follow the instructions below to customize your statuses within AgencyIQ!
To customize the statuses for your agency, go into your agency’s settings by clicking the “my agency” link in the upper right of any screen. Click over to the “Lists” tab, and locate the new tab “LOB Statuses” on the far right of the second row. The system will present you with a list of your current statuses, which should be the system defaults at this point.
Customizable Statuses Edit Screen
There are four columns, “Status”, “Status Class”, “Lines” and “Action”. The “Status” column contains the labels of the currently defined statuses. This is what you and your users will see in the status area on leads, in reports and other areas of the application. Simply click on the label to change the wording to match terminology you are most comfortable with.
The second column, “Status Class”, defines how this status will behave in your workflow. There are three options, “Prospect”, “Client”, and “Cancelled”. Mark those statuses that relate to your lead workflow as “Prospect”. Once a lead moves into the policy phase, a status with the “Client” class would be chosen. This will make the policy section on the lead screen appear, and will make the overall status of the contact go from “Prospect” to “Client”. Classify as “Cancelled” any statuses you wish to have representing dead opportunities.
The third column will show you a summary of the number of LOBs you currently have in that status. Note that you can’t delete any status that currently has lines associated with it. Once all LOBs are moved out of a particular status (reducing the count to zero), you will be able to remove that status permanently.
The final column, “Action”, allows you to drag the individual statuses around to set your workflow order, or delete any statuses that have no LOBs assigned to them. The order of the statuses on this screen is important: it will dictate the order of all status representations in the system. In addition, the top-most status is the “default” status for all new leads manually created or otherwise entering the system. Drag the individual rows around until the order is how you want it.
In addition to changing the labels and ordering of the seven default statuses provided in the system, you can add your own by clicking the “add” link at the top of the list, just to the right of “Status” in the first column. A new blank status will appear at the bottom of your list, and you can type a new label for it and assign it to a status class. Drag it to the appropriate location in your ordering, and you’re done. If you add a status and decide you didn’t want to do that, simply click the “delete” link on the right of that status’s row, which will appear as you hover your mouse over the action area.
Once you have everything as you would like it, make sure to click the “Save Changes” button at the bottom to lock your settings in. Nothing changes until you save your settings, and the updated statuses will become available immediately throughout the rest of your agency once you do.
Improvements to the Action Drop-down
In addition to giving agencies the ability to customize their statuses, we have simplified the workflow around using those statuses. Previously, there was a rather rigorous workflow around how Lines had their status applied to them. For example, if a Auto lead was in the “Active Lead” status, you were only allowed to move it to “New Policy”, “Inactive Lead”, or “Cancelled”. Once moving to an “Inactive Lead” status, you couldn’t move directly to an “Active Policy”, without first reactivating the lead and then selling the policy. This proved somewhat cumbersome for users to understand, so we have removed those restrictions, giving you the freedom to select what status you want to assign to your lines at any time.
To accomplish this, we have updated the “Action” drop-down at the top of all lead screens:
Customized Statuses Action Drop-down
Notice how the information is grouped: “Change status to…”, “assign lead to…” and “Unassign” are the major options, and the agency-specific statuses and users are indented under these headings for easy location. All statuses defined for the agency are listed, in the order defined in the agency settings, except the status currently assigned to the lead. Simply select the status you want to change the lead to and click “Update”.
Contact Info Box Colors
Contact Info Box
In the past, the Contact Info Box, in the upper right-hand corner of all contact and lead screens, was a blue box that contained a summary of the pertinent information about that prospect or client. Information such as phone numbers, email address, and a list of any Lines of Business for that contact visible here, simply by moving your mouse over the box.
We have extended this functionality to change colors based on contact status. When the contact is still a Prospect, the box will remain blue as it has in the past. Once a policy is created for the contact, however, it will now turn green. This allows for you to know at a glance whether you are working with a potential customer, or a Client with existing business with your agency. A simple change, yes, but one I think will be very handy!
In addition to coloring the box (within the lines, of course!), we’ve streamlined the information within, including icons for LOBs, and displaying the contact’s “opt-out” status near their email address.
More coming soon
We’ve got many more enhancements and improvements coming over the next several weeks. Stay tuned, and let us know what you think!