When building out your Marketscape CRM calendar, setting up recurring event series is a good way to prioritize your accounts and spend less time creating each event from scratch every day. There are a number of other great reasons to schedule recurring events.
When it comes to setting up recurring events there are some best practices and tips to keep in mind to ensure the events are beneficial and not just clogging up your calendar.
1.) Use the ACE Process when setting up your recurring events.
When setting up your recurring event series use the ACE process: associate the Account, the Contacts and Event type to ensure accurate account history and reporting. Once it’s set up correctly, you don’t have to worry about it again. When you are completing the event, contacts can be removed or added as needed.
2.) Set up recurring events for your key accounts
Prioritize your accounts and set up recurring events for your key accounts, any accounts you want to maintain a consistent presence, or have a set meeting date and time. Setting up a recurring event series for every single account you own may not be realistic or practical depending on your number of assigned accounts. Also, don’t get caught up in the date/time on recurring events – they are a placeholder and can be easily moved to another date and time, if needed.
3.) Set up your recurring events to end on the same date
An events series will always default to an end date three months in the future. You have the capability to alter the end date. Set your recurring end date to the same date, ie: the end of the year, or the end of the quarter. This will avoid your series ending and dropping off the calendar. You can also add in the end date in your event purpose for a visible cue on when the series is ending. An event series end date is editable and can always be extended if needed.
4.) Subjects matter
Event subject matter, that is. Use the Recurring event subject line to be your guide on your calendar. Having tens of “Weekly Meetings” or “Sales Calls” does not help you with the plan for your day. Enter the account name and frequency of the recurring series to easily see where you are going to next. Note the examples below:
5.) Utilize the visibility of historical visit notes to your advantage
When you go into a recurring event on your calendar you will be able to see the prior visit notes in that series. This is a great way to determine the last time you interacted with that account and what transpired. Remembering the details of the last conversation you had with them, what information they’ve taken the time to share with you is key to good customer service.