ClientBase Help

CRM and marketing tips for the travel professional

Date Formulas: A GREAT Shortcut

Jul 3

Posted by John Frenaye in General Tip | No Comments

Many times you want to use a date in the future or in the past to develop a query.  Let’s say you wanted to see how many inquiries you received during the past 30 days. Rather than figuring out the exact date, use a formula.

Instead of dates, you work with numbers separated by commas. The first number represents the days, the second the months and the third the years. Named days can also be used as well as the + and – signs to indicate future and past dates.

And in addition to this, did you know that when you enter a date the long way, there are some shortcuts?  Enter any number between 1 and 31 (or 30, 29, or 28 depending on the month) and ClientBase will assume you mean this month and year and will fill it in for you. Looking for a date later this year? Just type in 1015 (no slashes needed) and ClientBase will know you mean October 15, 2009.

These can be used in any date field:

If You Want This

Enter This

1st day of this month:

=1,0,0

Last day of this month:

=31,0,0

1st day of this year:

=1,1,0

Last day of this year:

=31,12,0

Seven days from now:

=+7,0,0

Last Monday (will show today if today is Monday)

=Mon

A week from last Monday

=Mon-1

Next Monday

=Mon+1

Three months from now

=0,+3,0

Six months ago:

=0,-6,0

One year from now

=0,0,+1

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One Of Those “Duh” Reminders

Jun 29

Posted by John Frenaye in General Marketing Tips | No Comments

If you are like most agencies–home based, brick and mortar, or Internet based; your business is off due to the economy!  It sucks and there is no two ways around it.

But with ClientBase you have one of the most powerful tools at yoru disposal. And as long as you paid your ISP this month, you can easily drum up some business.

Why not query the clients who have made an inquiry in the last six months but have not purchased and send them a reminder that you still exist and want to earn their business? If you have been following my tips, you may even have regions in the reservation cards to target it a little better.

Don’t send them a hard sales pitch. Just say hello, and maybe a link about the new Italian Village at Beaches Turks & Caicos that is currently att 65% off.  I specialize in single parents (read: smaller wallets) and the price from a deluxe room to an oceanfront suite with a separate kid’s room and concierge service was less than $600 for a week. I upgraded 9 of my clients and the end result was $870 more in commission for me!

All with one simple email sent from ClientBase!

Level 2 Res Card Query–>FILTER–>

In the RES CARD CREATE FROM DATE enter the date code  =0,-6,0 (this will look for anything six months prior to the current date)

Go to the RESERVATION CYCLE and pull down and select LEAD.

Now all you need to do is click the EMAIL icon and send a message to the results in the Res Card Manager.

Here’s what the query looks like:

noclient

Res Card Create Date From =0,-6,0 Reservation cycle= LEAD Region/Destination= whatever if you are collecting it

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Batched Reminders & Res Cards

May 2

Posted by John Frenaye in Reservation Card Tips | No Comments

OK, in the last post, we created the batched reminder, so now we need to use it! Your client walks, surfs, or calls in to inquire about a trip. Of course you get the basic information from the client for the profile and now you immediately create a Res Card. At bare minimum you want to capture the essence of the trip.  FALL 2009 TRIP TO DISNEYWORLD.

Now, up in the right corner, you will see the REMINDER icon. If you click on the arrow, you will have your choice to create a SINGLE REMINDER or BATCHED REMINDERS.  Select BATCHED REMINDERS.

batched-4

Now you will see a list of all of the different “batches” you have created. Let’s select the TEST one that we created last time. Click OK.  Now, you will see a screen with all the reminders associated with that batch. It is in this screen that you can individually change each reminder. Maybe you want to skip a second contact or move the date forward or back a little.  You can change it all right here–but the changes are only for THESE reminders and have no affect on the batch itself for future res cards.

batched-5

And now, click CREATE REMINDERS and you are all set.

CAUTION: Remember that if you selected to be reminded, you will have pop up reminders for all due transactions. These are not recommended for groups. Also, unless you are good at time management and keeping up with your tasks and todo lists, this can be overwhelming.

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