My Act CRM Best Practices List in 2022
It happened again. An Act CRM software user contacted me to see if I could help them recover their Act data after their computer crashed.
My first question was “were you creating backups of your Act database software?” My second question was “is that backup file somewhere other than the computer that crashed?” In this case, they were not backing up their Act database so the second question was a moot point.
In another situation, a client was having issues with their Act database. This is a very long story and I will not bore you with the details. However, the client through the years had created more than 1250 new Act fields. Unique fields. How does anyone on a practical level keep track of all that information?
When I see a situation like that, I wonder how in the world would they train a new employee to deal with all that information. How long would it take to learn? Where do you put all the fields that hold that information? In their case, they had approximately 15 tabs across the bottom of Act. Ultimately, all the work they had done through the years had corrupted some of their data.
If you are an Act CRM consumer, how do you know what you need to know about Act to have a good long-term experience with the software? Is it your obligation to learn about Act? Or is it the obligation of the makers of Act to make sure you know what you need to know? Most of the time a disaster like a lost or stolen computer, or a computer that crashes brought these questions to the surface for discussion.
If I was an Act software consumer, I would want to know what it is that is important to know as an Act software user. As an Act Certified Consultant, I have based my practice on keeping people informed about Act. It occurred to me that Act users need a list of best practices so their data is safe and protected. Your data is so valuable to you and it is vital that you protect it as best you can.
Here is my list of best practices that you should consider and implement as an Act CRM software user:
- Never forget Act is just a tool. Learn how to use it effectively
- Make note of your Act username and password if you use a password
- Make a note of your Act serial number: click on help and about Act to find that number
- Keep a record of all Act users, their usernames, and passwords
- Backup your Act database daily
- Learn how to set Act preferences
- Automate your Act backup using the Act scheduler tool
- Make sure the backup file, which is a zip file, is moved or copied off-site
- Learn when you should and shouldn’t upgrade your Act software
- Learn how to make an annual Act subscription a profit center
- Learn how to use Act on a mobile device
- Learn about Act on your mobile device options
- Befriend an Act certified consultant (me)
- Befriend top-notch Act technicians (me and my friend Michael (he knows everything)
- Learn about your Act support options (i.e., me and my friends at keystroke)
- Learn about orange care
- Partake in my Act clever training: Actclever.com
- Clients learn for free
- I use a tool/service called carbonite for that purpose
- Run routine maintenance on your Act database periodically
- Learn how to run an integrity check and reindex your database
- Learn how to remove old data from Act
- Learn why it is important to make a backup before you remove old data
- Always create a backup before deleting contacts from Act
- Learn how to create a duplicate contact to save time
- Learn how to import contacts
- Learn why the id status field is the most important field in Act
- The second most important field is the last email field
- On occasion, do a save copy as, to make a backup of your Act database
- When you have multiple users in your Act database, learn about security levels for users
- Learn how to add fields to Act and how to modify your layout to fit your business needs
- Learn why tables for Act might be a better alternative to creating lots of fields
- Ask me why tables for Act are so misunderstood and poorly explained
- Learn about Act CRM add-on products and tools that enhance the way you use Act
- Learn about Act marketing automation which is Act’s built-in email program
- Learn how to use Act and Microsoft outlook effectively
- Make sure you let Act software do what it was designed to do
- Learn how to find contacts that are slipping through the cracks
- Learn how Act tracks information automatically that could be very relevant to your needs
- Learn how to schedule and then clear Activities
- Learn how to use groups in Act
- Learn how to create group membership rules to keep data that is important right in front of you
- Learn how to do a lookup
- Learn how to do complex lookups in Act
- Learn how to save those complex lookups
- Learn about the differences between creating notes and creating histories in Act
- Learn the difference between the task list and the calendar
- Learn how to utilize the web info tab, one of the most overlooked features of Act
- Instead of purchasing an expensive server to host your Act data, learn about professional hosting options
- Learn how to use Act in a web browser
- Learn about reports in Act
- Learn how to find contacts to report on
- Learn about synchronization
- Learn about sales opportunities
- Learn about companies (note: think of companies as a summary of all that has occurred for all of the contacts at one particular company. For example, the ABC Company.)
- Learn how to automatically create companies
- Learn about Act and Microsoft Word