Making the most of OneBoxBM - Client Management

This is part of a series of posts that’s designed to help you get the most out of OneBoxBM, to view the index click here.

In OneBoxBM client management is split between the client management area and the admin area.

To make your life easier, we’re only going to cover the client management area in this post, which includes:

• The New Client Editor
• The Client View
• The Client Search
• Shared Client Documents
• Excel Exports
• Client Boxes

(Prior to reading, we recommend first taking a look at the post around the 'Client Admin Area' as some of the fields use the data populated in said area.)

Note: We’ve also put together some useful help guides to help you manage your client data; we’ll reference the specific guides in each section.

Note: Throughout this series we'll often use a restaurant as an example, now OneBoxBM isn't a meal order/take away service; by which we mean that we don't offer a way to allow you customers to order from a menu.

We do however, still feel that we do have something to offer for those of who do run a restaurant.

So just how can you take advantage of OneBoxBM?

You can:

• Capture details from a customer who has a complaint.
• Capture details from a customer who has had an accident on your premises.
• Capture details from a customer who has been involved in an incident of your premises.
• Capture details from a customer who would like you to provide catering for an event.

In each scenario above, you will likely wish to capture all or some of the following:

• The customers name
• The customers contact details
• The customers address
• Any comments about why you've taken the customers details
• Any supporting documents

In this case, we're going to go with catering for a small wedding; close friends and family.

In our scenario, a couple has enquired about us providing drinks and a small hot and cold buffet for their wedding guests.

The New Client Editor

Note: You can view the relevant help guide for the 'New Client Editor' at the following link.

When first creating a new client/customer in OneBoxBM, your first stop will always be the 'New Client Editor'.

To keep things simple, the 'New Client Editor' will only prompt you for the key client details, such as:

• Client Name
• Client Group
• Client Status

In this instance we’re going to create our new client/customer under the 'Events' group and we're going to leave the status as 'New'

Note: 'Events' is a group that we have created for this example. The idea being that we can use this to filter our records via the search.

Upon the creation of the client/customer record, you will be presented with the 'Client View'.

The Client View

Note: You can view the relevant help guide for the 'Client View' at the following link.

Much of the day to day management of customer data will be handled within the 'Client View', which contains the following tabs/sections:

• Summary
• Details
• Contacts
• Locations
• Team
• Comments
• Documents

Now we've already captured our customers basic details as part of the client creation process, so we can move onto 'Contacts'.

Since they're a couple, we're going to take two sets of contact details. We're also going to make some notes against them so we can make sure that we contact the right person at the right time.

While we're going to be hosting the event on our premises, we still feel it's going to be useful the have a physical address for the customer.

We might be looking to offer a limited delivery service in the future, so it could prove useful to have an idea where our customers are located.

Now that we've captured the customers personal details, we want to make some notes about the event.

We're going to skip over the clients team at this point, as we haven't decided whether to take them on or not yet; we will revisit this in the client search section below.

To do this we're going to make some comments against their client record; this could include details of the event and any top level requirements.

As the manager is unavailable, a member of staff is taking the details so it can be reviewed by a more senior member of the team; not every event is a good fit for the business, so each event is going to be reviewed before bookings are confirmed.

Now all that's left to do is attach any documents we need to the client record.

In our scenario the customer is still flagged as being 'New', so we don't currently have any documents to attach. Once the event has been approved we're going to start capturing things like allergy and dietary requirements.

Client Search

Note: You can view the relevant help guide on searching for clients at the following link.

A member of staff who is authorised to review and approve the bookings has been notified of the event.

Prior to getting in touch with the customer, they're going to want to review the details.

To do this they need to search for the client record and open the 'Client view'.

If they have the reference number for the client, they can simply enter the number in the search field. Alternatively they can enter the clients name and/or use the various filters on the client search.

Once they've found the relevant record they can simply go through and review the details, making an additions and/or amendments necessary.

While reviewing the client record, they assigned two staff members to the clients team. The idea being that they would then be responsible for managing the event; this would include communicating with the client and making sure that everything was in order on the day.

Shared Client Documents

Note: You can view the relevant help guide on 'Shared Client Documents' at the following link.

In our restaurant example we have a number of shared documents stored in the 'Client Management' area.

This includes:

• Documentation around handling client data.
• Documentation around handling client complaints.
• Documentation around handling any accidents/incidents.
• Documentation around planning events.

With each type of document being listed under the appropriate category, like so:

• Handling Customer Data.
• Managing Customer Complaints
• Reporting Accidents/Incidents
• Planning Events

Each category contains multiple documents. Some of which will be used as a reference, others will be need to be filled in, there's also documents that will be sent out to customers.

In this instance we're going to be sending the customer details confirming their booking, we're also going to send some forms asking for further details about their allergy and dietry requirements; these will then be attached to the client record.

Excel Exports

Note: You can view the relevant help guide on 'Client Excel Exports' at the following link.

While you can access OneBoxBM from just about anywhere with an internet connection. We do recognise that there's time where you may wish to get data out of the system, so can:

• Print your customer records
• Email them to someone who doesn't have access to the sytem
• Import them into another system

Should you wish to do any of the above you can export a selection of client records to excel from directly within the system.

Not only that you can select which parts of the customer record to export, this allows omit certain sections of the customer records before they even leave the system.

While you can always open the Excel file and delete the parts you don't need, we feel it's in better keeping with GDPR as it minimises the risk of people accessing information they sholdn't really have access to.

Client Boxes

Note: You can view the relevant help guide on 'Client Boxes' at the following link.

One issue you may run into when searching client records is that you can't quite get a right results.

Lets take our restaurant as an example, you may want to export a list of clients to Excel for use in the kitchen.

You could go through a cycle of:

• Search for the relevant customers.
• Export the list of customers to Excel.
• Copy the list of customers from one Excel spreadsheet to another.

While this would work it's a little cumbersome, it's also going to be frustrating if you decide that you want to export additional data alongside each record; maybe you do need the contact information after all.

Alternatively, you can make use of 'Client Boxes' and build your own custom lists of clients/customers as you're searching your client records.

Each box will contain its own list of clients, with each box only containing one copy of each client; you can however have the same client in multiple boxes.

So going back to the restaurant, how does this work?

Well you could create a box called 'Clients To Export', which you then add records to as you're working through you list of search results. Once you've added all of the relevant client records you simply select the box from the 'Box' filter on the client search.

As we've already mentioned, since clients can be stored in multiple boxes, you could also create a 'Ongoing/Upcoming Events' box which could contain the clients that your going to be hosting events for.

We hope this gives you some additional insight into how to make better use of OneBoxBM to manage your client data.

In Summary

• The New Client Editor
  • Create new client records quickly and easily using the 'New Client Editor'.
• The Client View
  • Store multiple contacts and locations against each client record.
  • Specify which employees are responsible for managing each client and when.
  • Specify which employees are part of a clients team and when.
  • Capture additional comments against each client record.
  • Store a variety of important client documents against each client record.
• The Client Search
  • Search your customer records using a variety of search filters, including client group and client status.
  • Group your customer records by state, making them easier to manage.
  • Filter your client list down to only include records in a specific client box; not only that you can filter client records by their done/not done status in a custom client task list.
• Shared Client Documents
  • You can use shared client documents to store all of your key policy documents and any materials you may need to hand out to clients in one place.
• Excel Exports
  • Export a selection of client records, to Excel, from within the 'Client Management' area.
  • Select which parts of the selected client records to export, which not only saves you time but helps you stay more GDPR compliant.
• Client Boxes
  • Combine search results by creating custom client lists, making it easier to export your client records to Excel.
  • Combine search results by creating custom client task lists, making it easier to manage your client records within OneBoxBM.