How to record and manage client activity

Good client relationships depend on everyone knowing what has already been said. Client Activity is where that lives. Instead of important details sitting in one person's inbox, every conversation is recorded against the client, so anyone in your agency can pick up where a colleague left off.

There are four types of activity, each with its own tab:

Notes: anything worth remembering that is not a call or an email
Calls: a record of a phone conversation and its outcome
Emails: a record of an email you have sent or received
Tasks: work that needs doing, managed on a simple board

Every entry can be viewed, edited and archived, and every entry keeps its own audit log, so you can see who changed it and when.

Before you begin

You need permission to manage clients. See Who can create and manage clients in Agency Accelerator.
Check the client's contacts are up to date. The people you call and email are the contacts set up for each site in Site Management.

Finding Client Activity

Select Clients in the left hand menu.
Choose the client from the list on the right of the screen. You can search by name or reference number in Search Text, use the filter icon, or move through the pages at the bottom.
Select the Client Activity icon (the activity line) in the column of icons beside the profile. Hover over an icon to see its name.

The panel opens on the ALL tab, showing every activity for that client in one timeline, newest first and grouped by month.

Getting to know the screen

A few controls sit above the timeline:

ALL, NOTES, EMAILS, CALLS, TASKS: switch between all activity and a single type.
Search: find an entry by its title.
The activity type filter (set to All to start with), Filter by User and Filter by Date: narrow the timeline down, for example to everything a particular colleague logged last month.
Clear All Filters: go back to the full timeline.
Contact Details: open the client's contact list.
Add new: record a new note, call, email or task.

Each entry shows who created it, the date and time, and a coloured tag for its type. Calls and emails carry a second badge: the outcome for calls, such as left voicemail or Connected, and inbound or outbound for emails. Select View Details to expand an entry.

Checking the client's contact details

Before logging a call or an email, check you have the right person.

Select Contact Details above the timeline. The window lists each contact held for the client, with their name, email address and contact number.
Check the contact type to see what each person handles, for example Billing Related or Operations Related. A contact can have more than one type.
Select the X in the corner to close the window.

Contacts are added and changed on each site in Site Management. See How to set up a new client.

Adding a note

Notes are best for anything that does not fit neatly into a call or an email, such as a change of circumstances, a preference the client has mentioned, or a summary of a meeting.

Select Add new, then choose Note.
Enter a Title. Keep it short and specific, so colleagues can tell at a glance what the note covers.
Write your Description. The toolbar lets you format the text as you would in a normal document, including bold, italics, colour, links, images and lists.
Select Create. Your note appears at the top of the timeline.

Tip: Write notes as if the client might one day read them. Stick to facts and agreed actions rather than opinions.

Logging a call

Log a call as soon as you put the phone down, while the details are fresh.

Select Add new, then choose Call.
Complete the Recipient Name and Recipient Contact Number.
Set the Date Sent to the date the call took place.
Choose the Call Outcome, for example Connected or left voicemail.
Use the Notes field to record what was discussed and anything you agreed to do next.
Add any files under Upload Attachments.
Save the entry.

Logging an email

Logging an email keeps important correspondence with the timeline rather than in one person's mailbox.

Select Add new, then choose Email.
Complete the Recipient Name and Recipient Email Address.
Set the Date Sent.
Choose the Email Direction: Outbound if you sent it, Inbound if the client sent it to you.
Enter the Subject, then paste or type the Email Body.
Add any files the email included under Upload Attachments.
Save the entry.

Managing tasks

The TASKS tab works as a board rather than a timeline, so you can see at a glance what is outstanding for this client. There are three columns: To do, In Progress and Completed.

Each card shows the task's priority, its name, a short description, the due date and the initials of the people it is assigned to.

Creating a task

Select the + at the top of the column you want the task to start in, or select Add new and choose Task.
Enter the Task Name. Make it an instruction, such as "Call Jonathan to get feedback on the last job".
Set the Due date.
Choose one or more people under Assignee.
Set the Priority: Low, Medium or High.
Set the Status, which decides which column the task sits in.
Add a Description and any supporting files.
Save the task.

Moving a task along

You cannot drag a card between columns. Instead, select the ... menu on the card. It gives you four options:

View Details: open the task in full
View Audit: see who has changed the task, and when
Edit Details: change any of the task's details
The next stage, such as Completed: move the task into that column

Viewing, editing and archiving an entry

To view an entry in full, select View Details on it, or open it from the ⋮ menu on the entry. A panel slides in from the right with everything that was recorded. Select Update at the bottom to move straight into editing.

To edit an entry, select the ⋮ menu, choose the option to edit it, change the details and select Save Changes. You can remove an attachment with the X beside its name, or add another with Click to upload. Every change is recorded in the entry's audit log.

To archive an entry, select the ⋮ menu and choose the option to archive it. The entry disappears from the timeline. Switch on Show Archived above the timeline to see archived entries again.

Please note: Archiving is not the same as deleting. Archived entries remain part of the client's history and can still be opened and read.

Checking an entry's audit log

Every activity keeps its own audit log, so you can always see how an entry reached its current state.

Select the ⋮ menu on the entry.
Choose the audit log option.

The log lists changes newest first, grouped by date, with who made each one and what they changed, showing both the old and new wording. It cannot be edited, and nothing is ever removed from it.

For changes to the client's profile, sites, billing and rate cards, see Track changes to client profiles and rate cards.

Good habits worth adopting

Log it the same day. An entry written a week later is rarely as accurate.
Use titles that make sense to others. "Rate increase agreed for Bedford" is far more useful than "Update".
Turn agreements into tasks. If a call ends with you promising to do something, create a task with a due date before you move on.
Filter rather than scroll. On a long standing client, Filter by Date or the activity type filter will find what you need much faster.

If something looks wrong

An entry has disappeared. It may have been archived. Switch on Show Archived.

A contact is missing from Contact Details. Add them to the right site in Site Management.

You cannot add or edit activity. You may not have permission to manage clients. Ask your agency's main user to check your access.

If something still does not look right, contact our Support Team with the client's name and reference number.