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posted 12/15/08 in All things TrackVia!We ended up going in and checking off about 500 or so of the contacts he calls the most - exporting it to Excel, and then uploading that into the Outlook on his phone. I can't say it was oodles of fun or anything. But he wasn't ever going to be able to use Trackvia itself on the phone without all this wild scrolling.
- posted 12/15/08 in All things TrackVia!
Actually, I'm not sure if the filter I wish Trackvia could run is possible. Now, I think the reason it's not possible is because it's a limitation of MySql databases, but still.
I wish I could run a filter that would pull up "last modified" or even better "last accessed date". The main reason I wanted to do a filter like that, is because I like to keep our database free of people who have been entered, and then after a year, their records haven't been accessed - so I could purge them - keeping our database down to a manageable size. If it ever becomes possible - well, I'll buy someone at Trackvia a pony, because that would be really awesome.
Anyway, just my 2 cents.
Roz
- posted 10/30/08 in All things TrackVia!
I wish they would do something like that. It's not something that my brokers are ever going to really do. They don't really use or understand Trackvia beyond "that program that has our clients phone numbers in it" and they do pretty good just to look someone up. I hope that at some point the "last accessed date" can be added, but until then, I'll see what I can do about talking them through it. The real issue is that in our office, only a few of us really see the value in the database and the data contained in it. Everyone else is too busy thinking about other things to mess with it beyond looking up a simple phone number. They just don't care.
Roz
- posted 10/29/08 in All things TrackVia!
Nancy, that is a great idea! You know, down here in New Mexico, our schools really struggle. I will see if I can get some insight on who handles that type of stuff at my daughters school here in Las Cruces - you never know, it might help them!
Roz
- posted 10/29/08 in All things TrackVia!
We built one like that for our website. It was remarkably easy to do, esp. if you have some basic knowledge of CSS. Just make sure to test it in all the browers and versions of browsers, we had to do a little tweaking to get it working right in IE6. Go figure.
Roz
- posted 10/29/08 in All things TrackVia!
That's a really good idea, I second that one. Kind of like when you're making airline reservations.
- posted 10/28/08 in All things TrackVia!
Hey Chris,
I was actually thinking about this the other day, and you're right, it's a great service. I rarely use it though. The reason I almost never do is because of what it takes to actually build an HTML email. If you're not very very careful about the coding, it just lands in their junk box by default.
Another thing I want to bring up is the opt-in and double opt-in. Obviously if you have a form on your website, you can have them opt in, but I do wish there were some way to have them double-opt in - not only to cover my butt, but to cover Trackvia's too. Getting blacklisted is not in my list of favorite things to unravel with ISP's.
So in short, while the HTML email thing is super duper convienient, because you can just run a view, and send the HTML email to a certain group of people or whatever, there are some things that I think could be improved.
I'm sure you guys are familier with some of the services out there that send HTML email for people. Most of them have integrated some sort of WYSIWYG HTML email builder. I think more people would use the HTML email feature of Trackvia, if only there were some easy way to build a code-correct email from within Trackvia itself. (Chris, I don't want to link or mention a site that is a competitor on the forum, but if you want to check out what I'm talking about, call me)
Roz
- posted 10/28/08 in All things TrackVia!
Gha. I did it. It does work. I hate blackberries. I wish he'd just get an iPhone. I really don't know that he'll be able to navigate to trackvia, do all the scrolling around to get to the search box, and get a name typed in without putting the rest of the public in danger while he's driving.
It's the Blackberry, not Trackvia though. Trackvia worked fine. The Blackberry is a POS.
Roz
- posted 10/27/08 in All things TrackVia!
Yep, custom views are the way to go. Run a report (or view as they are called) detailing what parameters in the records you wish to display.
For instance: Let's say you have a database, and one of your fields is "send newsletter". Go into views, and create a filter for that database that ONLY pulls records with "send newsletter" checked. Since Trackvia updated how you apply filters, this is SO easy to do. Save that filter, and then run it. Voila. Only the records in your database that have that option checked will be displayed.
For us, I'm in the process of cleaning up our database of over 6,000 contacts. Most of whom were either entered on a whim, or who we don't really talk to anymore. I put a field in called "Do Not Purge". Any time we get a call, or have to call a client, I make sure that checkbox gets checked in their record. At the end of the year, I will run a filter that seperates the records that have "Do Not Purge" checked from the ones that do not have it checked. From that, I will determine which records need to stay in our database, and which ones can be deleted.
Views and filters rock.
Roz
- posted 10/27/08 in All things TrackVia!
We have a Trackvia form on our website, which our clients or potential clients can enter their information into. That forms dumps that information into a Trackvia database, which we monitor and use to keep track of who is requesting what information. It also allows us to put those names in our newsletter database. All in all, it's a very efficient system!
Roz