If you have ACT! 2010 or 2011 and you’re not using the Web Info tab you are missing the banana boat as we say in Florida. And, if you haven’t figured out how to use the Web Info tab in conjunction with your favorite social networking sites, then you’re in for a treat.
An Act! consultant can get you up and running quickly so that you will soon be able to see the benefits of Act for yourself.
As the saying goes, I wish I had a dollar for every time an Act! user started the conversation with these words, “Karen, I am a long-time Act user.” In fact, there are millions of long-time Act software users out there because the Act! product has been around for over 30 years. And by the…
I recently discovered that the Lynda.com training library is available free of charge at most local libraries. And Lynda.com includes my Act! training videos. A number of years ago, I created a series of Act! training videos for Lynda.com. Lynda offers online training videos on just about any software product you can imagine including Act!.…
In the past I’ve shared one of my favorite Act! tricks which is to copy the holidays from outlook to Act! so that you’ll have them on your Act! calendar. You might want to review my past blog article because this is a quick way to populate your Act! calendars with holiday information. Act! has…
The Act! software is a great tool for businesses, but you may be having a hard time getting the most out of it. If you find your operation struggling with the expansive software, you should consider bringing in a certified Act consultant to assist you in operation of the software. These professionals are here to help…
Using Zapier to import data into Act! is an easy-to-set up method for adding information into Act! from your various other business sources. Zapier does this by performing ‘zaps’ that automatically collect useful data from commonly used applications such as PayPal, Woofu, and Slack and transferring that data into your Act! v18.1database. The most obvious…
Act! software can benefit any type of business. It’s never too late to get started building processes into your database that will make you more productive and profitable. Using your Act! database as an electronic rolodex and calendar is not a viable option, particularly if you find that contacts and opportunities are “falling through the…
Now that you have purchased Act! v17 for your business you may think that hiring an Act! consultant is a waste of time and money. The software does it all already doesn’t it? Wrong! Act! is only beneficial to your business if you utilize it properly, and that is what an Act! consultant can help you…
You’ve seen my posts about the benefits of bringing Act! CRM into the workplace, the help it can provide in customer management and organizing the office, and how it can not only save you money but increase it by making your business more efficient. You decided your business couldn’t do without it, so you bought…
Having written over a dozen books on CRM software, it’s not unusual for me to receive calls from CRM users who want to “jump ship” and move from one product to another. The reasons may vary but the bottom-line is that the user feels that the current solution “just isn’t working.” I know first hand…
Whether you’ve been using ACT! for years or are fresh in the game, there is always something new to learn. Now that you’ve upgraded to ACT! v17, you’ll need to make sure everyone on your team receives the proper training. Even a beginner can figure out the basics, but often times there are some fields…
Act v17 was release on October 23, 2014. E-marketing which means Act! users will have the ability to design and send e-marketing pieces in the newly designed editor and have more options for tracking their effectiveness directly within Act! . It also means that all users of Act v17 will receive a complimentary Act E-Marketing…
Many Act! users routinely head to the Export Wizard to send their information not realizing that there is a much easier method for exporting Act! data. You’ll find the Export Current List to Excel icon at the top of the Contact, Group, Company, Opportunity, History and Task List views. If the button is “greyed out”…
The Contact field can prove to be surprisingly confusing for both new and old Act! users alike. Although the field seems very straightforward at first glance, it contains a bit of “magical Act! functionality” that can prove to be either a help or a hindrance. Let’s start with the Salutation field. I often ask Act!…
One of my favorite Christmas carols is a parody called “The Bathroom Door Said Gentleman” (sung to the tune of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman.” During the course of the song we find out what happens when an unsuspecting male accidentally wonders into the Ladies Room because the signs had been reversed. I laugh every…
As most of you know the “C” in CRM stands for Contacts and that’s the focus of these clean-up tips. I see a lot of databases in a variety of formats (Act!, SugarCRM, Salesforce, Zoho) and I’ve made one assumption: the typical database consists of 25% “dead wood.” I define dead wood as: Contacts that…
I recently received this plea for help from one of my ACT clients: “Karen, we have added a couple of new people to ACT and they are up and running. As a disciple of your teachings, I created a customized “Opportunity Layout Screen”(OLS) which fits our business and includes new fields. All of our Team…
I came across a great post written by fellow ACT consultant M Scott Schaffernoth. I laughed for ten minutes when I read it and Scott kindly offered to share. Her Parts May Have Often Been Ditzy Blondes, But Marilyn Monroe Was a Smart Cookie and She Would Have Loved ACT! CRM It would have helped…
Last week I shared a story about an ACT! user who thought he had a major problem which turned out to have a rather easy, if not silly, answer. My second story involves an ACT! user who could not open his ACT! database; he kept receiving an error asking him to verify his user name…
Every year many of my clients ask me if there is a way to get holidays loaded into their ACT! database. Unfortunately, holidays do not come pre-loaded in the ACT! calendar. Obviously, some holidays such as the Fourth of July and Christmas are easy to add manually. However, other holidays such as Easter and Chanukah…
Last year I switched to a new publisher, PackT, after many years of writing the ACT for Dummies books. My new titles are called “Cookbooks.” Although you won’t find a great recipe for lasagne inside you will find dozens of easy-to-follow recipes that will help you master the more advanced areas of ACT. Packt Publishing…
Back in the days of ACT! 6 (was that really ten years ago?) my telephone message asked callers if they had recently “Compressed and Re-Indexed” their database. Back then, there was no way to automate this process although a reminder could be set to prompt a user to run maintenance. Unfortunately, many ACT! users either…
I often expound on the virtues of ACT! E-Marketing, formerly known as Swift Page E-mail. I thought I’d share a conversation with one of my clients who had some reservations about switching to ACT! E-Marketing from one of the “other guys.” “Hey Karen, I know you push ACT! E-Marketing. I use MailChimp and I’m pretty…
Hard as it is to believe, I’ve written over a dozen books on technology and created training videos for LinkedIn Learning. Trust me, writing is a labor of love. My “day job” is to help my clients utilize CRM software to make themselves – and their businesses – more efficient, effective and profitable. For me,…
The other day I was working with a client when his ACT! alarms window opened; I must say that the number of alarms he had was, well, alarming. He quickly clicked the Select All button, selected Snooze and put all the alarms to rest for the remainder of the day. Curiosity got the better of…
Many of you have been asking me when my next “ACT for Dummies” book is coming out. I’m pleased to announce that it’s here – although maybe not in the same format as you might expect. Anyone familiar with the publishing industry – or the local bookstore for that matter – knows that the industry…
The cookbook style is designed to give you simple steps to help you learn a new software feature. The recipes will show you how to create custom dashboards and reports, as well as utilize the new templates available in recent ACT! versions.
There are lots of cool shortcuts in ACT! that users take advantage of every day to make ACT! even more powerful than it already is.
Put yourself in the shoes of your prospects when designing marketing materials. What has more appeal – a sales pitch or useful information? Which one would entice you enough to open it and which one would be instantly deleted?
Two books on the ACT software program by Karen Fredricks have been selected by Packt Publishing for inclusion in their R.A.W. (Read As We Write) program.
I am currently working on two new titles for PackT – ACT! By Sage 2011 Cook Book and ACT! by Sage Reports and Dashboards Cook Book. I’m even more excited to announce that both books have been accepted into the new “RAW” (Read as we Write) program. RAW is a cutting-edge new program that enables…
Technology upgrades should be considered a necessary, recurring cost of doing business. You can’t run your business without a telephone and office supplies, and you shouldn’t be running a business with outdated technology. Ironically, technology is the single best way to lower the overhead of a business.
For those of you who might not be familiar with lynda.com I’d describe it as an online software school. You can take out a monthly subscription for roughly $25 a month which give you access to all of the courses including my own.
Today many of my clients are opting to use an online fax service such as MyFax or eFax with ACT.
This being Easter weekend I thought I’d share a couple of my favorite ACT Easter eggs. In case you’re not familiar with the term, a software Easter egg refers to a bit of hidden code in the software. Although these Easter eggs are all represented by fields and aren’t necessarily hidden, they do tie into…
For 5 years I ran an ACT Users Group in my hometown of Boca Raton, FL. It was a fun – although time intensive – endeavor. The meetings were typically attended by 25-50 “ACT Fanatics” who welcomed the chance to learn more about ACT as they munched on cookies. Currently I run a Virtual Act…