Email for History

I recently posted about using Gmail as an email history resource, and it works really well with a field in each contact/prospect record with the URL to the search.  However, some would immediately recoil, thinking about having to get that URL into every record in their CRM databases.

Well, it’s really easy, especially if you’re just getting started and about to import your records for the first time.  Once you have a .csv comma delimited export from your current system:

• Open the file as a spreadsheet
• Create a column and copy down all of the URL that’s common to every search, in Google it looks like this:  https://mail.google.com/mail/#search/
• After the last / is where the name of the contact is when you do a search as in:  https://mail.google.com/mail/#search/firstname+lastname
• You should have two columns for names of contacts, one for first name and one for last name.  If not, do a “text-to-column” data split to get them from the whole name.
• So, what you do is to create a column with a “+” replicated all the way down for every row.  Then you do a Concatenate command like this:  =concatenate(URL cell, FirstName cell, +Cell, LastName cell).  In other words, you’re telling this new cell and column to merge the data from four other columns, the URL common part, then first name, then the “+”, then last name.  You’ll end up with the complete URL for every record’s name in a column which you can then import right in with all of the rest of them.

You don’t even need to worry about whether you’ve ever traded emails with them, as the Gmail search will just turn up “nothing found” if that’s the case.  I got hundreds in all at once for one client.

Anyway, I wanted to be able to have a popup calendar in Excel sheets for fast date entry.  To get it, I had to buy an addon from a third party vendor.  Well, I just found that Google Spreadsheets has the feature for free.  First, the cell or column/row must be set up with date formatting.  Second, and the only tiny gripe I have, is that it must already have a date in it.  I’m not sure why that is, but it is.  So, I’ve set up the transaction task spreadsheets to load up for you with the current date in the date cells.

So, all you do is open a new sheet, enter the transaction name once, and the agent’s name once, pick the dates from a calendar for the tasks, and you’re ready to get it into the WebOffice system with six clicks and three minutes work.

I have developed spreadsheets at Google Docs that will allow you to quickly set up dates for a list of tasks by transaction type.  Then, you do a six click, three minute, export/import, and all of those tasks are in the system.   I have also developed four of them, one each for land and home, and by buyer or seller.

Keeping in the trend of moving my office online, I have been using Google Docs for some time for various things. In fact, my new netbook doesn’t even have MS Office, Word, or Excel installed. For those who want the spreadsheets, you can get them, with video instructions here.

Remember, the import of 50+ transaction tasks into this system can be accomplished in about six mouse clicks and three minutes. And, I’ve tried a lot of things, but find that getting my spreadsheet dates in beside each task is the fastest way to set up bulk transaction tasks.

I’ve tested the little known Google Forms function in Google Documents.  It’s great, because it allows you to build a custom form, then gives you the code to embed it into your website or blog.  This is something many services do, but this one is free, and it also does something else that helps me to get the information into my WebEx WebOffice databases with just a few clicks and no typing.

The Google Forms application saves the form input into a spreadsheet.  So, you design your form fields to correspond with certain fields in the Customer Relations Database in WebOffice.  Once new forms are submitted, they are automatically in a spreadsheet in Google Docs, and you are informed via email.

All you do is save that spreadsheet data file as a .csv (comma delimited) file onto your hard drive, then import it into your custom WebOffice database.  That’s maybe six or so total mouse clicks, and you can move in tons of data all at once.