Action Items

Action Items are templates that contain instructions on how to perform an action such as send Email, or deliver a voice broadcast. Action items alone can't do anything, they only execute when assigned a contact. Action items can be assigned to contacts by simply dragging the Action Item onto a contact or group of contacts. Campaigns and the scheduler can also assign action items to contacts.

Currently there are 5 Action Item types: Email, Voice, Fax, SQL and Dynamic.

ACTION ITEM CONTENTS:
(Click Topic to view more info. Click Back button to return to here).

Create New Action Item

Scheduled Action Item

Execute/Assign Action Items to Contacts

Common Attributes with All Action Item Types

Email: Use this Action Item to send Emails to a group of contacts. The Emails can be in HTML or text format and may contain attachments. You can send the Email using Outlook Express or directly via SMTP.

Voice: Use this Action Item to call a group of people and deliver a "voice broadcast" via telephone. You can define what you want the caller to hear, time of day to allow calls and what to do if nobody answers or the call fails. Once a call is made, control is sent to a controlling mailbox defined in the voice Action Item setup. The controlling mailbox defines what options are available to the caller and whether or not you want to detect voice mail or use voice recognition.

SQL: Use this Action Item to modify a group of contacts based on some criteria. SQL stands for Structured Query Language and provides a very powerful interface to the data ContactTalk uses to manage your contacts. Don't let SQL scare you, we have created a very simple "wizard" that helps you create simple SQL statements that can do very powerful things. You might use an SQL Action Item to modify a date field for all contacts who live in Texas and California.

Fax: This Action Item is still in development.

Dynamic: The dynamic Action Item is used to execute other Email, Voice or SQL action items against groups or individual contacts based on some criteria. The criteria can by almost anything. For example if a new customer has just entered the contact list, a dynamic Action Item can automatically send them a follow up Email. If 20 days pass and they are not a paid customer, then a second dynamic Action Item detects this and sends a different Email. Further, if 30 days have passed perhaps you want to send them a voice broadcast to make sure they got the first two Emails. This is a scenario dynamic action items are designed to handle. They are extremely flexible and can handle many types of scenarios.

How to Assign Contacts to Action Items

1.	Assigning Action Items to contacts is as simple as dragging the Action Item onto the contact or the contact group. To see an example click here.

You can also assign contacts to Action Items using the scheduler. To do this, drag a contact or group of contacts onto any time slot in the scheduler to create an event. Now drag an Action Item onto the event you just created. Now when that event fires the Action Item will execute against the contacts or group of contacts contained within the scheduler event. Click here to see an example.

3.	You can also assign contacts to Action Items using campaigns.