How to Choose the Contact for a Call
The Contact name on a call is the person who reported the problem or who the engineer should ask for. On the call screen's Details form, Contact name is a list of the customer's contacts that is still a text box: pick one of the customer's people and their phone numbers and e-mail are filled in for you, or type any name you like.
How do I pick the contact for a call from the customer's contacts?
Select the Contact name box on the call screen's Details form, or the small arrow at its right-hand end, and choose the person from the list of the customer's contacts that drops down. Their name, e-mail and phone numbers go into the call's contact fields.
- Open the call, or start a new one and pick its customer first.
- Select the Contact name box in the customer and contact card of the call screen. The list shows every contact of the customer, each with their e-mail and phone numbers on a second line.
- Type a few letters to narrow the list, if it is long. Every word you type must appear in the contact's name, e-mail or phone numbers, in any order, so "mary walsh" finds a contact listed as "Walsh, Mary", and a phone number typed without spaces still finds it.
- Choose the contact with the pointer, or with the Up and Down arrow keys and Enter.
- Select Save at the top right of the call screen (or Save call on a new call).
With the keyboard, press the Down arrow key in the Contact name box to open the list; press Escape to close the list without choosing. The foot of the list reads "Contacts of" the customer's name, then "· or type a name". A contact who belongs to another customer and is shared with this one is marked Shared with the other customer's name.
The Quick call card on the Scheduler offers the same list of the customer's contacts.
What does picking a contact fill in on a call?
Picking a contact on the call screen fills in four fields from that person's details: Contact name, E-mail, Phone (their business phone) and Mobile. Anything the contact does not have is emptied, so the call never mixes one person's name with another's number. A small person mark appears in the Contact name box, and pointing at the box says "One of the customer’s contacts — type over the name to use somebody else".
- The name is written the way the customer's contact list writes it, often surname first.
- When a contact keeps several e-mail addresses, the call takes the first one.
- Each value is cut to the call's own limits: Contact name 50 characters, E-mail 60, Phone and Mobile 25 each.
On a new call, choosing the customer first puts the customer's own phone number and accounts e-mail into Phone and E-mail when they are empty. Picking a contact then replaces both with the contact's own.
The call remembers which of the customer's contacts it is for, and keeps that link when you save other changes to the call. The Unsaved changes bar calls a change of contact "Contact".
Can I type a contact name that is not on the customer's list?
Yes. Contact name on the call screen is still an ordinary text box: type any name into it, for example a caller who is not on the customer's contacts, and save the call as usual. While you type, the list shows only the contacts that match, and closes when none do; nothing has to be chosen from it.
Typing over a name you picked from the list means the call is no longer linked to that contact: the person mark goes, and the name you typed is kept. Phone, E-mail and Mobile keep what they held, because changing the name does not say the number is wrong. Changing Phone, E-mail or Mobile on their own keeps the link to the contact you picked.
If the customer has no contacts on file, the list says so, for example "… has no contacts on file — type the name."
The Contact name is required: saving without one says "Name the contact."
How do I clear the contact, or change the customer, on a call?
Point at the Contact name box on the call screen and select its × button (Clear the contact). It empties Contact name, Phone, E-mail and Mobile together and removes the link to the contact, so you can start again.
On a new call, selecting Change beside the customer takes the customer off the call. A contact you picked from that customer's list goes with it, all four fields included, because they were that customer's person; a name you typed yourself stays. Once a call has been saved, its customer cannot be changed.
Changing the contact on a call never changes the customer's own contacts. To add or correct a person on the customer's list, open the customer and use their Contacts section. A call screen reads the list once, while it is on screen: a call opened afterwards shows the change, but a call that was already open, for example in another tab, shows it only after you leave the call and open it again.
Why does the contact list say "Pick the customer first" or not load?
The contact list on the call screen belongs to the call's customer, so it has nothing to show until the call has one. Each message at the foot of the list means:
- Pick the customer first. The new call has no customer yet. Choose one in the Customer box at the top of the form; you can still type a name meanwhile.
- Loading the contacts… The customer's contacts are on their way; the list fills in a moment.
- The contacts could not be loaded. ABM Service could not read the list, for example because the connection dropped. Select Try again beside it, or type the name.
If the person you picked is removed from the customer's contacts before you save, the save is refused with "The contact is not one of this customer's contacts." Type the name instead, or pick another of the customer's contacts, and save again.