How to Set a Customer's Default Engineers and Holds
The Defaults & holds section of the customer screen holds the defaults for a customer's calls and the holds that mark a customer's account as on hold. Open the customer from Customers and select Defaults & holds under Service in the sections rail on the left of the customer screen.
Where do I set a customer's default engineer?
Set it on the Defaults card of the Defaults & holds section of the customer screen, then save the customer. There are two defaults, one for each way a call is raised, and a default service.
- Open the customer from Customers.
- Select Defaults & holds in the sections rail, under Service.
- Choose an engineer in Default engineer — contract calls, for calls raised under a service contract.
- Choose an engineer in Default engineer — manual calls, for calls logged by hand.
- Choose a contract in Default service for logged calls, if the customer has one.
- Select Save at the top of the customer screen, or press Ctrl and S together (Ctrl+S).
Each list starts with — Not assigned, which is what a new customer has; choose it to take a default away.
Default service for logged calls lists only this customer's own service contracts, so it is empty apart from — Not assigned for a customer with no contracts, and always for a new customer that has not been saved yet. The contracts themselves cannot be opened in ABM Service in this version: Contracts, under History in the customer screen's sections rail, is marked later, so the list's names are all ABM Service shows of them.
The two Default engineer lists offer only active engineers, the same engineers the Scheduler shows.
These three defaults are saved on the customer, but in this version of ABM Service logging a call does not apply them: a call logged with Log a call gets no engineer and no service contract from the customer's defaults. Use Schedule engineer on the call screen to choose who goes.
How do I put a customer on hold?
Turn on the hold you need on the Holds card of the Defaults & holds section of the customer screen, then save the customer. Each hold is a switch, and four of the six have a line under them saying what they are for.
- Open the customer and select Defaults & holds in the sections rail.
- Turn on the switch for the hold, for example Stop log calls.
- Select Save at the top of the customer screen.
To take a customer off hold, turn the same switch off and save. Nothing is saved for anyone else until you save; the Unsaved changes bar shows you have something waiting, with Discard to undo it. On your own screen the hold's chip appears beside the customer's name as soon as you turn the switch on, before you save.
A hold that is on shows beside the customer's name in the header of the customer screen, whichever section is open, and a switch that is on is coloured so it stands out from the ones that are off.
What does each customer hold do?
The Holds card in Defaults & holds has six switches. The line under each one is the screen's own description. In this version of ABM Service, a hold is a warning people see beside the customer's name: logging and changing calls in ABM Service do not check any of them.
- Stop log calls — the screen says "New calls for this customer are refused". ABM Service does not refuse them yet: a call can still be logged for the customer, and the Stop log calls chip beside the name is the warning.
- Stop edit calls — the screen says "Existing calls become read-only". ABM Service does not lock them yet: the customer's calls can still be changed and saved.
- In arrears — "Said, not enforced — a warning chip". It marks the customer as behind with payments so people can see it; it does not stop any work.
- Service invoice hold — "Dockets are not invoiced".
- Service quote hold — the customer's hold on service quotes. The screen gives it no line of its own.
- Service credit note hold — the customer's hold on service credit notes. The screen gives it no line of its own either.
All six start off on a new customer, and more than one can be on at once.
Where will people see that a customer is on hold?
A hold that is on shows as a chip beside the customer's name in the header of the customer screen, whichever section is open. Hover over a chip to read, for example, "Stop log calls is on".
The header chips use short names: Stop log calls, Stop edit calls, In arrears, Invoice hold, Quote hold and Credit note hold. So Service invoice hold on the Holds card is Invoice hold in the header, and the same for the quote and credit note holds.
On the customer map on the Calls and Scheduler screens, a customer with Stop log calls or Service credit note hold on is marked On hold, so a dispatcher sees it before sending anyone to the site.
If a customer shows a hold you did not expect, open Defaults & holds on that customer to see which switch is on, and ask whoever looks after the account before turning it off.
ABM Service has no list of every customer on hold. The Customers list has no column or filter for the holds, so a hold is seen one customer at a time: beside the name on the customer screen, and, for Stop log calls and Service credit note hold, as On hold on the map when the customer has work showing there.
Can I set defaults and holds on a new customer?
Yes. Defaults & holds opens on a new customer as well as a saved one, and the defaults and holds are saved with the customer when you select Save customer. The one exception is Default service for logged calls, which offers nothing but — Not assigned until the customer has been saved and has service contracts of its own.
You can also show any of these switches and lists on the customer's Overview, if your Overview layout includes them. They are the same settings wherever they appear: a hold turned on from the Overview is on here too.