Expanded Contact Information

Have you ever had a client that didn't have a cell phone number and couldn't reliably access the internet to check their email?

...

That was rhetorical. Of course you have!

Typically, we use the Contact Info tab on the Client Vitals screen to record the way we can contact our client, but the default options are out-of-date and fairly limited. Like, who has a pager or a fax machine these days?

What if I told you that instead you could make this tab way more useful?

The first thing that you'd need to do is modify your Digital Contact look-up table. Add any values that you want, such as "Friend's Phone" or "Facebook" or "Hangout Location" or "Whats App." Here's the important part: make sure that the roll-up value is set to "Web." Why's that, you might ask? Well, this field is validated. If you select one of the phone number options, it requires that you enter 10 digits with no other characters. If you select one of the email options, it requires that there be an @ symbol and no spaces. But the Web option isn't validated, which means it'll allow you to put in any variety of test.

You can put up to 200 characters in this field, although if you put in too much text it might display a little bit squishy. How long is 200 characters? Well just imagine you're writing contact information for your client Aladdin:

Can be found in the market district of Agrabah. Look for the florist's shop that is next to a bakery, then go around behind the building and climb the ladder to the 4th floor, then go to the left.

That, above, was 196 characters. Plenty of room to include a descriptive way to get in touch with your clients!

Want more information about effectively using the Client Information modules? Check out

ACRE Consulting’s Guide to Client Information in HIFIS