Additional Detail for Tracking Leads

[Battler45]

Vihar & Vihang,

I think that either one of you could probably address the following task.

In speaking with clients, they've indicated a few small (and relatively simple) pieces of additional information that we could track and eventually integrate into our Dashboard view:

1 - They would like to be able to set a flag when a lead's phone number is not valid. Meaning, in cases where they have tried to call a lead and discovered that the phone number the lead provided was bogus, they would like to be able to flag that in the lead's contact info so that it is easily noted when reviewing the lead's data. So could you please update the MLSUser table to include a new field for this flag?

2 - Same goes for the Email address -- can you add a new bit field to MLSUser that would allow the client to flag when a lead's email address is not valid?

3 - As far as displaying this flag to users in a way that they can modify, my thought is that, in the "Edit" area of the Primary Information section on the Lead Detail page, it looks like we have enough room to display the attached two images, one for "valid" and one for "invalid". Each image has an On state and an Off State.

What I'm picturing is placing the two images to the right of the "Tel" text field. By default, the "Valid" icon would be displayed in the On state, and the "Invalid" icon would be displayed in the Off state. By clicking the "Invalid" icon, it would update the database flag to show the telephone number as invalid, and the images would switch so that the "Invalid" icon now showed the On state, and the "Valid" icon now showed the off state.

On mouseover either of the icons, a tooltip would display explaining to the client the meaning of the icons. So, hovering over the "Invalid" icon in the Off state would display the tooltip message, "Click this icon to mark the lead's phone number as invalid," etc.

Please let me know if you think this would work. If so, identical functionality could then be implemented for the Email address.

Eventually, the goal will be to integrate these icons / statuses into both the Dashboard and the main Leads page to allow the client to easily identify which types of contact info are valid for which leads.

4 - Another feature that our clients would like is to more easily track what actions they have performed for which leads -- meaning, how many emails they have sent and how many phone calls they have made per lead.

This would require a few modifications to our existing setup:

• Addition of "NumPhoneCalls" and "NumEmails" fields to MLSUser table.

• In the "Note" functionality on the Summary tab of the Lead Detail page, inclusion of a new drop-down select box labeled, "Action Taken:" and the values "Select One" (default), "Email Sent", "Phone Call," and "Other." This select box would go below the text area but above the "Email This Note" line, and the label and select box can be all on one line.

The totals of the NumPhoneCalls and NumEmails fields would be updated accordingly. NumEmails would also update automatically any time a client used the "Email" functionality to send an Email to a lead using the CAA Email feature.

As above, the point here will be to eventually display this information both on the Dashboard view and on the main Leads page.

5 - Another change on the Lead Detail Summary tab would be the default visibility of Lead Actions.

By default, clients would like "Request for More Info" and "Schedule Showing" requests to be visible in the main column, so that it would only be Saved Listings and Saved Searches which would be hidden until the "Lead Actions" checkbox is selected.

6 - And (finally!) clients would like some way of flagging when "Request for More Info" and "Schedule Showing" requests have been responded to. I believe this would require a new flag field in the MLSUserInfoRequests table (probably TinyInt rather than Bit just to be safe).

Once this flag field is implemented, we will change the UI on the Summary tab to include a "Mark As Complete" button in the item that displays which listing the user requested info or a showing on.

Again, the point of this new functionality will eventually be to help the assess as quickly and easily as possible what actions are required of them when they log in to the admin area.

Please let me know if you have any questions about the above.

Thanks.

[Battler45]

Vihar,

Please try the attached image and let me know if it will work. This image is 24px tall, and the associated text fields are 28px tall, and so I think there should be enough room, but if not, let me know.

I've also committed this image to the repository and uploaded it to the development server.

Thanks. Thanks. Posted by Peskoe Ben(unfuddle username: bpeskoe)

[Battler45]

Ben,

Re. the UI to enable user to validate/invalidate phone/emails, I feel instead of displaying two separate images for on/off states, it would be better to display a single image indicating the current status. This will allow us to implement a UI fairly similar to the "availability" UI in that user could toggle the valid flag. Pls let me know if this makes sense. If it does, could you pls provide me an image depicting on/off stages and some space in the middle?

Thanks. Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

[Battler45]

Vihar,

Yes, I agree -- the same thought had occurred to me as well. I'll get that image prepared for you.

Thanks. Posted by Peskoe Ben(unfuddle username: bpeskoe)

[Battler45]

Ben,

I've updated the table schema to add new fields. I'm now working on updating the lead-details page to incorporate those changes. There are a couple of points:

1 -- In adding the "Action Taken:" dropdown in the "Notes" dialog, should users be forced to select one of the actions? I think it would be better to have the "Others" option selected by default. Also, should users be allowed to change this in updating the "Notes"?

2 -- Re. the display of "Request for More Info" and "Schedule Showing" actions by default - I think this would be difficult to achieve in the current setup. In the current implementation, lead's action display is governed by the "Lead Action" checkbox. Lead actions are retrieved only when the "Lead Action" is checked.

If we are to display RMI/ SS requests by default, they would have to be disassociated with the "Lead Actions" checkbox. This will however mean that those items couldn't be hidden by unchecking the "Lead Actions" checkbox.

An alternative would be to add another checkbox, "Lead Requests" which will control the display of lead's requests, and will be checked by default so that the RMI / SS requests can remain visible by default.

Pls let me know your inputs.

Thanks. Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

[Battler45]

Vihar,

RE: #1

1 - Yes, I agree. Rather than having a "Select One" option, we can leave that out and have "Other" as the main selection. That way, an option would always be selected (and so there would not need to be any additional validation on this option). I do think it's okay to allow this select box to be updated when the note is edited.

2 - I also think your suggestion about a new category, "Lead Requests" is a good one. It seems to me that this is warranted because the RMI and SS requests really are of a different priority and importance than the other items included in "Lead Actions," and so it's important for us to display them by default in the Summary tab.

Thanks. Posted by Peskoe Ben(unfuddle username: bpeskoe)

[Battler45]

Vihar,

I've also created the attached image to denote "invalid" next to email or phone number on the Primary Information section of the sidebar. In cases where the user has denoted the email address or phone number as invalid (on the edit screen) can you display this image to the right of that email address or phone number on the main (non-edit) mode of that screen?

Please let me know if you feel this image won't work, or if you have an alternate suggestion.

Thanks. Posted by Peskoe Ben(unfuddle username: bpeskoe)