We all know that procrastination can get you into trouble. You can lose data if you don’t backup your computer/database, you can lose a customer if you don’t follow-up when you said you would, and you sure don’t want to be at a meeting at the wrong place on the wrong day or time. So what can you do? Act! to the rescue!
Use the Act! Calendar and Task List Have you ever gotten to the office and thought, “I know there was someone I was supposed to call” but you cannot remember who it was or what the call was supposed to be about? Take the guesswork out of your follow-ups - always schedule a task for the next thing you should do with a customer or prospect. I call it the Circle of Act! - you know, like the Circle of Life in The Lion King. When you have a conversation with a customer, there will almost certainly be a next step. Schedule that next step right then and there.
We, as humans, have a difficult time remembering who and when we should call them back or follow-up; especially when we talk with numerous people in one day. So a good practice is never put off what you can do now...use Act! to schedule an activity to call back or do that next thing. Oh yes, and don’t forget to make sure that you enter a short explanation reminding you what the call is about. There is nothing worse than getting on the phone and not remembering the reason you were calling.
Use the Act! Scheduler Your Act! Database is critical to your business so you do not want to lose the data nor do you want it to get corrupted. If you rely on your memory to do backups and regular maintenance, you will most likely forget...at least sometimes. And that one time you forget might be the one time that the worst happens and you could lose your data. Since we often forget to perform those important tasks ourselves, use the built-in scheduler. Here are some helpful hints to put your database on automatic.
- Backup your database - how often should you backup? The real question is, how much data can you afford to lose?
- Perform regular database maintenance - maintenance will help your database run faster and cleaner. Regular maintenance of your database is similar to keeping your car full of gas and the windshield clean.
- Automatically sync - if you have a remote database, you want the main database and the remote to be as close to the same as possible. Use the scheduler to sync on an hourly basis.
Where is the scheduler? If you go to your Windows programs menu, one of the items under Act! is the Act! Scheduler. Run that and schedule a time for each of the above tasks as appropriate. One reminder...if you change your database password, you will need to change it in the scheduler as well.
Close your programs when you are done for the day Finally, make sure you close out of Act! when you leave the office for the night. Your act! database (and, for that matter, any database or file) can be susceptible to loss or corruption if you have a power glitch while that file is open. This is especially true if your computer is set to automatically update Windows...which often results in a reboot and a potential loss of an unsaved document.
Protect yourself by setting up reminders, scheduling backups and closing out of your programs. If you spend a little time on the front end, you will not have to worry down the line.