Address Labels

[ashwken]

Any suggestions on how to generate Address Labels from Contact Records?

Some Background:

I've setup a UR database to track Real Estate Leads, here's my workflow - maybe this will help others, or others might suggest some improvements.

Leads primarly come in via email (from various listng publications in which we advertize), but some leads come in via phone or walk-in - let me focus on the email leads.

For each email lead I create a contact record in Outlook - the lead will consist of contact information and some details of the type of property desired. All of this information is copied from the email and pasted into the Notes field of the Outlook Contact Record. Specific Contact information is then Cut and Pasted into the various fields of the Contact Record, what remains in the Notes field are the specifics for the property desired. I assigned a Category to the Contact Record and Save it.

From Outlook - Contact view - I find the newly created record and send it to UR (in UR I have preslected the appropiate Folder for the Contact record recieved from Outlook). Generally, I will create a series of Contact records in Outlook from the same lead source, this allows me to select a group of Contact records in Outlook and send them all to the currently selected Folder in UR.

In UR I have setup a series of Folders called:

Process Leads - Lead Source

where Lead Source is the name of the Lead Source. This is the Folder I pre-select when sending Contact records from Outlook.

For the Process Leads folder I have setup a default child template that consists of an Item that is a Folder Type whose Title will be the Contact Name (LastName, FirstName), this Contact Name Folder also has a default child Folder whose Title is Date - Action Type.

From the folder Process Leads - Lead Source contains newly created Contact records recieved from Outlook. I select a Contact Record, press F2, then CTRL-C, then select the folder Process Leads - Lead Source, then Insert, then CTRL-V (names Folder with LastName, FirstName), then Enter. The newly created Contact Name folder sorts to the Contact Record of the same name. I then move the Contact Record to the Contact Name Folder - the Contact Record becomes a child of the Contact Name folder.

From Outlook I open the corresponding Contact Record and Select All and Copy the Notes Field (contains specs for desired property), go back to UR and paste into the Detail pane for the Contact Name folder.

Here's the structure so far:

Process Leads - Lead Source
+++ Contact Name Folder (LastName, FirstName)
++++++ Contact Record
++++++ Date - Action Type Folder

The detail pane for the Contact Name Folder contans the specs for the desired property or other text info regarding the contact.

This process is repeated for each of the Contact Records residing under the Process Leads - Lead Source folder until all the Contact Record have been moved to their respective Contact Name Folder.


The Next Step - Working with Property Specs:

From scratch paper I'll note the desired property specs and perform a search in our Multiple Listing Service (MLS) software. I'll review the returned search results and jot down candidate Listings numbers. Within the MLS search results I can then select a checkbox for the desired candidate Listings and either generate a printed report for mailing (USPS) or generate a link to a webpage (contains the Listing Reports for the selected properties) that can be emailed to the prospect.

A generated link to a webpage can also be setup to send me an email notification when the webpage is accessed.

Whether I send the Prospect a printed report or an email, I will also compose an email to myself that contains a generated link to the webpage, but without the email access notification. This allows me to have a record of what candidate properties I sent to the Prospect, this webpage will be opened in my browser then I'll drag-drop from the address bar to the detail pane of a Text Item in UR.

After sending the email to the Prospect, I'll go to the Outlook Sent Folder, select the sent email, and send it to UR - in UR I have set focus to the child folder Date - Action Type. After sending the email to UR I delete the email in Outlook.

From UR I will rename the child folder Date - Action type to the current date and Action type:

2006-11-11 - Email

I then add an Item Type Text, go back into Outlook and find the email I sent to myself (actually I don't send this email after composition, but merely File | Save, saves in InBox), open the link and drag-drop from browser to detail pane of Text Item. Then delete the email.

If I'm sending information via USPS, I've setup a couple of templates that are Item Doc Type that contain links to MS Word templates for corrspondence. This is nice because the actual document that you compose and print actually resides in UR.

After Processing the Lead I'll move the Contact Name folder to a folder called Leads - Processed.

If I recieve email notification that a Prospect has accessed the weblink I'll send this email to a child position of the Item Type Text, and move the Contact Name Folder to a Folder called:

Leads - Accessed Links

I have another folder called:

Leads - Working

which contains Contact Name Folders which I am actively working.

There are a couple of other top-level folders:

Leads - Removed (prospects request to be removed)

Leads - Bad Address (bad contact info)

Leads - Inactive (prospects that were active but have become inactive for various reasons).

Typical Folder Structure after processing or working:

Leads - Stage of Activity
+++ Contact Name Folder (LastName, FirstName)
++++++ Contact Record
++++++ 2006-11-11 - Email
+++++++++ Email (thread as children)
+++++++++ Text Item (List Link)
++++++++++++ Email Link Accessed Notification
++++++ Date - Action Type


Comments on Workflow:

This workflow is harder to explain than to practice, after working through it a couple of times it's not too bad - course I'm certainly open to suggestions on streamlining.

I need to build the Contact Record in Outlook because the MLS software looks to Outlook for email addresses.


Now, back to my original problem:

We have a new Brochure coming out (in house Listing publication of our current inventory) and I need to generate mailing labels for these contacts.

??? Search for Item Type Contact Record, export Contact fields to text, import to Word, Excel or database program ???

Have I made a mistake in keeping each Contact Record in it's own Folder and not storing them in a central Contacts Folder?

Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcome.


Later,
KenA

[kinook]

Right -- do an Advanced search for (Item) is Contact to find all contacts (regardless of location), then export to CSV, and import to Word, Excel, etc.