Emailing Personify Contacts using the Personify Outlook Plug-In

Emailing Personify Contacts using the Personify Outlook Plug-In

Using the Personify Outlook Plug-In, users can email specific Personify contacts without necessarily saving them as Outlook contacts.  Users can use the Search Personify option to find Personify contacts to add to the email, or, if users know the contact’s email address, users can simply type it in the To field.  If users chose to type the contact’s email address into the To field, if users select to save the email to Personify, the plug-in will check for a customer record in the Personify database to create a contact tracking record for.

Note:  If a contact does not have an email address in Personify, a contact tracking record cannot be created in Personify through the Personify Outlook Plug-In.  The plug-in searches both primary and non-primary email addresses.

When saving an email to Personify, the plug-in assumes that users want to create a contact tracking record for the Personify contact receiving the email AND for the staff sending the email.  In order for a contact tracking record to be created for the staff sending the email, the staff MUST have a customer record in Personify.

Note:  The plug-in does not change the maximum number of recipients on an Outlook distribution list.  Check with the email administrator (AOA Infrastructure team) regarding the limits of your email system.

To email contacts:

1.    On the Home tab of the Mail screen, click New Email.  A new blank email window displays.

2.    To search for and add a Personify contact to the email:

a.    From the Personify Actions section of the ribbon bar, begin typing your search into the Search Personify field.

Note:  Alternatively, select the Search Personify drop-down to display a list of previous searches.

Note:  This is a full text search; therefore, users can search on all name fields, employer, city, state, zip, and email address.  For example, instead of entering “Smith,” users could enter “Smith Missouri” to limit the results to contacts with the name ‘Smith’, in the state of ‘Missouri’.  Search terms must be three characters in length or longer.

b.    After typing your search, hit Enter to click the binoculars icon to the left.  The Search Personify Contacts window displays.  The search results display the following fields.

Note:  In order for a contact to display in the search results, the Option 2 field on the Types and Codes Maintenance screen for the customer’s CUSTOMER_STATUS code must be set to “Active.”

c.    By default, the Search Contacts radio button is selected.  If necessary, select the Search Committees or Search Company radio button.  The search results displays the same fields as when searching by contacts, with the addition of the Committee field with searching for committees.

Note:  When searching committees, if an individual serves on more than one committee that is searched on, that individual will be displayed more than once in the search results.

d.    If necessary, enter a different name into the Search Personify field and click Go.

e.    Click the Advanced Search hyperlink to display the Personify Advanced Search screen and narrow down the search results further.

f.     From the search results grid, select the appropriate contact(s) and click the To button.  The email is added to the appropriate field.

Note:  If you want to send an email to customers on a specific committee, click the Committee column header to sort by the customers by committee.  You can select multiple customers to add to the email by using the CTRL key on the keyboard.

Note:  If one or more of the selected contacts does not have an email address in Personify, only the contact(s) with an email address display in the To, CC, and BCC lines.  Emails cannot be sent to Personify contacts who do not have an email address in Personify.

g.    To add a carbon-copy (Cc) or blind carbon-copy contact (Bcc) to an email.  Select the appropriate contact from the search results grid and click the appropriate button.

h.    To add additional contacts, repeat the steps above.

i.      Click Ok.  The Search Personify Customers screen closes and the Untitled new email displays with the selected contact(s) email address(es) in the To, Cc and Bcc field.  Users can proceed to write and send the email at this point.

3.    Depending on the defaults defined on the Personify Account Settings screen, the rest of the fields in the Personify Actions section can be updated as needed.

a.    To save this email to Personify, which creates a contact tracking record for the contact, select the Save to Personify checkbox.

b.    If the email does NOT require any attention after it has been sent, check the Resolved checkbox.

c.    If the email is private, check the Private checkbox.  Checking this checkbox will mark the email as “Private” in Personify Actions section.  If the email is saved to Personify, checking this checkbox will mark the contact tracking record as “Private” in Personify and only the user and system administrators can see the contact tracking record in the back office.

d.    If necessary, select the Topic of the email from the drop down.

e.    If you selected a Topic, if necessary, select the Subject of the email from the drop-down.

f.     The Staff Assigned defaults to the user entered during the configuration of the account settings, if applicable.  If necessary, select a different staff person to be assigned to the contact tracking record in Personify.

4.    Click Send.  If you check the Save to Personify checkbox, the Contact Tracking screen displays.  Perform the following steps:

a.    Select the Communication Method from the drop-down.  If you select the save the email to Personify as a contact tracking record, this default value will be saved as the “Contact Type” in the Personify contact tracking record created.

b.    If necessary, check the Save Communication Method As a Default checkbox.

c.    Click OK.  A confirmation message will display.

d.    Click OK.