Sharing - how to keep your colleagues in the loop
Published Dec 15 2016 09:03 AM 9,115 Views
Microsoft

What would be relationship management, without knowing what your colleagues know about the customer? Using Outlook Customer Manager, you are able to create contacts, companies and deals that describe your relationships with your customer. Then you can share them with colleagues, who are also using Outlook Customer Manager, so that all of you have the same information.

 

How do you share?

Currently you can share contact, companies and deals. To share any of them, go to their details page and hit the switch at the bottom saying share.

 Holly works in the landscaping business. She and her colleague David communicate often with customers. She adds them to Outlook Customer Manager, directly when she creates them using the share button. That way David knows more about them, when he talks to them.Holly works in the landscaping business. She and her colleague David communicate often with customers. She adds them to Outlook Customer Manager, directly when she creates them using the share button. That way David knows more about them, when he talks to them.

On the grid you will see which ones are shared and which ones are private. In the details section you can see, who shared it.

 

Holly goes to see all her customers in Outlook Customer Manager. In the list, she can see directly who is shared with the group and who is a private contact.Holly goes to see all her customers in Outlook Customer Manager. In the list, she can see directly who is shared with the group and who is a private contact. 

You can find more information on how to share on our support pages

 

What happens when you share?

When you share, we will go in and distribute the information to everyone who is in the Outlook Customer Manager group and uses Outlook Customer Manager.

When anyone makes updates to these contacts, companies and deals, others in the group will see them. You and your colleagues will see updates in the timeline and the person doing the change. Files attached to the contact, company or deal, will show up in the Outlook Customer Manager group. So you can collaborate on them directly using OneDrive.

When looking at a contact, Holly notices, that David has updated the phone number. She can now be sure, she reaches out correctly to the customer.When looking at a contact, Holly notices, that David has updated the phone number. She can now be sure, she reaches out correctly to the customer.

 

Currently you will not be able share anything else, but we are working on enabling other options. Let us know on uservoice, what you want us to add.

 

When should you share?

If and when you should share, depends on your business. If you have anyone in your company, who benefits from it, you should share. Say you have an admin, that helps schedule times, share the data. If you and a co worker are working with the same client, you should share.

  

Let us know, what you think about the sharing feature in the comments.

 

 

9 Comments
Copper Contributor

Hi Miriam,

 

Thank you for this blog. I will start working with the feature and hope to be able to provide more in depth comments here later. I think it is great you told me you would have this before Christmas and you and your team actually pulled it off! Looking forward to using it.

 

I cannot understand why you only got three likes so far but I am sure this product will gain traction next year!

 

Kind regards,

Bram Heerebout

Copper Contributor

Can Outlook Customer Manager work with contacts in a shared mailbox?

Microsoft

@Charles Roddie  No we do not support that functionality. Feel free to add an idea in our user voice forum: https://outlook.uservoice.com/forums/407082-outlook-customer-manager 

Deleted
Not applicable

@Miriam Ney  When sharing a contact and/or his company, I understand that all my emails with that contact could now be seen by everyone in the team, right?  So what if I want to share that contact but want to keep some sensitive emails confidential? 

Or if my team required to share communications with that contact for logistics purpose while I need to keep it private due to strategic and sensitive related communications I am involve. Should we consider duplicate that contact, one shared and one private?  How can I ensure that sensitive information from my mailbox will not become public ?  

Thank you in advance for your input !

Microsoft

@Deleted Hi - good news (and some what bad...) - we are currently not sharing your emails with your colleagues. You are only sharing the information of the contact, such as phonenumber and email address. We are working on enabling sharing of emails and meetings. The current thinking is, that you will be able to decide, which emails and meetings you want to share. We currently do not know yet, when we can enable that feature though.  As for the private and shared contact, currently the only way is to keep two separate contacts.

Copper Contributor

@Miriam Ney It is a pity the sharing of emails doesn't work, but then again I am really happy to read you are working on it! However, please please please make sharing default or give me an option to set it to default. As I understand it, the customer manager is intended to keep track of your contacts in a business situation. If you have colleagues, then they will want to see the communication history right? If you don't have colleagues, then the sharing is irrelevant. If you have colleagues, but want to keep a conversation private, make that the exception. Or use a private mail address. That's what they do at White House ;)

Microsoft

Thanks @Bram Heerebout for your suggestions. :) Yes, this is definitely what we were thinking. Having an option to share automatically or manually one by one. 

Copper Contributor

Hi, I have a question / suggestion. For many small businesses, who are dealing with say 2 or 3 branch offices, it is required to share contact / email with only one branch / person. Is it possible to share selectively ? Maybe by creating multiple team / group for sharing. In my opinion it will be very useful feature especially for small businesses who do want all information to be shared with all employees. 

Copper Contributor

One more question related to my previous question. Is it possible that Admin can see all the contacts and deals without team member sharing it with entire team ? 

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