During lead qualification, the lead contact information is automatically used to create or update a contact. This is a nice feature as new information is provided via multiple contact inquiries or leads. A different phone number or perhaps a better spelling of the contact’s name is useful to update the contact record. However, as lead inquires go, some information is not always desirable or suspect. Having the lead contact info values overwrite the contact’s info automatically may be not be desired. A user will want the lead to be linked the contact, but only select or no data may be desired to update the contact. The preservation of contact data integrity is my concern. I can foresee contact information getting overwritten unknowingly when just linking leads to contacts without some tools or transparency.
- On a lead by lead instance (don’t want to turn off the entire process), how can the user control 1) whether or not the contact is updated during qualification 2) whether certain fields are updated…such as manual merge tool?
- I have reviewed the Lead Qualification 7.8.0 process job and found the ProcessContact() script reference. Is there any documentation on what this exactly does, what fields are updated, and its rules for updating the contact?
- I also see the system setting CreateAccountOnQualification, but again, I don’t want to turn off the entire process, just manage the merging better or optimally per lead.
- I am also curious as why the lead’s address is always created as a contact's secondary address? This is inconsistent with the Contact import process (which have another thread discussion). Any options here to target the primary and make decisions if it should update an existing contact’s address or add as a secondary address?
Steve
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Dear Stephen,
According to the system logic, you can add the existing contact/account or create a new one using the contact/account profile. (see the screenshot below)
If you do not choose here any record and Contact name or Account name fields are filled in, then during the Qualification process a new contact or account will be added automatically.
The system will look for the duplicated contacts or accounts according to the rules that are set up under the System designer – Setup duplicates rules:
Then if the similar contact exists, you will see it in the Contact profile and you need to choose it manually.
Please get more detailed info about this process on our academy following this link: https://academy.bpmonline.com/documents/sales-enterprise/7-10/lead-qualification
The sytem doesn't look for contacts/accounts duplicates and doesn't connect them to the leads automatically during the lead management process.
You can connect the existing contact or account to the lead manually using the [Select from similar] option or a new contact/account will be automatically created during the qualification process if you fill in Contact and Account name fields.
The more info can be found here: https://academy.bpmonline.com/documents/marketing/7-8/leads-faq#XREF_10095
Regarding the CreateAccountOnQualification, it is a system setting that allows to configure the creation of account during Qualification. By default a new account will be created if the box is checked.
There is no detailied documentation of what every process element is responsible for. You can understand the basic logic of the lead management process reading the articles of how it works.
Best regards,
Lily
Yes I understand the Lead Qualification process doesn’t select the contact. You pick contact or as you have shown, you can pick from suggested contacts or the contact is created for you if none picked. (The Lead Qualification business process has a step referring to linking the contact to the lead). This is not really about finding a contact but how it’s updated.
What if you want to pick the contact but NOT have the contact auto updated via this qualification process? I assume this is not possible on a lead by lead basis or any field by field resolution with the existing process. I would need to disable the default process and create a modified version to handle a different lead to contact merge strategy. This also includes the behavior of creating secondary addresses automatically as well. Unless the address matches exactly, a contact will get additional addresses added for every instance a lead is qualified. A solution likely involving development code I suppose.
I am not saying the current process is broken, it works great, but I hoping for some native system settings etc.. to use this process more surgically rather than customize and replace it
Steve
Dear Stephen,
Thank you for clarification. For now the only way to modify the lead management process is to disable the built-in process and substitute it with the custom one. You can either copy the basic process or create your own process from scratch to manage the leads. There are no any system settings that can regulate the process.
Regards,
Lily
Dear Stephen,
Regarding these process elements, you can open the methods of the process used in this script tasks.
The logic of the contact/account info update is set in this code so that the development skills are requiered to read it properly:
Best regards,
Lily
Thanks..I was hoping for some setting(s) that I may haved mised. So the custom route is needed. I'll take a look at the code, I didn't find the guts of function until your posting.
Steve