Tour-Operator Reservation System for Tailor-made Holidays
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Documentation: Client screen

Introduction

A client is any person or agent who has requested a brochure, a quote or booked a holiday. The client screen is not generally appropriate for storing hoteliers/suppliers details - these are stored in the Location tree .

A client must have a minimum level of contact information set in order to be retrievable - the precise requirements are agreed when a tour operator first starts using the system

Adding a new client

Before adding a new client, you should always double check that the client is not already listed in the system  by following the "Retrieving a client" instructions below. This ensures that future updates do not only later one version of a clients address, that the clients "May Contact" preference is always correct, and that all quotes/bookings for the client are shown against the one client entry.
The system makes some checks when a client entry is added to see if the client already exists, but it is not possible to do this reliably.
  1. Click on "Menu" in the Application Tabs
  2. In the Client box click the "Add new client" button
  3. Note the "New client is not yet saved" message below the client toolbar and "* New" in the Application Tab title
  4. Input at least the required data as preferred by your tour operator. This will include the Client Type, Contact Preference, full name, and typically at least one email address or phone number.
  5. Press "Save" on the client toolbar
  6. Note that the "New client is not yet saved" is no longer there, and the Application Tab title has changed to the clients name - the client details are available to be retrieved at a later date
  7. Update any other required details and press "Save" again - this step can be merged with step 4.
  8. The Client screen can now be closed using the 'X' in the Application Tab
  9. If some details are unsaved (e.g. you did not enter enough details in step 4, or have not pressed "Save"), you will be asked to confirm closing the client screen without saving.

Adding a new client from an incoming email

When you receive emails in a standard format (e.g. generated from your tour-operator website), it is possible to drag the contents of the email into TORS to have the client contact details automatically imported.
  1. The email format must already have been provided to the TORS support staff
  2. Open the email
  3. Copy and paste all lines of the email that contain client details - it doesn't matter if there are other lines in-between
  4. Drag the highlighted text onto the icon in the client Search box on the Main menu
  5. A New Client tab will be opened with the relevant contents of the email inserted
  6. Check the details and complete any missing information
  7. Save the client Record
  8. From the Holidays dropdown, select 'Add new quote' to start the quote for this client

Preventing Duplicate Entries

Avoiding duplicates is helpful to ensure that the clients contact preferences and updates are honoured, and that all quotes/bookings for a client are found against a single client record. When a new client is added some automated checks are made to ensure that the client does not already have an existing entry in the system. 

The check made is for a given phone number or email address having been already entered for an existing client in any of the 
phone/email (as relevant) fields; for a phone number, spaces are removed from the numbers before comparison. 

If an existing entry is found, an error ("DuplicateClientEntryError") will be shown, preventing the new record from been saved. The client id's for the existing clients will be shown - follow the instruction for Retrieving a client below to open those records and determine which record to use. The duplicate check is not made when updating an existing record.

Instead of entering the clients full details, only to find that there is already a client record, it is often preferable to search for the client first - the Holiday screen Client Assignment window provides a Search option as well as the New Client button for this reason.

Retrieving a client

  1. Click on "Menu" in the Application Tabs 
  2. Put the clients surname (or as below) in the box to the left of the go button
  3. Optionally pick an action in the "Needs Action" selector - See "Client Actions" and "New Brochure requests" below
  4. Click the go button
  5. All clients matching the search are found - use the Match selector in the Client toolbar to find the required client
  6. If no clients match the search (or need the chosen action), a message will display "NoMatch"
  7. You can update the client data, print labels, etc as below
  8. When done, click the 'X' in the Application Tab to close the Client screen
Name search: there are various special values which enable you to search more or less precisely than an exact surname
  • "surname,initial" - find clients with surname "surname" and firstname beginning with "initial" - initial may be more that one character
  •  "surna%" - find clients whose surname starts with "surna"
  • "surna%,initial" - clients whose surname starts with "surna" and firstname begins with "initial"
  • "%name" / "%name,initial" - clients whose surname ends with "name" / and with firstname starting with "initial"
  • "1000" - the one client whose unique system ID is 1000. 

Advanced Client Search

To find a client using more than just the clients name or id, use the advanced search option.
  1. Select the Main tab
  2. In the Client search Panel, click the Options triangle (top right) and select 'Advanced search'
  3. The usual Client input/display screen is shown; enter values in the fields to be searched ('%' wildcards can be used as above)
  4. Press Search
  5. Any clients with values that match all the fields completed in step 3 will be found - use the match selector in the toolbar to move between the matches
Phone number and email matching : A phone number entered into any of the phone fields will be matched against any phone numbers set for a client, not just the field it is set in, but only one phone number can be provided; In addition, the phone search ignores spaces in the phone numbers. This also applies to email addresses (except that spaces are not ignored).

For instance, to find all agents with tag "FOO", in Step 3 select Client Type 'Agent' and enter "FOO" into the tags field.

Retrieving client contact list for use in external newsletter system

To use an external newsletter system it is required to export all contact addresses from TORS.travel and import them into that system. When sending mail to your customers using that system the may_contact flag that is part of the exported/imported data must be honoured in order to comply with relevant data-protection laws.
The normal export format, which will be understood by most, or probably all, newsletter systems is CSV.
To export all addresses in the TORs.travel database do:-
  1. Select the Main tab
  2. In the Client search Panel, click the Options triangle (top right) and select 'Export all Emails'
  3. The CSV file will be downloaded (a prompt may be shown asking where it should be saved)
To export just a selection of clients, use normal or advanced search to find the selection, then export as usual, and select the Emails and CSV export options (alternatively it may be better to select the required clients using your newsletter targeting system).

Quotes and Bookings

While it is normally quicker to find quotes/bookings for a client by using the holiday search on the Main application menu, if you have a client open you can list all holidays associated to the client, and start a new quote.
  1. Display the client using the "Retrieving a client"  instructions above
  2. On the Client Tool Bar click the Holidays menu and select "List Holidays" or "Add quote"
  3. Within the holidays list you may click on a row to open the holiday, the list remains visible so you can open several holidays.
  4. The "Add quote" button creates a blank holiday and immediately associates it to this client. Note that this implies that it is immediately saved into the database, and cannot be deleted. If you only wish to create a temporary quote, use the "Add a new holiday" button on the Application Main Menu and do not associate it to a client.

Third party integration

If your tour operator has chosen to integrate your client database with a third party system (e.g. an online mailing system), the parts of the client records that are shared between the two systems will be synchronised automatically, so there should be no need to alter both systems. Depending on the integration setup, the sync. may happen immediately or occur, for instance, every 24 hours.

Printing Address Labels / Mail merged letters

  1. Retrieve or create a client as above (the client record must be saved)
  2. Click the "Export" button
  3. Select "This" in the "item selection" list to only use the visible client record, "All" to use all in the current search, or select individual clients
  4. Select appropriate destination - note that email destination depends on the chosen setup and could possibly go to the client.
  5. Select the appropriate document template and click "Export" 
  6. A confirmation message will display the final destination (e.g. email address).

New Brochure requests / Client Actions

If you have brochure(s), then you will regularly want to print out address labels for just the brochure requests.
1. The admin team should create a Client Action named after the required brochure.
2. When a client requests that brochure find their existing client entry/add them as a new client; then click "Add/Edit Actions", select the action for the required brochure and click "Add new action". 
3. Later on, to print labels for all clients who have a particular action outstanding:- 
  1. On the Main Menu Tab, in the client box select the appropriate brochure in the Needs Action selector (which will enter '%' in the search box, but this can be changed to further limit the selection), and press Go. 
  2. Click "Export" in the client toolbar
  3. Select "All" in the "Item Selection" list (it doesn't matter if "This" remains selected)
  4. Select appropriate export (e.g Labels/PDF) and destination and the click "Export"
  5. Once you have the printed labels, click "Mark all done" in the Client Toolbar - this removes the current set of clients from the list of those needing the action chosen in step 1, as well as adding a log entry to indicate that the client was (probably) sent the brochure.

Phone System Integration

For supported phone systems, the @ button alongside the phone number inputs will dial that number (if further input such as password is needed a prompt will be displayed, otherwise the number is dialed immediately). 

Agents

A client is either a "Direct client" or an "Agent (resale)". The difference is that any quotes/bookings assigned to an Agent type client will take into account the "commission calculation" for the client (see below), which may generate a different price, style of quote & invoice, etc.
It is not possible (at time of writing) to switch a client (or a quote/holiday) from direct to Agent, or vice versa. 

Updating client details

  1. Add a new client record, or open an existing record as above
  2. Alter the values as required - see below for details about each input
  3. Note the red triangles that indicate values have been changed but not yet saved
  4. Press "Save" in the Client Toolbar
  5. If there are no errors, the red triangles will have disappeared
  6. If you have entered unsuitable values (e.g. too long), an appropriate error message describing the problem will be shown, and the red triangles remain. correct the problem and then "Save" again. 
  7. You can revert a box that has a red triangle in back to the original value by clicking in it and pressing Escape twice
  8. To close the client without saving changes, click on the 'X' in the Application Tab, and confirm that you do not wish to save changes.

Client input fields

Client Type : Indicate if this client is an Agent or not - see "Agents" above

Name : Enter surname and forename(s) capitalised as appropriate for the clients name - to avoid incorrectly formatting the name, the system will not add capital letters for you. The list of Titles is configured by your administrator  - if the clients preferred designation is not available ask to have it added.

Contact : Phone numbers allow you to enter text (e.g. "123 ext 2") - for international numbers the recommended format is "+44 (0) 845...". The '@' button next to a phone number will dial that number (see Phone System Integration above). 
The email addresses may also allow freeform text, but be aware that this will prevent you easily sending emails directly to the client - especially any automated ones, and will disable synchronisation with third parties. It is not possible to validate that an email address is valid, so always either copy&paste from an email sent by the client, or when speaking over the phone re-confirm what you have written back to the client - the same applies to phone numbers of course. 

Address : Ensure that postal town/region/and postal codes are entered in the correct boxes. This can reduce the work needed for postal mailings as well as enabling regional reporting.

Contact preference : You should ask the client if they will accept promotional material and if they will not set "May Contact " to No, otherwise it may be set to "Yes". This setting/client choice does not prevent sending the client the item they have explictly asked for (e..g brochure or quote)  -it should be used by administrators when building mailing lists for sales related postings.
The "Prefer contact by" should be set to a value selected by the client. When a member of staff subsequently decides to contact the client they should use the indicated method (if appropriate), with the result that there is more likely to be a (polite) answer.

Source : This is used for sales/advertising statistics. The list of sources is set by your system administrator.

Actions : See "Actions" section above. If there are any outstanding actions due for this client (e.g. sending a brochure) they will be listed here, assuming your tour operator has chosen to use this feature.

Private notes : Notes for internal staff use only - will not be displayed to the client. Your tour-operator procedure may include reading these notes whenever you are contacted by the client.

Tags : These are freeform words of upto three characters, which can be used to group otherwise unrelated clients together for searches, reporting, configuring documentation, etc.. If your tour-operator has chosen to use this feature, you will have provided with a list of tags and reasons for use. Examples ones are 'PRS' - member of travel press and 'STF' - member of staff.

Agent details: These are relevant only if the Client Type was set to Agent. ATOL/ABTA and VAT  number are for information only. Contact is the member of staff at the agents who normally handles bookings though you  - it might be used in automated mailings. 
Comm, Calc and Commission % set the default level of commission any holiday assigned to this agent will include. 
The Comm. Calc must be selected - the correct value will depend on your managements Agents policy. 
The Commission % may be left blank, in which case it must be specified in each quote done for this agent. 

History : This displays the date the client record was added to the system, the last time the client record was updated, and the unique system id for this client.