I just set up a trial account for a client to look at the feasibility of using BatchBook for association membership management. I’m finding that through clever use of SuperTags I can capture all of the information that I need for member types and such, which is great. The communication log can track the renewal information.

Where I seem to be getting stuck is on creating an upcoming renewal report. Can I create lists based on the data stored in a SuperTag Field or just on the tag itself. Ideally I’d like to create a report / labels for everyone who is up for renewal in a particular time period. The advanced search seems to limit the fields that are searchable.

I thought about using another tag to track the renewal date info but my fear is that it won’t be updated consistently or correctly leaving people off of the list.

Ideas?

Thanks
SB

Scott, indeed you can create a report to display SuperTag data. Just create a list (from tags or from all contacts). In the List Data box, choose edit and turn on the SuperTag fields you would like to show.

Thanks for sharing this. SuperTags really do create endless data management possibilities. Great to see users taking advantage!

Thanks Adam,

I’ve got the full lists down – it works wonderfully.

What I’m trying to do here though is filter the list based upon the data in the SuperTag field, not just on the tag itself. For example, I’ve created a SuperTag for membership data and within that I capture the renewal due date. Is there a way to query the list so that I can just show memberships due within 90 days, 60 days, etc..?

thanks
SB

I can present a workaround, but also want to discuss some changes we could make to handle this.

For now, when you create a list, the data columns are also sortable. So, you can make a list and then see quickly which memberships are due when.

This, obviously, isn’t optimal, so let’s talk about ways to get there.

Advanced Search – We could add SuperTag fields to Advanced Search. The tricky part here is getting different search filters for every field type (like, for “date” you want to give the option to match it, get dates before and after, etc.).

Search Results Functions – We could also add the ability to select all (or some) contacts from Search results and tag them, delete them, etc. Then, if you tagged them, you could create a list from that result.

Advanced List Building – When originally designing the Lists interface, I was thinking about creating lists by all contacts, by tags, or by advanced search. We held off on the advanced search until it seemed people wanted it… which hasn’t happened yet. And to be honest, if we implement the first two features, it probably won’t be needed.

These are all things I’d like to eventually do. But maybe you can help me with some prioritizing suggestions? And do you think this would work for your tasks?

Thanks!

Thanks Adam,

I think being able to choose a subset of search results to create an ad-hoc tag for further batching would probably suffice. Imagine for a second though the concept of a SmartTag, one that is automatically assigned to a record based on a set of user given criteria. Renewal due in August ‘08, contacts with no communication logged in 60 days, contacts in CA, AVG users, etc.. Why limit tags to just superness when you can make them smart as well?

Generally speaking, the ability to add the custom data via SmartTags is one of my favorite features of BatchBook but not being able to action against it lessens it’s usefulness. You have given us the power to capture all of this great information – let us at it so that we can really use it.

Thanks for being so responsive – and open to suggestions.

SB

Thanks, Scott. A lot of the design concepts you saw for Browse Contacts (now entering backend development) will also be applied to Search Results. Sounds like that will really help you when combined with adding SuperTags with the advanced search. Great to know that.

Very interesting about the “SmartTags”. Not sure about having both SmartTags and SuperTags, though. :)

Instead of auto-assignment of tags, it sounds like an auto-updating list (built via search criteria) would also do the trick. So, it sounds like all three of the options I listed above would be very helpful to you.

Yeah, the auto-updating list is exactly what I need. Whether it gets saved as a list or a SmartTag, it’s no matter to me. I think we’re talking about the same thing…

SB

Each of these features would be much appreciated by me also. I’d also like to reiterate the thought that the advanced search would take into account events criteria, as well. In other words, one might wish to search relative to a date field in a supertag, or based on when a record was created; the last time a communication was logged; etc.

Thanks,

Kenny

Another extremely useful feature of an auto-updating list, would be to
assign an auto email criteria – such as ” Auto-Email the updated list each weekday at 10am to each of the following contacts”, or “Anytime this list changes, send an email notice to the following contacts”
This may be kind of similar to the email function currently setup for the todo list.

Kenny

Welcome Kenny! Thanks for the feedback!

We’re actually working on revamping lists very soon, so this feedback is great! Regarding your second message, we don’t currently support emailing directly from BatchBook (though some folks are requesting it), but we could create a list from the criteria you mentioned and allow you to simply grab the email addresses to compose the message in your email app.

Great feedback! Thanks!

Thanks, Adam. So far I’m very impressed with everyone in your company.

To clarify – the above feature request is actually to simply email the updated list to me. In other words, suppose I want to follow up monthly with any customer who has not contacted me within the past 30 days? Any day where some customers currently fit that criteria, an email would come to me with the contents of that list. Which I would then know what to do with. Ideally, I could further define a list of recipients for that report, and schedule when it would go out.

This could be a way to ease into emailing and drive out a lot of the issues as you plan to add other email related features down the road.

Just food for thought.

I also would be one asking for other email features in the future, though I can do a lot if I can just have reports emailed to me automatically.

Ah, thanks for clarifying. As we work on the advanced list building, I’ll think about how we could perhaps tie that into something like the above (emailing the list, setting up a recurring to-do to check that list, etc.). Good stuff. Thanks!