User's Guide to Computer Appointment Verification

• Introduction
  • Overview
  • Terms
• The Client Information Form
  • Entry Fields
  • Entering Information
• The Opening Speech
  • Using the Greeting Speech
  • Customizing an Opening Speech
• The Closing Speech
  • Script Box
• The Call Entry Form
  • Entering Phone Numbers
  • Smartmode Settings
  • The Calling List
  • Elements of the Calling List
    • The Calling List Controls
    • The Scroll Bar
  • Changing Call List Entries
  • Selecting a Call to Edit

Chapter 4: The Client and Call Entry Forms

Introduction

Overview

As you develop the clientele for your business, you add the information about the client that allows you to use Computer Appointment Verification to perform the service for them. After you have added a client to the Client Directory, you can create a Calling List for that client.

Clients are added to the directory by first completing an information form about the client. In this chapter we introduce you to:

• The Client Information form

• The Opening and Closing Speeches

• The Call Entry form

Terms

We use the following special terms in this chapter:

Advisory Message	An advisory message is a small box that appears over the program window to tell you something about what is happening. In some cases, advisory messages tell you that an entry you have made in a box is not suitable or is not allowed by the program.
Call Entry Form	The box containing the entry fields for the information needed to place a call for your client is the Call Entry form. The calls entered into the form make up the Calling List for the client.
Chaining	This is a feature that allows you to link one CBSI Phone application to another.
Client Information Form	The window containing the entry fields for the information needed to conduct CAV business with a client.
Closing Speech	The last part of the message that a party hears when CAV calls are made. The Closing Speech identifies the client for whom you are making the calls.
Greeting Speech	A standard Greeting Speech is played for a client when a personalized speech has not been recorded for that client. You may use the standard Greeting Speech we’ve recorded for you or you may record your own Greeting Speech. The Greeting Speech is recorded in the Greeting Speech option in the Settings menu.
Cursor	The cursor is the vertical, blinking bar that shows where new typing appears on the window, screen or field.
Entry Fields	Entry fields are the areas in a window that you use to enter information.
Opening Speech	This is the speech you may use instead of the standard Greeting Speech when you need to record a specialized speech to begin the client's message. The Opening Speech should introduce and state the purpose of the call.
Save	To save is to add a newly completed or edited Client Information form to the Client Directory. You must save a form before you can print reports based on that form.
Smartmode	This is a feature of the program that aids in adding calls to the Calling List. The feature is designed to save you time by preventing you from having to retype information that can be taken from the previous call entry.

The Client Information Form

This is the first form for entering data you will see after starting the Computer Appointment Verification program. It is designed to accept all of the basic information that you will need to set up a client for your business. This is where you begin using the program.

This is also the screen you open when you are ready to;

• Add, change or delete information about the client

• Access the screens to add, change or delete calls for the client

• Access the screens to add or change the client's message

Figure 17 - The Client Information Form

The calling list and message that is delivered to the parties on the list are entered from the Client Information form. If you are generating more than one type of call for a client, for instance, both appointment notifications and collection calls, you must complete a Client Information form once for each message you are delivering.

Entry Fields

The entry fields are the boxes you use to fill in the client information. The entry fields for this form are:

Client Contact Information

• Business Name - for the name of the clients' business.

• Contact - for the name of the primary person you will be dealing with when you pick up appointment lists and send billing statements. This could be the client, the client's office manager, or the client's receptionist.

• Address - for the clients' business address. There are two fields here. This is for cases where there is additional information to include in the address line, or for where there is a street address and a separate mailing address such as a P.O. Box. The post office reads address from bottom up. That is, they read the city/state/zip code line first, then the next line up. Therefore, if there is both a P.O. Box line and a street address line, you should put the P.O. Box line in the second space in your address field. This way, the mailing labels will be printed with the P.O. Box just above the last line, and should be considered as the primary address for mail delivery by the post office.

• City - This is the city where the client's mailing address is located. If there is a different city for the P.O. Box and the business location address, be sure to use the city in which the P.O. Box is located.

• State - Use the state in which the mailing address is located.

• Zip Code - Use the zip code for the mailing address.

• Voice Phone - This is the number you use to call the client on the telephone. The number is not used by the program but is here for your reference only. This box is set up to accept the area code first and automatically put brackets around it, then the seven digit phone number. The hyphen is also inserted by the program. When you enter a number, for example, you would enter 3175552121, and it would appear as (317) 555-2121.

• Fax - This is included for your reference only and is not used by the program. It is entered the same way that the voice phone number is entered. If you wish to fax a bill or a report to a client, the number is handy.

If a client's appointments are spaced at regular intervals, Smartmode Settings can be helpful when you are entering the call information. When Smartmode is turned on, the program will retain the date and time in these fields with each new call form. Then, by pressing the spacebar, you can increment the time by the interval you specified in the Smart Appointment Settings for the next call record. This can cut the time it takes to enter new calls considerably.

You do not have to enter information in either of these fields. However, if Smart settings are active, you must also make an entry in the interval field. The entry boxes for the Smart Appointments feature are:

• Activated - When there is an 'x' in this box, Smart Appointments is active. You place the 'x' in the box by either pressing the space bar when the box is highlighted, or clicking on the box with the mouse.

• minute intervals - Valid entries for this box are from 1-99 minutes. You can have an entry for the minutes and chose to turn Smartmode off either in the client window, or the Call Entry window.

• Billing Date - The date that appears in this box when you first open the Client Information form is the date that is one month from the present date. You can adjust the next billing date to suit your clients needs.

• Last Billing Date - When you first set up a client, this will show yesterday's date. When you generate a bill, this date will change to reflect the date for which the bill is printed.

• Billing Period - Valid entries for this box are 'M' for monthly, or a number from 1-99 for the days in the billing cycle.

• Bill Copies - This the number of copies of the bill you want to print when you generate bills for this client. This box will accept a number from 1-3.

• Fee Per Call - This is the fee you have agreed upon with your client and is the information used by the program to calculate the billing statement. It is calculated based on the number of valid call entries in the client's billing period. This entry box requires that you enter a decimal with two digits after the decimal. It will also requires one digit before the decimal. For instance, in the case of twenty-five cents, you must enter 0.25.

• Call Lead Time - This is the number of days in advance of an appointment or event the client wants the calls to be made. This box accepts a number from 1-9. When you complete the Call Entry form, the program uses this number to count back from the appointment date and calculates the date it will place the call.

• Notes - This box is provided only for your convenience and intended for general information that you may want to keep about that client. The field is limited to about 250 characters.

Entering Information

You may move the cursor (the flashing line that shows you where text appears when you type) by moving your mouse pointer to the box you want and clicking on it. This technique is more commonly used when you are editing information.

You enter the information about the Client into each of the corresponding boxes on the form. You normally move from one box to the next by using the Tab key to tab forward through the boxes or Shift+Tab keys to tab backward until the cursor appears in the desired field. The Enter key has no function when you are in this screen.

The Opening Speech

When you enter a new client, you also record the speeches for the message you are delivering for the client. As the first part of the message, the Opening speech introduces the call and states the purpose of the call. The Opening Speech is normally the longest part of the recorded message. However, it should be brief and to the point. There are two choices for this speech.

• The universal Greeting Speech that is appropriate for most client messages

  or

• A custom speech specific to that client alone

Using the Greeting Speech

The universal Greeting Speech is prerecorded and supplied with your program. We encourage you to record the speech again so that it will be in the same voice as the Closing speech.

The Greeting Speech is a menu item on the Settings menu. You can access the current Greeting Speech to play or record it by selecting Settings and then selecting Greeting Speech.

A suggested Greeting Speech is:

"Hello, this is an appointment verification system calling with a reminder of the following appointment."

Customizing an Opening Speech

You can use a customized speech instead of the standard Greeting Speech to begin the client's message. If there is an Opening Speech recorded, the system uses it to compose the message. If there is no special Opening Speech recorded for a client, the standard Greeting Speech found in the Settings menu is used by default.

To record an Opening Speech for a client, select Opening Speech from the Client Information form.

Figure 18 - Opening Speech button on Client Information Form

The Opening Speech screen opens like the one in Figure 19.

Figure 19 - Opening Speech screen

You use the control buttons on the Opening Speech screen as follows:

OK - This button saves the script you type in the script screen. You return to the Client Information form.

Cancel - This button allows you to avoid saving any changes to the script and return to the Client Information form.

Play - This button allows you to play the recorded speech.

Record - This button allows you open the record screen to begin recording.

You enter the wording for the Opening Speech in the Opening Speech script box and then click on Record to access the Recording screen.

Notice that in the standard Greeting Speech "Hello, this is an appointment verification system calling with a reminder of the following appointment....." the speech both identifies the call and states the purpose of the call. Your Opening script should at the least perform both of those functions. You can add whatever additional information your client needs to convey in this part of the message.

See "Recording a Message for a Client" on page 79 of this manual for the detailed procedure for recording a speech.

The Closing Speech

The part of the message that identifies your client to the listener is called the Closing Speech. At the time you enter a client's information, you must also record the client's name as the client wants to be identified in the message. You cannot save the client information until you have recorded an identification or closing speech for the client. This is a fail safe to keep you from forgetting this important part of the client message.

Figure 20 - Closing Speech button on the Client Information Form

While you are still in the Client Information form, you click on the Closing Speech button and access the Closing Speech script screen as shown in Figure 21.

(Notice that this is also where you chose whether you want the date and time to be included in the Variable information portion of the message.)

Figure 21 - Closing Speech screen

You use the control buttons on the Closing Speech screen as follows:

OK - This button saves the script you type in the script screen, and any changes to Say Date and Say Time entries. You return to the Client Information form.

Cancel - This button allows you to avoid saving any changes to the script and return to the Client Information form.

Play - This button allows you to play the recorded speech.

Record - This button allows you open the record screen to begin recording.

Say Date - When this box is selected, the program inserts the date speech into the message. The feature is selected when an 'x' appears in the box.

Say Time - When this box is selected, the program inserts the time speech into the message. The feature is selected when an 'x' appears in the box.

At the end of the Closing Speech, you have the option of chaining to another CBSI telephony program when you want to use features that are not available in CAV. The most common example of how to use this feature is when you want to give the person who answered the notification call an opportunity to respond. You would use the feature to chain to the Voice Mail application, and prompt the party to leave a message for your client.

The last three controls in the Closing Speech screen are to facilitate the chaining operation.

Chaining Enable - When you want to use the Chaining feature, clicking on this option places an X in the Chaining Enable box. If there is no X in the box, then the next two options cannot be accessed.

Chain to Application - Clicking on the arrow to the right of the Chain to Application box gives you a pull-down menu to select the application you want to redirect calls to.

Object ID - You enter the address of the tree object that contains the message you want callers to hear.

Script Box

You enter the wording for the Closing Speech in the Closing Speech script box and then click on Record to access the Recording screen. You can use the client's name, the client's place of business, or both. For instance, there are several ways you can record Dr. Van Pelt at the Family Clinic. Following are a few of your options.

• Dr. Van Pelt

• The Family Clinic

• Dr. Van Pelt of the Family Clinic

"Hello, this is an appointment verification system calling with a reminder of the following appointment, at (time) on (date) with Dr. Van Pelt of the Family Clinic.

See "Recording a Message for a Client" on page 79 of this manual for the detailed procedure for recording a speech.

The Call Entry Form

With your client information completed you can begin entering appointment information. First you access the Call Entry form from the Client Information screen by clicking on the Add Calls button. See Figure 22.

Figure 22 - Add Calls button in the Client Information Screen

The Call Entry screen appears. This is where you enter the information about the individual calls your computer will make for that client.

Figure 23 - Call Entry Form

The Call Entry screen is where the computer will get the appointment information to use for the messages. The information you include in this screen is:

• Appointment Date - This is the information used to add the date to the message.

• Appointment Time - This is the information used to add the time to the message.

• AM/PM setting - This control toggles between AM or PM using the up/down arrow keys.

• Phone number for the person who has the appointment. This is the number as dialed by the computer when making calls. It is also included in the report. Notice that hyphens are not included in the number.

• Last and first name of the person who has the appointment. This is not used in the message, but is included in the detailed report of calls.

Smartmode - This is an aid to entering data. The section called "Smartmode Settings" on page 50 explains how this works. Smartmode is active when there is an 'x' in the Smartmode box. You activate Smartmode by turning Smart Appointments on in the Client Information screen.

If you decide not to use Smartmode, you can turn it off by clicking on the Smartmode box.

• Call Date - This is determined by the program based on the lead time in the Client Information form, and the appointment date you enter.

• Save - This control saves the appointment and gives you another entry form.

  If Smartmode is on, the new entry form will have the same Appointment Date and Time as the one you saved. To increment the time, you press the space bar.

  If Smartmode is off the new Call Entry form is completely blank.

• Cancel - This allows you to leave the Call Entry form without saving the current call entry information. You return to the Client Information form.

Entering Phone Numbers

To enter phone numbers in the phone fields, basically you type in whatever numbers you would dial to complete a phone call.

Entering phone numbers can be a bit tricky. The Phone field accepts up to 26 characters. This includes the phone number and any necessary dialing prefixes (area codes, numbers to get an outside line) or dialing suffixes (account or extension numbers that you dial after you dial the phone number). If the phone number is (123) 555-6789 and it's a local call, you type in: 5556789.

If it's a long distance call and you need to include the prefixes 1 + the area code, you type in: 11235556789.

If your phone system requires you to type a number such as a 9 to get an outside line, you must type a comma "," after the 9. The comma creates a two second pause before dialing resumes. This gives you a dial tone indicating that you have an outside line before dialing the phone number. If it's a local call you type: 9,5556789.

Smartmode Settings

Frequently, appointments are scheduled at regular intervals. When you are entering appointment information for a client's calls, you will usually be doing it from an appointment book or a list of appointments that are in chronological order. In these cases, much of the data entry can be handled by the computer.

Smartmode Settings allows you to enter the interval the client uses for spacing appointments. Then when the appointment calls are entered consecutively by appointment time, you can use this feature to save time and effort entering the information.

You can elect to use this feature or not at any time during the information entry process. If you have selected ON for Smartmode in the Client Information form, you can either have Smartmode turned on or off in the Call Entry screen. If you are using Smartmode while you are entering calls and need to override it, you must turn it off and then turn it back on when you are ready to use it again. An instance when you will want to override Smartmode is when you are entering appointments that are not in order by appointment time.

The Calling List

As you add calls, you are creating a Calling List for that client. The Calling List is the list of people you are calling on behalf of your client. The list contains all of the calls you have entered that have not been billed. Therefore, this list will also contain completed calls. The list is in order by appointment date. Calls are added to the list as you enter appointment information. Calls are automatically deleted from the list when you generate a bill that includes that call.

You can access the Calling List by clicking on the View Calls button on the Client Information screen. See the Figure that follows.

Figure 24 - View Calls button in the Client Information screen

An example of a typical Calling List looks like the one shown in Figure 25.

Figure 25 - The Calling List

Note: You cannot delete a call that has been attempted. Completed calls are deleted when they are billed.

You can view this screen to verify your appointment entries. You can also delete calls or access the editing screen to make changes to entries on the Calling List.

Elements of the Calling List

The columns in the Calling List include:

• Appointment Date - This is the date of the appointment that you entered in the Call Entry form.

• Name - This is the last name of the person who has an appointment. This is to identify the entry only, as it is not used in the message.

• Phone - This is the phone number of the person who has an appointment. This is the number as it should be dialed when calling from your phone. Notice that it is not necessary to include hyphens when entering a phone number. You can include them if you want to without affecting the program. Phone numbers print out on reports the way you enter them.

• Status - This field tells you whether the call has been delivered or not. The status of the call can change until the call is completed or until the final date for the call to be delivered. The possible entries in this field are:

  * N - Not complete. This status indicates that the call is either not scheduled to be attempted yet, or is on the current calling list and the message has not been delivered.

  * C - Complete. Message was delivered. When this status appears for a call, you can no longer access the Edit screen. Instead, when you click on the Edit button, you now view the details of the call. The screen is now labeled 'View Call.'

  * S - Standard Information Tone. This status indicates that the three-note information tone followed by an operator information has been encountered. This occurs when the number that you have dialed does not result in either a ring or a busy signal. When this occurs, you may have entered the number incorrectly, you may have been given a wrong number, or the number may have changed.

  * F - Failed. When the computer receives either a busy signal or when the phone is not answered, the call continues to move to the bottom of the calling list to be attempted until the message is delivered. When the date of the appointment arrives, the program considers that it is too late to deliver the message in a timely manner. The status of the call changes to F, and the call is not attempted again.

The Calling List Controls

The controls on the Calling List are:

• Edit - This button allows you to reopen the Call Entry form for that call and make changes to the entry.

• Delete - This button lets you remove a call from the Calling List. You cannot delete any call that has been attempted.

• Close - The Close button closes the Calling List and returns you to the Client Information form.

• Order - This button opens a screen to allow you to select the order in which you want to view the calls on the client's Calling List. The calls on the calling list are usually in order by appointment date, however, there may be times when you have a long list and need to find a particular call. This feature allows you to sort calls by either appointment date or last name so that you can locate a call more quickly. The current order will be highlighted in yellow at the head of the column. When you close the calling list, the order will automatically default to appointment date. See Figure 26. The options for Viewing Order are:

  • by appointment date

  • by last name

Figure 26 - Viewing Order box

The Scroll Bar

If your Calling List is too long to fit into the Calling List screen, you can use the scroll bar to view more of the list. To move through the list, you can click on the arrows at the top and bottom of the scroll bar. You may also move through the list using the PgUp and PgDn keys.

Changing Call List Entries

We recommend that, as a time saving device, you try to add all the appointment information for a single date at one time. You can change the information after it is entered, if necessary.

One of the objectives of this application is that you spend as little time as possible maintaining the service after the initial client setup. After all, your time is valuable. You should be able to enter calls on a schedule that is convenient for you, and hopefully you will not have to make changes to the Calling List once a call is entered.

However, when you do need to make changes, you can either delete calls from the list or change the details of a call on the list. Here again, we keep the procedure as quick and simple as possible.

Selecting a Call to Edit

With the Calling List displayed, you can simply select a call to edit by highlighting the call and accessing the Call Edit screen for that call. Using the mouse, you double click on the call you want to edit. Alternately, you can use the wykeys to select a call entry and press the ekey or click on the Edit button. Using either method causes the Call Edit form to appear with the current information in the boxes.

Figure 27 - The Call Edit screen