Action plans provide you with a systematic and fail-safe way of keeping in touch with your contacts. Top Producer 8i comes pre-loaded with an extensive library of action plans – in both English and Spanish – that address virtually every prospecting and marketing scenario. Once you assign a plan to a contact, it schedules a sequence of pre-written follow-up letters, emails and call reminders that occur over time. When these scheduled tasks come due, you’re automatically reminded to perform them on the Activities Summary page.

To view action plans, go to the Calendar main menu icon and click Plans Manager. The Plans Manager page opens with a list of available action plans.

Default plans come pre-loaded in the system and can’t be changed. In order to make changes to an existing plan, you need to create a copy. These personal plans are indicated by the Personal Plan icon next to the plan name.

There are 4 tabs available in the Plans manager that make it easy to find the plan you are looking for:

1. Favorites: You can assign a plan as a favorite by clicking the star next to it. When the star is yellow it is a favorite. When you click the Favorites tab you will only see plans selected as a favorite.
2. System: Displays all default plans. Unlike personal plans, default plan activities cannot be added, edited or deleted. However, you can create personal copies of the default plans.
3. Personal: Displays all personal plans you have created. You can add, edit and delete personal plan activities.
4. All Plans: Displays all system and personal plans.

Viewing Plan Details

To open an action plan and view its details, click on a plan name. There are 4 tabs available that each display useful information about your plan.

Plan Info

Plan info allow you to view the action plan name and type of plan. Use the Copy Plan link to create an editable copy of the action plan. The Print Plan link opens a report listing all the plan’s activities and activity details on a separate Internet browser tab. The Print Plan window also allow you to download the information as an Excel file (.xls) or a Comma Separated Value file (.csv).

Close the browser tab to return to the open action plan.

Plan Activities

Plan Activities allow you to view the series of action plan activities that need to be completed at certain times. The list provides the activity description, the type of activity, when the activity is to be scheduled after it is applied to a contact, and to whom the activity is assigned by default (useful if an 8i account has multiple users).

Sort activities on the Plan Activities tab by using the Show drop-down list. “Chronologically” allows you to sort the activity steps in ascending or descending order based on the To Be Completed column. Choose “Apply grid sorting” and click on a column name to sort by any other column on the page.
You can view multiple plan activities by placing a check mark next to the desired activities and clicking the Mass Open link to open the Mass Open toolbar.

To open a plan activity and view its details, click anywhere on that activity.

Note that the segments on an action plan activity form are almost identical to an activity not used in action plans, with the exception of two fields. The Event Due field determines when or how the plan activity is scheduled. If the activity falls on the weekend, the Weekend Activities field determines if the activity is scheduled for the previous or next business day.

Action plan activities appear on the Calendar landing page and the Activities Summary page on the day they’re set to be completed.

Plan Templates

Every template used in the plan appears in the list. You can see template details, such as the template type and category, the description of the corresponding activity, and when the activity is scheduled to be completed.

You can open multiple templates for viewing and editing by selecting the check boxes beside the templates, and then clicking Mass Open. You can also Preview an individual template by clicking the Email preview or PDF preview icon.

If you are viewing a Personal Plan, you can select a different template for an activity by clicking the Select another template icon. You can either select an existing template from the Category and Template drop-down lists, or create a new template.

Applied Contacts

From the Applied Contacts tab you can view all the contacts that have a particular Action plan applied. Note that this tab is only available for Action plans.

You can view the plan's progress for each contact, their unsubscribe status, and the plan's start/end dates. You can also remove a plan from a contact record by clicking the Unapply Plan icon, as well as generate a downloadable and printable report by clicking Applied Contacts Report.

Action Plan Types

As you scroll down the list of action plans you may notice there are a number of them that look similar, such as the “5-Year buyer prospecting plan.”
There are two types of Action Plans in 8i:

• Fixed Action Plans: For this type of plan, activity completion dates are based on a pre-determined amount of time after the start date of the plan (shown in the Event Due field). The start date is chosen when you apply the plan to a contact record. Activities continue to be scheduled even if you haven’t completed the previous ones.
• Cascading Action Plans: For this type of plan, completion dates for activities are not based on a fixed date (plan start date), but on the date the previous activity for the plan was completed (shown in the Event Due field). This means that an activity can only be scheduled if you’ve completed the previous one. In a cascading plan, the first activity must still be scheduled relative to the start date, as there is no preceeding activity.