How do I configure the Retention Centre?

Summary

This article will explain how to configure the Retention Centres and actions within these.

More Information

The Retention Centre is a hub to automate and simplify regular actions required to maintain good relations with customers and foster the best possible business relationship with them. The purpose of this software is to help you to retain customers and thus maximise your business by staying in touch with customers in various ways and reminding them of significant events.

Configure Retention Action Times

Each Action within the Retention Centre can be configured to run within a time frame of the event. To configure a Retention action within the Workshop :

• Go to " Workshop Maintenance Options Parameters Retention Centre Parameters".
• Select the Action you wish to edit and press <F2> or click [Details].
• In the "From" and "To" you can enter the range of number of days leading up to an event you want the Retention Centre to report on.
  • For example if you want to send out service reminders between 30 and 15 days before the service is due you would enter '30' in "From" and '15' in "To".
  • This will output the service reminder for the vehicle as long as the retention centre is processed between 30 and 15 days before the service is due.
• If you do not want a retention action to be performed then enter '0' in the "From" and "To" fields.

Configure Retention Media Preference

Each Action within the Retention Centre can be configured to output a letter, an E-Mail or a text message. You can further assign the order of preference for each output type. To configure the media preference within the Workshop :

• Go to " Workshop Maintenance Options Parameters Retention Centre Parameters".
• Select the Action you wish to edit and press <F2> or click [Details].
• Under "Media Preference" you have the options for "Mail", "SMS" and "E-Mail". Each with a drop down for priority.
• For each Media type set the priority for each method, 'Zero' will indicate not to output the media type and 'Three' will be the most preferred.
  • For example if you set "SMS" to 'Three', "E-Mail" to 'Two' and "Mail" to 'Zero' this will send out a Text Message as the preferred method, followed by E-Mail and never output a Letter.
  • The priorities on here will also take account of the customer preferences, for more information on this see here.
• For the "Mail" output the system can also produce an address label for each letter by setting the "Labels" option to 'Yes'.

Configure Retention Media Output

Each Action within the Retention Centre can be configured to output a letter, an E-Mail or a text message. You can further assign the order of preference for each output type. To configure the media preference within Unit Sales :

• Go to " Unit Sales Maintenance Options Parameters Retention Centre Parameters".
• Select the Action you wish to edit and press <F2> or click [Details].
• Select the Media output type at the bottom and press <F2> to open the Action Output Parameters.
• In the "Report code" field enter the code of your report or press <Ctrl+F1> to open the Report Search window and search for the report you wish to use.
  • If you have a suitable report you can have the Retention Centre output the details to a file for you to process manually instead of creating the letters and messages from within Platinum.
• If you have a standard message you wish to use instead of a report change the "Output type" option to 'Message'.
• In the "Message" field press <Ctrl+F1> to open the Message Search window and select the message you wish to use.

• In the Workshop Retention Centre you will see that some of the actions output Service, MOT and Combination reminders within one action. If you want to only output one of these types, i.e. only Service reminders, then this can be achieved by the following :
• Go to " Workshop Maintenance Options Parameters Retention Centre Parameters".
• Select the Action you wish to edit and press <F2> or click [Details].
• Select the "Mail - MOT" Media and press <F2>.