Adding a Referral

Every referral record involves at least two parties: the contact being referred (the Referred Contact) and the contact who is either the sender or the receiver of the referral (the Referring Party).

Top Producer 8i enables you to create referrals from a number of different areas, all of which flow through the Add Referral form. The topic you are reading now will cover the most common way of creating a referral. For a complete reference of the ways of reaching this form, see "The Add Referral Form".

Adding a referral record:

1. Open the Add Referral form. How?

   • From the Main Menu bar, go to Contacts > Add Referral.

2. In the Referred Contact section, you can either enter the new contact information for the referral or drag and drop them from your Contact Look-up portlet.

   Tip: To add more than one referred contact to a referral record, see "Adding Contacts to a Referral".

3. In the Referring Party section, select a Direction of the referral and then either enter the new Referring Party or drag and drop their information from the Contact Look-up portlet.

4. In the Referral Management section, define the fields that apply to the referral record. Assign an action plan by selecting the plan from the Apply Action Plan drop-down list and then specifying a Start Date. Action plans are one of the most powerful tools available in 8i. It is recommended that you apply an action plan to all new incoming referrals to maximize your conversion rate.

   Note: For more information on specific fields on this form, see the "Add Referral Form" reference topic.

5. To save the referral and display the Referrals Summary screen, click the Add Referral button. To save the referral and display the detailed Referral Record, click the Save & Add More Details button.

   If an existing referral in your database matches the referral's information you have just entered, the Duplicate Contact Detected dialog box opens.

   Note: This dialog will only appear if the duplicate contact check is enabled.

6. Select how you want to handle the duplicate referral, and then click Done. More Info:

   • Create a new contact record: A new contact record will be created and the existing record will remain untouched. If you choose this option, you may be creating a duplicate contact record.

   • Select an existing contact: You can either keep the existing contact information or merge the two contact records together. Select:

   • The Use radio button to keep the existing contact’s information and disregard the information you entered in the new contact record. The existing contact’s information will remain the same, and all data you entered into the new record will not be saved.

   • The Merge radio button to overwrite the information in the existing record with the information from the new record. The information entered in the new contact record will replace the information in the existing contact record. However, if you've entered information in fields in the existing contact record that are blank in the new record, this data will remain untouched.