Contacts Overview

Contacts

The Contact record is the centre of the customer relationship in Standout. It should answer: Who is this person, what are they trying to do, what have we agreed with them, and what is the next action?

A contact can have more than one role. For example, the same person may be an applicant looking to buy, a vendor selling their current home and a landlord of another property. Do not create separate records for each role.

Common contact workflows

• Registering a New Applicant
• Managing Applicant Requirements and Matching
• Booking and Managing Viewings
• Sales Valuation to Instruction
• Landmark Anti Money Laundering Checking
• Using the Customer Portal
• Communications Centre

Before creating a contact

Search first. Use name, mobile/telephone, email or postcode. Duplicate contacts fragment notes, requirements, AML and transaction history.

Adding a new contact

1. Choose the appropriate contact type or types.
2. Enter the customer's name and at least one reliable contact method.
3. Add the address where relevant.
4. Save/Create the contact.
5. Continue with the workflow that caused the contact to be created, for example requirements, valuation, viewing or landlord instruction.

Create the contact with the information you know, then continue the relevant workflow.

Contact types

A contact must have at least one role. Typical roles include:

• Applicant / Tenant - looking to buy or rent.
• Purchaser - buying a property.
• Vendor - selling a property.
• Landlord - letting a property.
• Solicitor - acting for a party in a transaction.
• Contractor - carrying out maintenance/repair work.
• Rental guarantor - supporting a tenancy.

Selecting a role may reveal additional tabs or fields relevant to that relationship.

Keep communication details current

Telephone numbers and email addresses are used throughout Standout for appointments, letters, Customer Portal access and notifications.

Email addresses should be kept unique to the appropriate contact record. Where several email addresses are supported in a field, separate them as required by your agency's data-entry policy.

Record useful notes, not transcripts

A good CRM note records the outcome of the conversation and what happens next. For example:

Spoke to Mr Smith. Still looking up to £325,000, needs three bedrooms and now has own property SSTC. Wants to view 14 High Street Saturday afternoon. Viewing booked for 14:30.

That is more useful than a note saying only Called customer.

Applicants and purchasers

For somebody looking for property, the contact record is only half complete until their requirements are recorded.

Use Managing Applicant Requirements and Matching to capture budget, bedrooms, location, property type and other criteria. If they have a property to sell, record that position because it affects qualification and can create an Opportunity Finder opportunity.

The Heat Rating can be used to indicate priority where your agency uses it.

AML and identity

Where AML is required, complete the customer's identity information accurately and use the Landmark AML workflow.

Customers using Customer Portal can provide onboarding information and supporting documents, but staff remain responsible for reviewing the information and compliance result.

Requirements and live matches

The Requirements area describes what the applicant wants. Live matches show properties currently matching those requirements.

Do not weaken requirements simply to produce more matches without discussing it with the customer. The record should reflect the customer's real search.

Files and documents

Store documents against the appropriate contact/property record so they can be found by other staff. Sensitive customer uploads from Customer Portal are kept private and are reviewed from More actions → Customer Portal submissions.

Customer Portal and Communications Centre

Where the contact has an email address, use Send Customer Portal link to invite them to the customer portal. See Using the Customer Portal.

Customer messages sent through Customer Portal appear in Communications Centre alongside portal and website enquiries. Reply from Standout so the answer is saved in the same portal conversation and the customer is notified.

Use Contact → More actions → Customer Portal submissions for onboarding, buyer-ready information, secure uploads, AML history and portal appointment requests. The submissions page also shows the conversation and has Open in Communications Centre.

Things to check before leaving a contact

• Is the email/mobile correct?
• Is the role/contact type accurate?
• If they are looking, are their requirements current?
• If they have a property to sell, is that recorded?
• Is the latest meaningful conversation noted?
• Is there a task or appointment for anything promised later?

Related guides

• Registering a New Applicant
• Managing Applicant Requirements and Matching
• Landmark Anti Money Laundering Checking
• Customer Portal
• Opportunity Finder

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Detailed screen and field reference

The sections below restore the detailed operating instructions that were present in the earlier full version of this page. The workflow summary above reflects the newer Standout navigation and processes. Where terminology differs, use the current screen names shown in Standout.

Contacts

When adding a contact, the more information entered does help you in providing a better service to your clients.

Within Standout Property Manager the contact system is used for all types of contact, those being :-

Applicant / Tenant / Purchaser / Vendor / Landlord / Solicitor / Contractor / Rental guarantor

A contact can also be more than one type, ie one contact can be a vendor and a landlord if selling a property and also a landlord of another property so there is no need to enter the same person more than once, and Standout Property Manager does try to guard against this.

Depending on which type of contact you are working on, you will see tabs appear and disappear as appropriate. Our recommendation is that once you’ve completed a section, click Save Contact. When creating a new contact, you only need to complete the first screen, click Create contact and continue editing the contact details. The default tabs when creating a new contact are:

Contact Details

Adding a new contact

When adding a new contact you will be faced with the form below, just fill in the fields required (items marked with an asterisk are mandatory)

You must also select they type of contact at this stage.

Basic details

The basic details really are the bear minimum requirements for any contact, note if the contact is a solicitor or contractor then company name will also be shown here.

Contact type

A contact MUST have at least one option selected:

Contact Type
Applicant / Tenant	Someone looking to buy or rent a property.	Tab ‘Marketing’ will appear Extra options will appear allowing the entry of Date of Birth, National insurance number and Nationality
Purchaser	Someone looking to buy a property	Tab ‘Marketing’ will appear
Vendor	Someone looking to market their property with you
Landlord	Someone looking to rent out their property with you
Solicitor	A Solicitor that one of your contacts is using
Contractor	A contractor that undertakes repairs

If Contractor is selected then additional options appear to allow the type of contractor to be selected, if a contractor does more than one type select as many as required.

Note. A contractor company name is mandatory, if the contractor is a sole trader then enter the person name as the company name.

Note. The contractor name must be unique if using Xero as an accounting system linked to Standout.

Contact information

This is how you want to communicate with the contact, store phone numbers and email address in this section.

A note one email address's all contacts must have a unique email address – this cannot be used on multiple contact’s, you can enter multiple email addresses in this field. Separate each email with a comma

                                               Example - me@me.com, you@you.com

Heat Rating

This field has been added to contact screens for Applicants and Purchasers, allowing you to assign 'heat'. Think of an old fashioned Hot Box

This could be for any reason - such as a cash buyer - and allows these contacts to be identified during a search and listed independently on the new 'Hot Contact' page. You can rate a contact from 0 – 10 They will have this number displayed on their contact in the List from a search in Yellow to Red dependent on how hot they were rated.

Address

Basic Address Details

The above is the standard entry for all contact except for Solicitors.

Company Name                      should your contact represent a company of any description

Postcode                                 by entering a Postcode, the system will attempt to find and populate the address automatically dependant on the results returned

Address                                   allows you to amend and format the address

Country                                   allows you to select the require country (default is defined in administration for your office)

Solicitor Address Details

Solicitors in Standout are a special type of contact as you can have many solicitors working for a company, and to ensure data consistency we ensure that the company name is only listed once at a post code (you can have the same company in many towns so we limit to only one company name at the same address).

You then add each solicitor person to the main solicitor record by entering their name etc on the contact, then in the company name search box enter the correct company name and press search, it will then populate the address if the company name already exists.

As long as your policy for data entry is consistent, by typing a Solicitors company name the system will return their details to save both duplicate data and maintain a consistent format, this will then populate the Solicitor’s address (this should also reduce data inputting)

Note. Solicitor company names must be unique when using Xero as an accounting system linked to Standout.

All other information is then entered as the above section.

Staff notes and information

These are confidential notes that are only available to staff regarding the contact, also, allowing one member of the branch to assign this contact to another member of staff should the one responsible for this contact.

My Move customer portal

My Move gives customers secure access to information held in Standout and allows selected information to be supplied or maintained by the customer.

Where the contact has an email address, the Contact screen displays a prominent Send My Move link button immediately to the left of More actions. Use this to invite the customer to the portal.

Customer information submitted through My Move can be reviewed from:

Contact → More actions → My Move submissions

Depending on the customer's relationship with the agency, My Move can provide property progress, viewings, feedback, offers, tenancy information, repairs, onboarding, AML/identity information, secure uploads, viewing requests and property requirements.

See My Move Customer Portal for full guidance.

Anti Money Laundering

The government has strict rules in place to ensure that no person is using illicit funds as a way to launder money. Our notice gives links to the official websites for further help and information.

There are two options within Standout for recording Money Laundering.

The first is to manually store Identification documents, for the contact(s) and for the property they reside at. You can obtain their documents, photocopy and store in a secure place and also record information in this screen.

The second is to subscribe to Landmark AML Money Laundering service. Using Landmark, you send information from within Standout to their system. Within five minutes (usually), you are sent back a report and details of whether a person has passed or failed the check. It is important to note, this service charges for each check, it is imperative that you send over the correct information, in the correct format to ensure the best match possible. In the main contact details, you must enter roughly how long they have resided at the property address. Optional information would be their N.I. number or Driving License number.

Current ID details

When you have received and copied money laundering documentation, this section will show what has been recorded.

Documents listed by default are:

Address

           A recent original mortgage statement from a recognised lender

           A recent utility bill or statement (do not accept mobile telephone bills)

           Bank, building society or credit union statement or passbook containing current address

           Benefit book or original notification letter from the Benefits Agency confirming the rights to benefit

           Confirmation from an electoral register search that a person lives at that address

           Current UK driving licence (old full licence or new photo card licence) if not used for evidence of name

           EEA member state identity card

           House or motor insurance certificate

           Inland Revenue self-assessment statement or tax demand

           Local council or housing association rent card or tenancy agreement

           Local council tax bill for the current year

           Record of home visit

Person

           Benefit book original notification letter from the Benefits Agency confirming the rights to benefits

           Cheque drawn on an account in the name of the client with a UK bank

           Current full UK driving licence (new style only)

           Current Passport

           Current UK or EEA photo-card driving licence

           EE member state identity card

           Firearms or shotgun certificates

           National identity card containing photograph of the client

           Photographic registration cards for self-employed individuals and partnerships in the construction industry CIS4

           Residence permit issued by the Home Office to EEA nationals on sigh of own country passport

           Identification reference (required)

Record the identification reference of the document being presented

Date Produced and photocopied (required) Date on ID (required) Copy held        if you have photocopied the document, tick this

Right to rent

Your agencies statement regarding Right to rent details and the laws that the agency abides by.

Requirements

The system is fully automated and will automatically email the contact with details of any matching properties once you save the match requirement, and also whenever a property is created or edit in such a way that that property now matches the requirements of the selected contact.

Match requirements

The requirements tab allows you to create match reqiurements for both applicants looking to rent a property and purchasers looking to buy a property.

Customer self-service requirements in My Move

Customers can now create and maintain their own property requirements through My Move. These are the same live requirement records shown to staff in the Contact record, so there is no separate customer-only copy.

Customers can create multiple named searches, update area/radius, price, bedrooms, type/style, new-build preference and must-have features, pause/reactivate searches and delete searches they no longer need. Standout runs the normal matching engine after changes and shows the customer a preview of current matches.

The branch is notified when a customer creates, changes or removes requirements. If automatic property alerts are expected, ensure the contact is still marked Looking.

To start creating a match requirement click the Create new requirements button as shown below.

As you can have multiple match requirements for each contact, it is advisable to use a meaningful unique name for each of the requirements.

Just fill out the required information as shown below based on the contacts requirements, once complete click on the Save requirements button

An explanation of each field is given below :-

Match name               a unique name for this requirement

Match area                 enter a postcode, town and the system will return matching areas

Distance                      How wide a distance from the match area is the client looking at

New build only            if they are interested in new build only

Class                            Residential / Commercial / Business

Contract type              For Sale / To Let

Property type              Any type / Bungalow / Character Property / Flat/Apartment / House / Land

Property style             Barn conversion / Chalet / Cottage / Detached / Detached Dormer / Detached Villa / End Terraced / Farm / Link Detached / Semi-Detached Villa / Shared / Sheltered Housing / Town / Undefined / Villa / Village

Minimum bedrooms   how many bedrooms (if specified)

Minimum price           starting price a client is looking for

Maximum price           a maximum price a client is looking at

Required features       as you start typing a feature or choose from the list available

Live matches

The live matches tab is a great way to see instantly which properties (if any) match the contacts requirements.

Previously matched

When an email has been sent to the contact with a list of matching proerties you can see here which proerties have been sent in each email, you can also see if the contact has opened the email to view the properties.

If required you can also resend the emal to that contact, this is useful if the email got lost in the wonderful world of the internet, or the contact has changed email address's ( change the email address on the main contact details tab first, before resending)

Files

Standout has the ability to store files with any Contact (similar to the way we do with properties) by default we store these files in a container on our servers known as the FTP system, as an alternate to this we can also integrate into Dropbox or Google Drive.

This allows additional storage for files that are associated with your client and properties. To configure this, please choose Administration / File storage

Notes

Standout has the ability to store notes against both Contacts and Properties. Including storing Sticky Notes. Additionally, if you have configured File Storage then you’ll be able to add one file per Note.

Viewings / Offers

Viewings can be arranged in multiple places, within a contact, the Diary and a property. This section will list all the properties this client has seen with any offers.

Rental agreements

If a contact is either a Landlord, Tenant or a Rental guarantor, this section will show all those agreements that have been linked. When you click on the View option to see further details regarding the tenancy, including all transactions. You will be able to either choose the default transactions, or choose from the date ranges, once you have updated the transaction list, click the Tenant Statement button to create a statement to send to the tenant, either by downloading, printing and posting or by emailing it directly to the tenant.

Communications

Standout can be linked to an SMS hosting service where an agent may buy credits, then from Communications you can text your contact (a mobile number will have to be input into the correct field). Also, from here an email can be sent to the contact and all communications are listed in the history.

Marketing / Privacy

Mailchimp

This tab allows you to subscribe this contact to any email marketing lists that have been linked to Standout Property Manager. You can link additional lists in the Agency tab of Admin.

Please note: It can take up to 10 minutes between pressing the subscribe button and Mailchimp showing the new subscriptions. Contacts may unsubscribe themselves from a list for any reason. If a contact has unsubscribed from a particular list, Standout Property Manager will not resubscribe them, regardless of the status of the Subscribed checkbox. Use of MailChimp implies acceptance of their Terms of Use - particularly Section 20. Compliance with Laws.

GDPR consent

From the Administration section you can enter your Marketing and Policy statement. When speaking with a client, this option allows you to read your agencies policy and once a client agrees, the agent can tick the Consent given option.

As of November 2020, when “Force GDPR conformation” is enabled, when entering a new contact, your staff member will be shown the above. Unless they are entering a solicitor, they must read your statement or the system generated message to your contact prior to entering the details.

History

The history shows significant events that have occurred with agents editing/saving and communicating.

This is useful when multiple people are editing the same data, so that you can see who has been editing a contact.

My Properties

The section allows you to assign properties that a contact owns or is purchasing to assign an individual solicitor to each property. Rather than only allowing a single solicitor to a contact (as we previously set up), this can now be configured.

Linked properties

Once you select the chosen solicitor, Save the contact to assign that solicitor. Their contacts details will then be displayed below, allowing you to open their details in a new tab, or, email them directly from Standout.

A new report has now been added, next to “Edit Property”, if a property is For Sale, then you can click “Vendor report” to display a report showing the property details, owner(s), viewings/feedback, website statistics and any price changes. This report can be downloaded as a PDF, emailed to the owners or printed.

NOTE: If you change the solicitor, you MUST save the contact for the new solicitor details to be configured.

Purchasing Properties

Once you select the chosen solicitor, Save the contact to assign that solicitor. Their contacts details will then be displayed below, allowing you to open their details in a new tab, or, email them directly from Standout.

NOTE: If you change the solicitor, you MUST save the contact for the new solicitor details to be configured.

Quick Searching Solicitors

As you build up your list of Solicitors within Standout, to search by just scrolling up and down can be quite time consuming and frustrating.

Whenever you see a dropdown list throughout the whole of Standout, and especially one that contains many options (councils/solicitors etc), a quick way to search is to do the following

You’ll notice a flashing cursor at the right hand of the screen (highlighted above).

Press the backspace and you can then enter your search criteria

You can then select the chosen solicitor from the list of results.

Invoices

Standout now has the ability to invoice Vendors from their properties. When editing the contact, you can then perform these options:

Mark as Paid

Print invoice

Delete – You CANNOT delete an invoice that is marked as paid

Solicitors – Solicitor details

Only when a contact is a solicitor will this tab appear and allows you to store a Solicitors DX number and DX town. Additionally, this area will list all those contacts that this Solicitor is associated with.

More actions

The More actions sub menu for contacts offers three options:

Create appointment This option creates an appointment in the diary for a staff member and this contact, also, email them the appointment and include the Notes written in the email. By default, Email Contact will be enabled in the Appointment form, this uses an email template located in Administration/Emails and is named "Contact appointment"

Create a task create a task for yourself or another member of staff against this contact

Book a viewing create a booking for the client to see a property