Open Leads Supports Popular Automotive Lead Sources

The latest update to Open Leads includes direct support for many popular automotive leads, including AutoTrader.com, Cars.com, Dealix, Autobytel, and Ford Direct.

Account Message – Now with HTML Support

The Account Message on the Dashboard now supports basic HTML code. This will allow administrators to format their messages to users with bold and italic characters, or embed information or post external links within the message body.

Email Bounce Handling

Open Leads is committed to maintaining high deliverability rates for email that is sent out from our application.

One of the most important elements of this is maintaining good relationships with the major ISPs, and the way we handle their email bounced from their systems is a key variable in that process.

Open Leads Email system manages bounces and classifies them as either “hard” or “soft” depending on what message is received back from the various ISPs that mail is sent to.

So what is the difference between a “hard” bounce and “soft” bounce, anyway?

Hard Bounces
We consider an email to be “hard bouncing” if the error message we get back from your leads email provider indicates a permanent condition, such as:

* email account doesn’t exist
* there is a spelling error in the email address (htomail.com versus hotmail.com, etc.)

In this instance, these leads will be blocked from your Open Leads Mail System – and will not be included in any mass emails. This will save you from using up credits on a bad address, and will serve to maintain good relations with the major ISPs by not bombarding them with repeated requests for mail delivery to non-existent email addresses.

Soft Bounce
If the error message we get back from your member’s email provider does not meet the criteria for a hard bounce, then the error is considered a soft bounce. Soft bounces can be due to the lead’s email inbox being over the allotted space limit, or other temporary problem.

If the email address generates an occasional soft bounce error, it will be logged but no other action will be taken. However, if the email address continues to return soft bounce errors for several days, then that then we will consider that a hard bounce.

Download User Guide

Many users have requested a simple user guide that they can print out to supplement the online help section. Here it is!

New Feature: Lead Details in Task Reminders

We just added a new feature sure to be popular amongst the road warriors using Open Leads. Now, when you receive an email reminder of a Task from Open Leads, the email message contains the contact information for that lead, including phone and email address.

BlackBerry and iPhone Users can click on the email address or phone number directly in the message body to open their email screens or on the phone number to dial.

New Feature: Modified Date

Users have a valuable new tool to track their activity with leads in their account. The date the lead was last modified is now incorporated into the Lead Detail. By selecting this data, either in the List View of your leads, or in your filter criteria, you can, for example, find all of the leads modified within a specific date range. This is especially useful in tracking leads you have contacted recently, or leads that have been neglected.

The Modified Date toggles with the Added Date on any of your Lead List Views. To display the Modified Date, click on the Asterisk in the Date Column, and then click on “Modified.” You may further refine the display by clicking on “Modified” once it is displayed in the column header, to choose between chronological and inverse chronological order of display. Inverse chronological is the default and displays the most recently modified lead.

You may also choose this field to set up Custom Views or Saved Views using Filters, choosing single dates, ranges, etc.

New Feature: Task Types

As you add a new Task to a lead or as part of a Workflow in Open Leads, you can now classify that Task – Call, Meeting, Email, or Other.

Classifying your tasks in this manner is the first step in being able to fully track your activities in Open Leads. In addition to reporting on Task Types in the View system in the near future, we will soon be adding an Analytics module to Open Leads, adding to the user and managerial functionality already present.

Tech Support: We are at your service!

Getting assistance with your Open Leads account is a just a click away!

Sometimes the online Help section does not go far enough to answer our users questions about using Open Leads. In those cases, we have two key Tech Support options available online, 24/7 – 7 days a week.

Support Form: Click on the “Support” Tab on our home page (www.openleads.com) and fill out the form. Your request will be assigned to a member of our team for prompt response. Bookmark this link for even quicker access.

Live Chat Tech Support - from either our home page, or from the Table of Contents in the Help section within Open Leads. Live operators are available to answer your questions in real time.

Click here to Chat

Open Leads Scheduled Maintenance

Open Leads will be unavailable from 4:00 am to 10:00am EST on Sunday, January 25

During this time we will be moving Open Leads to a new set of servers. This move is in anticipation of our next round of features to be released this spring. In addtion to adding capacity, the new servers are also quite a bit more robust than the old ones, and will offer us the ability to provide better performance and better service to our users.

We apologize for the interruption in service, and appreciate your patience as we make this transition.

Importing Leads

Open Leads makes it simple to import your existing lead list. Many users are moving their leads from another application, such as Outlook, while others may have been keeping their leads in a simple spreadsheet. The first step is to get your current leads into a Comma Separated Value (or CSV) file. Most applications allow you to export the data as a CSV file so thsi first step is pretty easy. Just make sure that the first line of your CSV file has the column or field names – this makes it easier to map your existing data to the fields in Open Leads.

To import leads, first click the Leads Tab on the top right corner of the screen. The “Import” link is located next to “Add Lead” in the gray bar above your lead list. Once you have selected this option, you will be able to choose a CSV file to be imported from your computer. Select the file and click “Next.” Select your CSV file from your hard drive, then click “Next” to continue. The following screen will allow you to name the import scheme. If you plan on importing a file from the same source again, saving the scheme will make the task easier

Then you can map the fields from your import file to the fields in Open Leads by clicking on the field and choosing your Open Leads fields from a dropdown list. If you need a field which you have not already created, you may click the link to add a new field to your account and map it directly from the import screen. Once you have the fields mapped, you can then opt to add a user and/or a type for the imported records.

Once you have the fields mapped, you can then opt to add a user and/or a type for the imported records.

When you have determined that you have all the fields mapped, and the User and Type assignments in place, click “Import” to complete the process.
For the import feature to work properly, it is important to make sure you have two things in place: First, you need to have a clean CSV file that does not contain unnecessary data or rows or columns before you try to import it; and second, you need to have a field in Open Leads that matches up with the columns in your import file.

The best way to clean up your file is in your spreadsheet application – most users use Excel. Delete unnecessary columns and rows, and make sure each column is labeled clearly so that you will be able to reference it when you map your import. Then, once you are satisfied with your file, export it as a CSV. Be aware that there is a bug in Excel that may cause some problems. This is outlined on the Microsoft website. If you use another application, such as OpenOffice or use a Mac, this is not an issue.