Status Reasons are a great way to consistently capture details when the state of something is changed (open lead -> disqualified, open activity -> completed). With the additional standardized details, views, reports, and workflows can be developed based on the specific results. This example outlines how to configure and use status reason on the Phone Call activity. This same process applies to any activity type, leads, cases, quotes, orders, invoices, opportunities… anything with a status reason.
Closing a Phone Call
In the real world, phone calls can be completed with a variety of results: wrong number, no answer, left message, number not-in-service, or on rare occasions, actually connecting with the intended person. Out of the box, completed phone call resolutions are somewhat basic: Sent or Received.
Where this may be enough for some users, it is common to need more detail about the disposition of a call. To enhance the feature, you can expand the available selection through simple pick list configurations but unlike most pick lists, Status Reasons (statuscode) are bound to the State Code and can sometimes be hard to find.
How to configure
To add/edit these options, select the specific entity that you want to enhance (Phone Call) and select the Status Reason attribute. The pick list elements are listed based on the selected state. You cannot add or edit the state, but you can add/edit the related status reasons.
For this example, add some common call results: Connected, Left Message, Wrong Number, Bad Number
To the user, this adds to the available options when closing an activity. Also note that if you use the icon one-click save-as-completed, the default value is used.
Once you are capturing the detailed outcomes, you will want to see the results. Out of the box, the Status Reason is not displayed on forms or in lists. You must add the Status Reason column to the form.
How to leverage
So what can you do with this detail? Since this is standardized input, you can develop automated follow-ups, specialized views, custom reports/dashboards, or execute campaigns/quick campaigns based on the outcomes.
Add a workflow (on Change Status) that creates a follow-up task when a phone call activity is closed as Left Message.
Use Advanced Find to create a view or a quick campaign for all contacts that have a “Bad Phone Numbers”
Or use a Dynamic Pivot Table to track the channel effectiveness of a marketing list or quick campaign.
Enjoy Status Reasons!