Being in touch with customers on a regular basis is paramount. The Contact Indicator module enables SugarCRM users to quickly assess if a customer has been contacted in the last 30, 60 or 90 days. With a quick look at the contact list view a user will see red, yellow or green indicator lights and immediately know if they need to be contacted.

The calculation of customer “touches” is tracked in SugarCRM by using the Activities area. By scheduling a meeting, call or sending an email the Contact Indicator module will automatically update the status indicator to let you know that a customer has been contacted. Lets take a look at the module in action:

Once the module is installed you can go to the Contact list view to see the extra column titled Last Contacted. In the current version ( 1.3 ) this field will not be updated until an activity is logged against the contact.

Click on a record and go into the detail view.

Scroll down to the Activities panel and schedule a call.

When a call is scheduled it is by default in the Planned status. Once the call is held you can edit the call activity and change the status to held which will trigger the update of the last contacted information.

This functionality works the same for meetings. The only record type the is different is an email which is automatically logged when the email is sent.

Now that the call has been held you can go back to the Contacts list view and observe the green indicator light which means that the person has been contacted in the last 30 days.