Public And Permitted Use Information From Your Personal Computer

 

How do You Use the REAL-COMP Auto-Loader™ to Import Leads ?

 

Automatically loading your leads using the REAL- COMP Auto-Loader™ program is very easy. The program contained on this floppy diskette will automatically "type in" the lead name, address, city, state and zip, phone number and associated lead date directly onto your screen without a human keying the information.

WARNING and NOTE: This program will lock itself to the computer it is first used in, and thereafter will only operate again on that computer. Be sure you select the computer you wish to load from carefully.

 

If this is your first time to receive leads purchased from REAL-COMP and the Auto-Loader ™ program together, go to number 1 and follow the easy steps.

If you have loaded REAL-COMP leads before, and have received new leads by email attachment or on another floppy diskette, go to USING Auto-Loader™ WHEN NEW LEADS ARE RECEIVED FROM A VENDOR and follow those easy steps.

1. Make sure the TABLE OF CONTENTS screen in ECHO™ is visible on your computer screen.

2. Insert the REAL-COMP Auto-Loader ™ floppy diskette into your floppy diskette drive. Make sure it "clicks" into place.

3. Click on Start (lower left hand corner of your computer screen) and then Run as illustrated on the left. The Run Window will open as shown on the right. To load leads from a file located on your Auto-Loader™ diskette, type in: a:import (the letter a, then a colon (:), and then the word import, with no spaces. Case is not important!) in the window and click OK or tap the Enter key.

To load leads from a file located on your computer Desktop (very large lead files, for example), type in: a:import other (the letter a, then a colon (:), and then the word import, with no spaces, then a space and the word other . (Case is not important!) Other is a smart word that means the file is located in another place.

4. The REAL-COMP start window (left) appears on your computer screen. This could take as much as 30 seconds since reading files from a floppy diskette is very slow. Just be patient! Click on the appropriate left side box to select the type leads to load. If you only purchased one type of lead, only one option to load will appear on this screen. If you wish to Exit now, click on the Exit box.

5. Computer Selection Warning: This program will lock itself to the computer it is first used in, and thereafter will only operate again on that computer. Be sure you pick the import lead computer carefully. Click on Yes to continue. Click on No or Cancel to stop this process and move the Auto-Loader™ program to another computer.

6. Custom Naming the ECHO™ File: You are now given the option of entering your own custom file name for the lead file ECHO™ will import. Click Yes in the File Name window as shown below left to enter your own file name. This is recommended so you can annotate what this lead file contains in your own words. Enter the file name you wish as shown on the right and click OK. Clicking Cancel stops the program and you must restart it from Step 3 on page 1.

7. Automatic Import of Separate Files for X-Dates: If you have purchased or are loading leads that contain dates (X-dates, dates of birth, etc.), you will be given the opportunity to automatically instruct Auto-Loader™ to import each X-Date month into a separate file. If you click on Yes as shown below, the program will automatically attach a separate month (Jan, Feb, etc.) name at the end of your file name selection. This feature allows the agent to separate the X-Dates into distinct files by month to upload to corporate at the right time.

8. Import the Date Provided with the Lead into ECHO™: If you would like the program to import the date provided into the date field of ECHO™, click on Yes as shown below. If you click on No, the date (X-date, birth date, etc.) will not be loaded into ECHO™.

 

The program now counts the leads supplied on the floppy diskette and displays the screen below showing the count. Click Ok to proceed. You must be at the TABLE OF CONTENTS screen of the ECHO™ program when you start this program. Do not use the keyboard or mouse during the import! You will be notified when the import completes. To cancel the import once it has started, hold down the Shift key until a cancellation window appears.

9. Automatic Naming of Files If over 500 Leads: If you are importing over 500 leads, you will see the following message. The REAL- COMP program will automatically import the first 500 leads into the file you named, and close that file. It will automatically continue loading the remainder of your leads into another file of the same name, but with the number 2 following the file name. You will not see this message if you purchased fewer than 500 leads. Click OK to continue.

10. Completion Of the Lead Import: When the lead import is completed, you will see the following message. You should always review and edit the leads in the ECHO™ file for name anomalies. We correct as many name variations as possible, but some weird ones may slip through from time to time. ECHO™ lets you edit the names to your liking before you upload to corporate or print materials.

11. Deleting Lead Files Already Loaded: Once you have successfully loaded the leads from the floppy diskette, there is no need to keep the old lead file on the floppy. Selecting Yes to the question below will delete the old lead file you just loaded, making room on the floppy diskette for lead files you purchase in the future.

12. Remove the floppy diskette from the floppy diskette drive. You have successfully imported your leads without having to key the data! Now is a good time to review and edit the leads loaded into ECHO™. Use the normal editing function of ECHO™ to open each new lead file and check for name and address spelling errors.

Now is also a good time to delete any lead files that may be on your computer Desktop.

 

Using the Auto-Loader™ When New Leads Are Received from Any Vendor.

 

Overview: The REAL-COMP Auto-Loader™ operates entirely from files contained on the floppy diskette provided by REAL-COMP . Any new leads received, either by email attachment or on another floppy diskette, must be copied to the Auto-Loader™ diskette in order to load, or be placed on your computer's Desktop. The Desktop location is offered primarily as a means for very large lead files to be loaded that otherwise would not fit on the floppy diskette.

It is also important to note that diskette copies of the REAL-COMP Auto-Loader™ diskette will not operate, so it is very important to safeguard the original diskette sent to you.

Step A: Adding a Lead File to the Floppy Diskette: Click on Start (lower left hand corner of your computer screen) and then Run as illustrated on the left. The Run Window will open as shown on the right. Type in the following in the Open window: a:import add (the letter a, then a colon (:), and then the word import, then a space, then the word add. (case is not important!) Click OK or tap the Enter key.

Step B: If the lead file you wish to load was supplied by REAL-COMP or another vendor on floppy diskette, click on Yes in answer to the question below.

Step C: The below shown window opens. Put the floppy diskette containing the new lead file in the floppy drive. Click Yes to continue.

 

Step D: The below shown window opens showing the files on the floppy diskette. Click on the file name of the lead file, and it will change color (highlight). Click on Open (bottom right hand corner of the window) to select it.

Step E: Per the instructions below, place your Auto-Loader™ diskette back in the floppy drive, and then click OK .

Step F: The lead file will be copied to the Auto-Loader™ diskette and you will be notified by the below window that the copy was successful.

 

Go back to number 1, on page 1, and follow the easy steps to load your new leads.

 

 

Generic Load File Format Specification

 

The REAL-COMP Universal Auto-Loader™ will load the following format of any vendor's leads.

 

To be recognized and loaded by the REAL-COMP Auto-Loader ™ program, the Generic File must:

  1. Be composed of ASCII Text Only.
  2. Have a carriage return/line feed (CR/LF) at the end of each line as a record separator.
  3. Lead file must be named: Gen*.txt , with the star meaning any text of your creation and desire. For example: Gen 3456 leads for John Williams 78731 78759.txt or gen78731leads.txt
  4. Have a Delimiter (field separator) of a Tab (fields may or may not be quoted), or a comma with fields quoted.
  5. Be a Variable length file (no set space allocated to a field as in Fixed Length).

The fields are defined as follows and must be in this order.

 

If no data is expected in a field, such as field 6 (phone) or field 7 (date), the field must be included and be blank, or filled with a few characters (like a carrier route, or area code) that the Universal Auto-Loader™ will ignore.

Field #1:  FirstName/LastName  The data can be either first name first, or last name first, but if last name first, the names must be separated by a comma. Example: Linda P. Jones is OK. Jones, Linda P. is OK. Jones Linda assumes Jones is the first name. Other punctuation in the data is acceptable, but will be stripped and not loaded.

Field #2:  Street Address, such as: 10235 Whispering Dove Cove

Field #3:  City such as: Austin

Field #4:  State. The form must be in the standard two-character state code – such as: TX or Tx

Field #5:  Zip/Zip+4.  The data can be five (5) or nine (9) digits, with or without the hyphen.

Field #6:  Area Code/Phone Number. The data must have all 10 digits to be loaded, such as: 5123458746. It may contain other characters, such as parenthesis (512) around area code. It may contain hyphens and spaces such as (512) 345-8746. It may further contain characters, such as: Work: (512) 345-8746, which will be ignored.

Field #7:  Date The date must be in MM/DD/YYYY (02/23/2001), however, single digits for day and month are acceptable, and two digits for year are acceptable. (3/2/01)

Field #8:  Comments**  Anything the agent wishes to be entered into the "Comments" field up to the capacity that the ECHO field will accept.

Field #9: Greeting** Text like: Mr and Mrs Jones, etc. can be loaded here up to the capacity that the ECHO field will accept. If no greeting is desired, this field must be blank.


**Comments and Greetings are optional fields and may both be excluded from the format. If Greeting is desired, however, Comments must be present as a place holder and be blank.

Note: Using the Generic Format assumes a certain computer and database expertise on the part of the user. While REAL-COMP offers free tech support, the purchaser is ultimately responsible for the technical expertise necessary to accurately create this format. Local telephone listings contain references to local computer expertise that may be contracted by your agency for this purpose. 01112

 

 

TROUBLESHOOTING:

 

See the following page(s) for troubleshooting tips.

 

ECHO WINDOW CAN NOT BE LOCATED: If you did not have the ECHO™ program started (see number 1), you will see the following message.

ALL LEADS WERE NOT IMPORTED: If you receive the window shown below at the end of the load, it indicates that one or more of the leads provided to you by your vendor did not pass ECHO's™ data checking and were rejected. Notify your vendor if you feel the rejection rate was too high.

 

 

 

 

Auto-Loader™ is a registered trade mark of REAL-COMP.

ECHO™ is a registered trade mark of State Farm Insurance Co.

 

 

REAL-COMP Sales: (888) 382-4043, Houston: (713) 589-5357

 

Technical Support during business hours: (800) 580-8300 or Austin area: (512) 459-8300