Who Are They? Where Are They? I Must Find My Business Contacts…

One of the most important uses for our computer is to keep track of our contacts. It doesn’t matter what business you’re in—the most important information you have relates to your communications with other people and businesses.  We’ve talked about some of the options available for your email.  But what about your contacts–the people you do business with.  How do you keep track of your contacts?

Your contacts and the information about them must be a top priority when you work on your technology plan. There’s a famous movie with a song that says: “Who Ya Gonna Call?”  If you don’t know who to call and how to reach them; if your contact database doesn’t provide the info you need to reach your clients, to store information about them, to “Contact” them—then your technology isn’t doing what it should.  My background is in marketing and I’m reminded about a rule I was taught:  “He who has the data wins.”

There are countless ways to keep track of your contacts. While I can’t give you specific advice on your business and how to handle your contacts–I can give you few things to consider.  Your contact database might be as simple as an address book in Outlook or Outlook Express.  It could also be a full blown CRM system that tracks everything about your clients.  Here’s a list of things to consider and work towards when you plan how you will handle and store your contacts:

1) Make sure it’s readily accessible.  Preferably from any location where you have internet access.  If you don’t currently have this ability—at least work on a plan to implement it in the future.
2) Have a way to synchronize the information between multiple devices like your laptop, your desktop computer, and your cell phone.
3) Make sure you can store plenty of information about every contact.  You should have the ability to keep multiple email addresses, multiple phone numbers, multiple addresses and more.  Any information that will help you to develop a stronger relationship is also a must.  Things like birthdays, family member names, when you last had contact with them are also helpful.
4) Make sure the database can be backed up to another location or computer.  There’s almost nothing worse in the technology world than losing all of your contact information.
5) Your information should be portable to a new system very easily.  Most programs have an export feature that will allow you to export all the data into a standard format.  If you outgrow or want to change your existing setup—you simply export all your contact data and then import it again into the new system.  The export feature can also be used as a free way to backup the all important contact database.
6) If your business has multiple employees who need to access the same information — make sure your system provides for multi-user access and expansion as your business grows.

In my last article I asked if you treated your customers like Kings. With a good system to communicate with them, with a good contact management system; you’ll be able to do that.  An efficient and well maintained contact database will help to make sure your business is a winner!!

Have a Great Day,
Rusty Lee