Contacts

1Overview #

A contact is a person, not a firm and not an enquiry: a name, a designation, the numbers you ring, the address you write to, and the account they belong to. It is the record that outlives everything else - leads come and go, deals are won and lost, but the person at the purchase desk stays the person at the purchase desk.

Keeping people here, instead of in each executive's phone, is what lets the CRM answer the question that matters when somebody leaves or goes on leave: who do we actually know at this customer, and what was said to them?

A contact can stand alone. Somebody you met at an exhibition who has bought nothing yet is a perfectly good contact - leave the account blank and the customer view shows the person by themselves.

2Who it is for #

• Keep every person you deal with - their role, their numbers, their address, and how they have agreed to be contacted.
• Tie people to the customer account they work for, so one customer's people are together.
• Give a lead a head start: pick the contact on a new lead and every field is filled in for you.
• Open the Customer view, which puts everything about that person or account - deals, leads, planned work, and the books - on one page.
• Mark somebody Inactive when they leave the firm, without losing the history that has their name on it.

3What it is not for #

• An enquiry. That is a lead - CRM > Leads. A contact does not carry a requirement, a rating or a next action of its own.
• A deal. That is an opportunity, which belongs to an account, not to a person.
• The customer's ledger account. That is the books' own master; a contact only points at it.

4Step by step #

1. Press Add (F3). - Country starts as India and the owner starts as you.
2. Give the Name, and at least one of Mobile, Phone, Alternate phone or E-mail. - That is all the screen insists on.
3. Pick the Account (ledger) when this person works for a customer you already have. - The Company is filled from the account's name when you have left it blank.
4. Fill in what you know: designation, category, industry, territory, address. - Category and industry are what the lists and reports group by - worth setting even when they feel obvious.
5. Set Owner, or clear it. - Clearing it puts the person in the shared directory that every CRM user can see - right for a switchboard number or a common office contact.
6. Untick any way they have refused to be contacted, and Save (F5). - The messaging screens obey those ticks - a person who refused SMS is left out of a bulk SMS.
7. Later, press Customer view to see everything about them in one place. - Deals, leads, planned follow-ups, people at the same account, and the account's vouchers from the books.

5The fields #

• Who
• Name - The person's name. Shown wherever the contact appears, and searched by the Find list. Up to 128 characters
• Designation - Their role at the firm - Purchase Manager, Proprietor. Up to 128 characters
• Account (ledger) - The customer or supplier ledger this person belongs to. The list shows name, code, phone and GSTIN so you can tell two similar customers apart. Puts the person under that account in the customer view, and lets a deal for the account offer them first. A ledger account of this company
• Company - The firm's name as the person gave it. Filled from the account when you pick one and this is empty. Up to 128 characters
• Category - Your own grouping of contacts - dealer, architect, consultant. Create new contact category at the foot of the list. Bulk messages can pick an audience by category. From CRM > Masters > Contact categories
• Industry - Their line of business. Reports and the board band and filter by it. From CRM > Masters > Industries
• Owner - Whose contact this is. Clear it to put the person in the shared directory every CRM user can see. Decides who finds the person in their lists. A contact with no owner belongs to everybody. Anyone within your reach
• How to reach them - At least one of the four ways is required.
• Mobile - The number you will call or message. The duplicate check compares the last ten digits; SMS and WhatsApp go here. Up to 30 characters
• Phone - Office or landline number. Up to 30 characters
• Alternate phone - A second number to try. Up to 30 characters
• E-mail - Their address, checked as you leave the field and again on save. Where e-mail from the CRM goes, and how their replies find this record. A real address, up to 255 characters
• Call / E-mail / Message - How this person has agreed to be contacted. Bulk messages and the compose dialog obey it. Three tick boxes
• Territory - The sales territory the person falls in. Reports group by it. From CRM > Masters > Territories
• Address - Street address. Ctrl+Enter starts a new line. Up to 512 characters
• City - City or town. Searched by the Find list. Up to 128 characters
• PIN - Postal code. Up to 50 characters
• Country - From the Country master; blank is treated as India. Decides whether State is a list or free text. From the Country master
• State - Picked from the list for a country that has one; typed for any other. A state of the chosen country
• Notes
• Notes - Anything worth remembering - how they like to be approached, who introduced them, what went wrong last time. Read by whoever deals with them next. No length limit. Ctrl+Enter starts a new line
• Inactive ? - On for somebody who has left the firm or should no longer be picked. They leave the pick-lists and stay on every record that already names them. Switch

6Rules and integrity #

• A contact must be reachable - Name, plus at least one of mobile, phone, alternate phone or e-mail. A number counts only with seven digits or more.
• An owner is optional on purpose - A contact with an owner is that person's; a contact with none is the shared directory, visible to every CRM user. Use the shared directory for common numbers - a reception desk, a stores office.
• Deleting usually means retiring - A contact who appears on a lead, a deal or a follow-up is made inactive instead of deleted, so the history keeps their name. Only a contact nobody has used is really removed.
• Picking a contact fills a lead - On a lead, choosing this person copies name, firm, designation, phones, e-mail, address, territory, consent and ledger account. Change whatever differs - the lead keeps its own copy.
• The account is the join to the books - With an account set, the customer view can show the account's invoices and outstanding beside the enquiries, and a deal for that account offers this person first.
• Who sees it - The owner, their seniors through the sales team, sales managers - and everybody, for a contact with no owner. Your login's report option narrows it further.

7If something does not work #

8For an administrator #

• Rights - CRM Contacts in User Permissions: View to open the screen, Create to add, Alter to modify, Delete to delete. The quick-create footer on a lead needs Create.
• Masters first - Contact categories, industries and territories (CRM > Masters) are the groupings every list and report uses. Agree them before people invent their own.
• The shared directory - Contacts with no owner are visible to everyone. Say plainly who is allowed to create them, or the directory fills with private contacts nobody else can use.