The best ways of managing your contacts

What added the maximum value to your business in the past ten years? Any guesses? Well, you will not take a minute to answer, we know. It’s ‘use of technology’ that transformed the business practices.

It is easy to say that leveraging technology is the great idea of to take the business to new heights. However, as you make use of it and achieve success, it becomes furthermore important to use it optimally. If you do not manage the technology well, then you won’t proper benefits of it.

Contact management becomes a big challenge with the development of the business. More and more business contacts get added, and there is always a possibility of mismanagement. Organizing it well becomes inevitable.

Do you know, contact management is something that can be managed in a structured and methodical way?  Yes, you can achieve high levels of efficiency by following some incredibly useful practices.

As you read the article below, the secrets get revealed one after another.

Get organized first

Suppose you have ten email accounts and fifty other devices. Do you think you can manage it without getting organized?  No, it is not possible at all.

If you have contacts that are scattered all over different platforms, then consolidate everything. First of all, make a note of all your sources.

Whether you make a spreadsheet, or address book or any other sophisticated mechanism, the choice is yours. The only thing is; you need systematic and organized ways of handling it.

Keep personal and professional contacts distinctly different. There has to be a distinct line of demarcation.

Device a mechanism to export the contacts

When you have several contacts, do not forget to export your contact database to a safe and secure place. Use a mechanism that is fast, easy and practically viable.

Combine all contacts from different sources into a single, unified place. The reason is; you can create backup copies easily. A slim, smart and ‘simple to use’ mechanism eases your life.

The perfect backup mechanism does not need any human intervention. It executes automatically, based on the programmed mechanism.

Take full and selective backup regularly

Backup experts always emphasize on full backup because it assures complete recovery. However, it is not feasible to take the complete backup every time. Hence, make a schedule of full backup followed by incremental backup (three to four) and then again the full backup.

This rotation system increases the probability of restoring the complete backup when you need it.

Store the backup files securely and separately. It is always better to store the files in a different physical location.

Use Google for contact management

New-age facilities such as Google Contact Manager are there to help you in getting organized further. It brings simple and fast methods of importing and exporting contracts. You can tag contacts, mark them as ‘important’ and do many other things that facilitate better contact management.

Google is always focused on user-friendliness. Therefore, contact management offered by it makes the task easily manageable.

Remove duplicates

It is the most undesirable situation when you have duplicate contacts in the contact list. When the contacts are mismanaged and unorganized, there is a high probability of storing the same contacts multiple times in multiple places.

When you manage contacts at a single place and the contact management method is systematic, removal of duplicate contact is quite easy.

Nowadays, contact management systems offer ‘find and remove duplicate contact’ services where you can get rid of duplicate contacts at the blink.

Group the contacts for better management

Grouping is an excellent way of contact management. When you segregate them based on some common criteria, you add a better visibility to the contact list.

Grouping parameters are different in each case. Hence, you have to think about it beforehand. Choose the criteria, create groups and store contacts into it.

Since the contacts are different in nature and attributes, it makes further sense to categorize them well. Your investors should be differently grouped than distributors and customers should be kept separately from competitors.

Decide specific categories after looking at your contacts. You need to consider aspects such as the type of relationship, importance and relevance, latest date and time of contact and demographic details.

Beware of security measures

It is critically important that you manage the contacts in a safe and secure manner. The more you do it, the better you will organize it.

Don’t share the contacts unless you are sure about the purpose and credibility of the recipient. Sharing contacts should make sense for the recipient and the sender.  A well-managed contact list can be updated, backed-up and handled well.

Always respect the privacy of your contacts. They shared their personal details to you because they trust you. Sharing it without their consent will be misusing their trust.

Keep a note of each contact

When you manage a business, each contact is valuable. Irrespective of the mechanism you use for contact management, you should not lose the accountability of it. Use mechanisms to maintain contacts in such a way that you do not miss a single one of it.

In the world of technology, it is not a difficult thing to manage the same. You can leverage online and offline methods to achieve excellent contact management.

Conclusion

What makes the difference between a highly successful business and the mediocre one? An effective system of contact management is the key differentiator. Entrepreneurs who understand the importance of it use highly effective techniques to manage the same well.

The above-mentioned ways of contact management are quite useful and handy. They are easy to implement, and you can reap big benefits by following the tricks.

Well-managed contacts have the potential of enhancing the reach of your business multiple times.  You start the business with a limited number of contacts which is quite easily manageable. As it grows further, new contacts get added to it. There you need smart and effective ways. Using the tips, you can do it well.