Managing CRM Contacts

Inside a contact record

What lives in each one

👤

Contact details

Photo, name, and basic information, the contact owner and any followers, every field and general information section, DND preferences, and editable fields throughout.

💬

Conversations

The full communication history with that person: emails, texts, calls, and everything else, plus the ability to send a new message without leaving the record.

📊

Activity and relations

The timeline of contact history, associated opportunities and companies, tasks, notes, appointments, and any documents or payment information.

Always set yourself as the owner

When you add a new contact, set yourself as the contact owner if you brought them in or will be managing the relationship. That makes it clear who the primary point of contact is and keeps accountability straight. Other team members can still be added as followers so they can see and collaborate on the record.

➕

Adding a contact

On desktop, click Add Contact at the top right of the contacts screen. On mobile, scan a business card with your phone camera. The only required fields are a first name plus either an email or a phone number.

🔍

Smart Lists

Filtered views of your contacts, built on criteria set by your administrator or by you. Use advanced filters to narrow down, sort by different criteria, and manage which fields show in your list.

🏷️

Bulk actions

Select multiple contacts with the checkboxes, then send group messages, add or remove tags across all of them, trigger workflows, or manage company and opportunity associations at once.

"You get out of it what you put into it. The more contacts you add, the more conversations you have, and the more you are actually using the system for what it is for."

Key definitions

Terms worth knowing

The digital profile holding everything about a person: personal details, communication history, notes, tasks, and activities.

A filtered view of contacts that lets you see specific groups based on criteria set by your administrator or by you.

The team member assigned as primary for a contact, usually whoever added them or holds the relationship.

Settings that respect a contact's preferences by specifying which channels, text, email, or call, they do not want to receive.

Labels added to contacts for organization and filtering, which can also trigger automated workflows.

Things to do

Try it now

Add one contact from scratch and set yourself as the owner. Add a tag and a note to an existing contact you already work with. Open a Smart List and sort it, so you know what your admin has already built for you.

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Tips

Worth remembering

The only required fields are a first name plus either an email or a phone number. You can fill in the rest as you learn it.
Set the contact type, lead or customer, when you create the record. Fixing categorization later across hundreds of contacts is miserable.
Set DND preferences as soon as you know them, so nobody on your team messages someone who asked not to be messaged.
Scanning business cards with your phone camera is far faster than typing details in after an event, and it creates the record on the spot.

Check yourself

Quick Knowledge Check

Four quick questions on this lesson. One attempt each, and the answer is revealed either way.

0 of 4 answered

What is the minimum information needed to create a new contact?

A filtered view of contacts built on set criteria is called a ______ List.

A contact tells you never to text them, but email is fine. Where does that go?

Besides organizing and filtering, what else can tags do?

Apply it

Try this with your favorite AI

🏷️Design your tagging system

You are helping me design a tagging system for the contacts in my company's CRM, before I create tags at random and end up with a mess. Here is my context: - What my business does: [describe it] - The types of people in my database: [leads, clients, past clients, referral partners, vendors] - How I would want to slice my list: [by status, by source, by service interest, by priority] - Roughly how many contacts I have: [number] Give me: 1. A tag list organized into categories, with the exact tag name to use for each 2. A one-line naming convention rule so future tags stay consistent 3. Three tags that would be worth wiring to an automated follow-up, and what should happen on each Rules for your answer: - No more than 20 tags total, fewer is better - Every tag name under four words - Flag any tag that overlaps with another and say which to keep - No software brand names Finish by asking which category I would use most day to day, so you can expand it.

📝Build your new-contact checklist

You are helping me create a short checklist for what I capture every time a new person enters my company's CRM, so my records stop being half-empty. Here is my context: - My role: [your job title] - Where my new contacts usually come from: [referrals, website forms, events, cold outreach] - What I wish I knew about a contact before following up: [describe it] - How much time I realistically have per contact: [seconds / a minute / a few minutes] Give me: 1. A "capture every time" list, the fields I should never skip, and why each one earns its place 2. A "capture when you can" list of the nice-to-haves 3. One line on what to write in the notes field right after a first conversation Rules for your answer: - The must-have list has to fit the time I gave you - One sentence per item, no paragraphs - Do not include fields that would be creepy to ask a new lead for - No software brand names When you are done, ask me what my most common contact source is so you can tailor the list to it.

With your network organized, let's track the deals and projects attached to it.