What is contact management?
As the name suggests, contact management is the process of collecting, storing, organising, and keeping track of information relating to your leads, prospects, existing customers, and any other parties you do business with.
If you want to learn more about this topic, check out the FAQ section below:
Question #1: How do I do contact management?
To do contact management, you will need some kind of software that would allow you to collect, store, organise, and keep track of information about your leads, prospects, existing customers, and other parties you do business with. Your choice would ultimately depend on the size of your operation and customer base, your specific goals, and your specific requirements.
For example, if you run a super small online store that serves, say, 100 customers at the moment—and you just want to store the contact information of your customers for future use—then you may be able to get away with simply using something like Google Sheets for your contact management.
However, if you run a multinational corporation with millions of customers worldwide and you do things such as email marketing, online advertising, and retargeting, then you will need something that is more sophisticated and feature-rich.
Question #2: What kinds of information is contact management concerned with?
The kinds of information contact management is typically concerned with include:
- The customer’s name
- The customer’s email
- The customer’s contact number
At the end of the day, however, as long as your chosen contact management software can process it, you can collect virtually any other additional customer details you think might be useful.
Question #3: What is the difference between a contact management software and a customer relationship management software?
The main difference between a contact management software and a customer relationship management software is their scope and features.
As we have seen earlier, a contact management software is primarily aimed at collecting and organising contact information. A customer relationship management software (CRM), on the other hand, does the exact same thing plus a whole lot more.
As the name suggests, a CRM is designed to help you manage your relationship with your customers. This means that aside from allowing to store basic contact information, it is also designed to help you do the following:
- Keep track of customer interactions
- Gain a deeper understanding of the needs of each customer
- Create personalised marketing messages and experiences for each customer
- Launch targeted marketing campaigns
- Generate reports
- Do lead scoring to figure out which leads are most likely to buy from you
Keep in mind, however, that not all CRM software share the exact same features. So, it is always a good idea to shop around first to find one that best suits your needs (and budget) before you make a decision.
Question #4: Which is better: contact management software or CRM?
The short answer is CRM is better than contact management software. It can do virtually everything the latter can plus so much more. In fact, the only real reason for you to choose contact management software over it is if you just want to store contact information and do practically nothing with it.
If you want to use the information you collect to improve your relationship with your customers and launch more effective marketing and advertising campaigns, then CRM is the way to go.
Question #5: What is the best contact management software?
The best contact management software for you would ultimately depend on your specific needs and budget, but here are a couple of options to help you get started:
- HubSpot – the best option for most businesses and 100% free to use
- Streak – allows you to transform your Gmail inbox into a basic CRM
- Bigin – perfect if you are currently using a spreadsheet to do contact management
- Monday.com – the best option if you are a freelancer or have a small team
- Covve – perfect if you want to make keeping in touch with your network easier
While most of these are technically CRM software, they should be able to address all your contact management needs as well.