Simple Contact Organizing Tips
Contact management is a bugger and will probably always be a bugger.
With so many different services and devices linking to your contacts over the cloud you may find that important contact information is occasionally overwritten with outdated or mixed up information.
Or you may find that your contacts occasionally duplicate. These are just a few things we need to deal with when working online. It’s still worth it, but oddities like these can be irritating.
There are a variety of reasons for why data gets mixed up or duplicated and every case is different, the truth is, technology sometimes just doesn’t work right.
Here is an example:
Your client has recently moved to a new location, they changed their cell number and want you to help them do a really cool thing. So exciting!
With everything they have going on, they haven’t updated this new information with her social sites yet. So Facebook and Google still have her old information.
You dutifully enter the new phone number, email and the new home address they gave you into your phone’s contact system (which is properly linked to your email contacts), then, when you are preparing to meet with them again you notice that your email system has pulled in 3 different phone numbers, 2 different addresses and a couple of different websites. Which one is the right one? And why are there now 2 contact entries for your new person?
Be assured that for the most part this doesn’t happen often and you can trust your contact information. However, it does occasionally go weird, but there are also a few things you can do to help keep things straight.
While the following strategies won’t work for all of the 1000’s of contacts you may have, they will work for the few you really need to keep track of. Your family, your friends, and your active clients, prospects, and resources.
The “Notes” Field is the Most Trustworthy
Outside integrations don’t update that field without your consent. What you type in that field will remain in that field. I sometimes copy my people’s current address and preferred phone numbers in this box. As well as other information I need to remember about them.
Tag and Group
Create a group or folder labeled “Verified Year#” and every time you check on a contact and confirm that the contact information you have is accurate, mark it with this label. You won’t catch everyone, but over time you will have a record of when you knew you had accurate information for an individual.
Separate the Spouses
This is a hard one. I know they are married and we want to keep them together, but each individual can have several contact points, a home email address, a work email address, a work phone and address, home phone and address and cell phone. When you have spouses together in your contact list that number doubles.
This solution may seem overly complicated, but for families, it is now a good idea to have individual entries and a combined entry for the family. Too often I have contacted “this individual” when I meant to contact “that individual”), and for holiday cards and family invitations, I use the combined contact entry. In that contact entry, I have the home phone, email address and physical address the “family” prefers to use. I can also list the household members (and sometimes birthdays) in the notes field.
About the dreaded duplicates
Duplicates are so annoying!
The bad news is that there isn’t really anything you can do to safely and successfully eliminate them entirely. Gmail, Outlook, and other programs that specialize in contact management often have a duplicate contact merging feature, but you will still need to monitor it.
EXAMPLE: Drew Marvin – drewmarvin42@gmail.com and Drew Marvin – drew@5amcoffee.me may or may not be the same person.
Or
Marion Kile and Mary Kyle may actually be the same person = Marion Kyle, but your computer has no real way of knowing unless you tell it.
The good news is that it doesn’t really matter. Having duplicates of contacts in your system doesn’t mean your system is out of control or disorganized. It means that your system is dynamic and that you are adding new contacts to your network. When duplicates do appear, take the moment to deal with them.
Many email contact lists have the ability to merge contacts. This can be super cool and it can be a nightmare. The one for Gmail works pretty well. On your computer in the “old” contact list, you can visit the “more” toolbar option and select “Find and merge duplicates” Google will then find duplicates based on email address and merge the matching contacts into one contact. In many cases, the information in the contact will also duplicate. 2 of the same address and 2 of the same phone number, but the information will be in one contact and not be lost.
Outlook Online also has one. In your “people” list choose “manage” from the toolbar. Then choose “clean up” contacts. Outlook will then look for duplicates (also by email address) and it will “link” them. You will still have 2 (or more) duplicate contacts but they will be together.
When you are ready import a master list into a new system (Like a CRM, ESP or other contact management program) you will need to take the time to vet and verify your contact information and weeding out duplicates will be part of this process.
About the contacts in your phone
The options for organizing your contacts in the native apps on your phone are surprisingly lame. Google seems to be the best, then Outlook, then Apple. None of them are better than doing it on your desktop or laptop.
Also, your phone has the ability to pull in contact lists from a variety of sources.
- The phone itself.
- Your cell phone service provider may have an address list for you.
- Your connected email accounts.
- Your phones brand account (Apple account or Android account).
This can cause duplicates and conflicting contact info in a variety of complicated ways. Figuring out which entry you should delete, or update can take some detective work.
You can temporarily edit the name to make them easier to identify while you are determining which is the “real” one.
Nicole Lux-Ritchie 1
Nicole Lux-Ritchie 2
Try not to let it stress you
After all this time and technology there isn’t a perfect way for dealing with duplicate contacts and trying to aggressively chase them down is usually more trouble than it is worth.
When you find them, deal with them. On that note, these tips are not a “Project”! Do not try to implement them all at once. It is tedious and boring work and like cleaning out the garage it is endless!! Do just a bit at a time.
Nicole Lux-Ritchie - Founder of Luxcentric
Nicole's mission is to help feminine professionals gain the technical
skills they need to grow their business and focus on their missions.
The focus of Luxcentric is on training practical strategies in the area of the core technologies.
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