Learn about the MyCRM Contacts Tab In Sage CRM

 

“What is the MyCRM Contacts tab and why should I use it?”

This is a valid question that I often hear from new and veteran Sage CRM users alike. Contacts can mean a lot of different things and I understand the confusion. First things first, it’s not necessary to use the Contacts tab at all in CRM. This is meant to be used for your benefit but what are those benefits?

Shortcuts

The way that I like to describe the Contacts tab is that it’s a list of shortcuts to contacts (or People) in Sage CRM.

Think of this tab as a sort of Contacts desktop, where you can create quick links to Contacts that you deal with on a regular basis. This tab is specific to you, the logged in user; every user’s contact list is different.

The shortcut buttons on this screen are designed to make navigation quicker, faster and the information more centralized (residing in your MyCRM world). For a sales person, this may be all 400 accounts that they manage. For me, it’s a list of all of the people I contact and contact me on a regular basis.

You can easily add/remove these ‘shortcuts’ on as frequently as you would like. They can be added in a cherry picking or one-off fashion as you are in the context of a Company or Person in CRM. These shortcuts save you the time and energy of going to the Find Screen and putting in the Company/Person’s name that you‘re searching for and clicking on it.

Integrate with Outlook

Not all contacts in Sage CRM belong in your Outlook address book.

The synchronization of Contact information between Sage CRM and Outlook (via the Outlook plug-in) depends on the existence of records on your Contacts tab in CRM. If the contact does not exist as one of your MyCRM contacts, Outlook does not try to synchronize the associated (dare I say, Rolodex-esque) information.

Let’s say the contact that you’ve added to your My CRM Contacts tab is Johnny Lately and you’ve recently updated his phone number in CRM. Depending upon how your CRM administrator has configured your email integration, your Outlook may or may not be updated with this new phone number. This means CRM does not have the authority over Outlook or vice-versa. The general configuration, however, is to make the latest update (whether it was to CRM or to Outlook) always the winner.

*The information that is synchronized via this tab is strictly Address Book information and NOT e-mails.

Quick and Easy Tasks/Communication

Let’s face it, as much as we’d like to have a single customer/vendor/prospect that we devote all of our time and attention to, that’s just not reality.

Even though you might like to do so, you just don’t have the time to individually check in with every one of your favorite accounts to make a product announcement, create a follow-up, or just check-in.

To make these types of interactions easier, the Contacts tab can act like a Group and you can perform bulk actions against your Contacts. Such actions include: a mail merge document, a task (which may be a phone call that you want to schedule for everyone in a single effort) or sending an email to everyone at once (while making it personalized).

For example, if my company is offering a promotion to its most loyal and devoted customers and I want to let them know without going through the motion of creating a marketing campaign, etc., I can simply send a mass email (that my marketing department has setup as a template). As with all mass emails sent out of CRM, the recipients will not know who/if anyone else received the message. It’s quick, painless, and keeps you on top of your game.

*All records of the actions taken against you Contacts list are recorded on the Communications tab of the Company/Person.

It’s not necessary or even always a benefit for every type of Sage CRM user to use the Contacts tab, but it IS always necessary to understand how and why an area of CRM may benefit you.