Better way of managing contacts that leave the company

[#1]

What happens when a contact leaves the company? You don't want to delete them as they have a lot of history, but at the same time when you look up a company it gets confusing when there are a lot of ex-staff that are listed there.

There has to be a better way. Perhaps have a field that makes the contact in-active and when they show up in the contact list they are greyed out and their contact record is read only.

This topic is also being discussed in the ACT! Fanatics Linked IN Group

http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers&discussionID=15188794&gid=49896&commentI...

[#2]

Hi,

I agree, a standardised procedure with some preference options would be good. 

I had some discussion on this topic in the ACT Forum on 5-28-2008, Contact Moves to a New Company.

I have been using the X idea reasonably effectively (prefix the name and position of the departed contact with a capital X, add a note about where they have gone, then add them as a new contact where ever they turn up again). But I don't have to do a lot of mail merges etc where it may cause a problem. You could add a custom field to the contact layout which you use as filter in look ups, mail merges, groups etc.

Cheers,  Graham

[#3]

It is very cumbersome but if I don't have the replacement contact for someone who left, I will put in the name of another existing contact and then do a duplicate search and then merge the 2 contacts. It is not ideal but it makes sure you keep the notes, opportunities, etc. with that company. The Ideal would be to just be able to roll over all contact data to another contact with the name of the original contact name attached. This would allow you to know what notes, opportunities are for the old contact. It would also allow you to search for information on your history with that contact if he turned up at another company.

[#4]

Well, I have always taken a different approach...if Tom Jones leaves ABC Company, I have in my Contact ID/Status  'Former Customer' (because the CONTACT is a former customer at this point), and I also add a custom Contact Status field with a drop down which includes Active, No Longer Employed, Not involved in Project and Deceased....So I select No Longer Employed.  When I am preparing for a mail merge or SwiftPage campaign, I always include Contact Status as Active so I only get the Contacts that I need.

If Tom's replacement calls to introduce themselves, I duplicate Tom's Contact and update with the new information...If TOM calls from his new Company, I either create a new Contact for Tom and create Company from Contact OR if the Company is already in the database, I Duplicate one of the Company's Contacts, update Tom's new information...that way I can always refer back to Tom's original History of what he bought from us in the past.

[#5]

Hi Renee, I like where you are going with this, I think I might add in something similar. If I could Kudos a comment, this would get one!

Just one question. Tom leaves, his replacement is appointed, Tom calls from new company (with another big order!!!) so is added as a new contact there. Since you duplicated Tom at the old company to create his replacement, it would appear that you now have 2 Tom's in the contact list? That's why I prefix Old Tom's name with an X. If you want to find all of Tom's old jobs (some guys do get around!) you can do a contact look up %Tom Jones.

[#6]

Just had another thought on this. I have been reluctant to give Tom's history (see Renee above) to his replacement as I want a clear distinction as to who said what, which is why I leave XTom Jones in his old company. I have always felt that is a bit messy.

I am considering creating a new custom field in the Contact Record called 'Predessors', which would have Tom's name and the date he left recorded in the Contact detail for the new holder of his Position. That could be backed up with further information under that date in Notes or History.

Also, it would seem to be useful to have your custom Contact Status as a column header on the Contact tab of the Company Detail record too.