Contact Management — what?!?

As I mentioned in my last post, I have used Goldmine, a “contact management” software program for many years. However, it is no longer supported for small single users like me, and so it won’t work if I need to get a new computer with Windows 7.

Before I tell you what I’ve been looking at, and what I’ve chosen, let me explain what a contact manager does. Picture an old-fashioned Rolodex or card file, with a separate card for each person you deal with, or contact. The file stores their name, address, phone, number, email address, and any other information you may want to keep. Sounds pretty basic, right? You may even have all that information stored in your phone. (I’ll be posting in the near future about the HIPAA and other security concerns our smartphones create.)

Now imagine that a new potential client calls you. You create a new “card” or “record” for them, with their name and phone number, and a note to call them. As you talk to them, you may find out how they found you, which would be good to keep track of. You may schedule them right away, or you may need to call their insurance first. Or you may need to call them back later, when you have an opening that fits their schedule. All of these callbacks are “activities” or “to-do’s”, that you may keep on one or several pieces of paper that you continually re-write or update. But what about tracking referral sources, like your webpage, yellow page ad, or that new doctor that you met last month? How useful would it be to you to easily be able to tell where all of last year’s clients came from, or how many potential clients didn’t actually work out?

This is what a contact manager can do for you, besides helping you remember to call people back without having sticky notes flying around the office, getting lost. I have found it invaluable over the years, letting me track who wants to get my newsletter emailed to them and who doesn’t, who refers, and any number of other things.

So how frustrating is it to find that, other than the “dinosaur” program I have been using, there are very few alternatives? I’ve never been an Outlook user, but I thought it would do the job. Wrong! It does keep your contacts and a calendar, but it doesn’t keep a good history or help you track and sort information. Turns out there is an add-on for it called Business Contact Manager, but I didn’t like it at all.

I quickly found out that for small single users, rather than big sales teams, there wasn’t much available. Programs like Business Contact Manager are geared towards people in sales, not professionals who are just trying to keep track of information. The one program I found that seems to do the job properly is called Act!2010 by Sage. Like my old Goldmine program, it is like a Rolodex card system, with a screen that focuses on the person, or contact, not on sales opportunities. It is a program that can do very complex things, but it is easy to keep it very simple.

I am in the final stages of testing the process of converting 10 or 15 years of records from Goldmine’s database to Act’s. This is not something that you would want to do, believe me, but luckily I am a technology lover in my spare time. I’ll be posting from time to time to let you know how you can streamline your practice management and marketing with Act!, or something similar.

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