What is contact management? Benefits + features

Managing contacts is more than just keeping track of names and numbers; it’s about building and maintaining relationships.

Contact management helps you stay organised, follow up on opportunities, and make sure that important connections don’t slip through the cracks. Whether you’re a small business or large corporation, it can make a world of difference in how you interact with both customers and employees.

Let’s find out how contact management can help you provide personalised experiences, increase customer loyalty, and improve your marketing efforts.

More in this guide:

• Contact management vs. CRM
• Key features of contact management system
• 5 benefits of contact management system
• Frequently asked questions
• Go beyond contact management with a CRM

Contact management vs. CRM

It’s important to emphasise that contact management and customer relationship management (CRM) are very different things. But the confusion is understandable as the lines can be a bit blurry. So, let’s break it down.

Contact management is all about storing and organising key information about your contacts—including names, addresses, and communication history—and using it for your business needs. It’s also a core part of CRM.

CRM, on the other hand, is all about managing interactions and relationships with customers throughout their lifecycle with features like sales tracking, customer support, and data analytics to improve customer engagement and drive growth.

Key features of contact management system

Contact management systems come in different shapes and sizes. Some are essentially digital address books, while others cover the entire customer journey. Here are five contact management features you can find in almost every system.

Contact database

At the heart of any contact management system lies a contact database that stores all that important contact information like names, phone numbers, email addresses, and company details. Cloud-based contact management systems not only centralise your data but also allow your teams to search and access it from anywhere.

Lead management

Contact management systems help you organise and track potential customers throughout their journey. Even better, you can usually sort and filter your contact list, e.g. by location, company, or last interaction. This makes it easy to create targeted marketing campaigns and personalise your approach to each lead.

Prospecting tools

Many contact management systems also come with prospecting tools. Some of the most common include lead generation, social media monitoring, and outreach automation. You can use these features to help you build targeted prospect lists and reach out to them with tailored messages.

Data analysis and reporting

Contact management systems typically have a range of analytics tools to help you track important KPIs like email open rates and lead conversion rates. They also analyse contact and sales data for insight into things like customer trends and contact sources, which can help you make informed decisions.

Third-party integrations

You can integrate most contact management tools with other software and platforms, including email marketing tools and CRM systems. Apps and integrations ultimately help data flow seamlessly between systems, keeping everything synchronised and automating processes.

5 benefits of contact management system

Whether you need an employee’s phone number or the website of a potential client, an organised contact management system makes it easy to access the data you need. Here are five ways this can benefit your business.

Strengthen your customer relationships

When your teams can access customer data from multiple channels from a single platform, it means they can respond to customers faster and provide a more personalised service. And as we know, great customer experiences improve customer satisfaction, which is key to retaining customers.

Increase productivity

The beauty of contact management is that it automates routine tasks and makes your contact data easily searchable and available across devices and platforms. This saves time and frees up your teams to focus on more complex work. It’s no surprise that productivity goes up 15% for companies that implement these systems, according to Forrester.

Facilitate digital transformation

Making sure that the contact details of your customers, employees, and leads are easily accessible in a centralised, digital system is an essential first step in going digital. Contact management systems keep data organised and optimised for other digital systems.

Keep tabs on your sales pipeline

A contact management system can help you get a better idea of your sales pipeline, including how many leads you have, how many have been contacted, and how many responded. The flags and attributes you can set on contact profiles make it easy to see where prospects are in your sales funnel.

Ensure data accuracy

With a contact management system, teams can update contact details across different channels from one space. Multiple touchpoints with the same customer also flow into a single profile, helping avoid duplicate entries and keeping track of conversations throughout the platform.

Frequently asked questions

Go beyond contact management with a CRM

Contact management keeps contact details organised, current, and easy to access. It’s the foundation for understanding your leads and customers, providing insights into their relationship with your business and where they are in the customer journey.

Expand your horizons and make contact management effortless with Zendesk. Find out how our intuitive platform can help you deliver industry-leading CX, drive brand loyalty, and boost your bottom line today.