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Managing Contacts

Brenda McDonald
  • Updated

What is a Contact

Simply put, a contact is a person that you know of.  You might already have a relationship with them, or they might be someone that you want to connect with in the future.   

How to find Contact Information

All Contact information is stored in the CRM area of Membrain. This is found in the main menu.

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The quickest way to find a contact you are looking for is to use the search feature in Membrain.  Just go to the search icon in the main menu (or hits on your keyboard) and start typing! You will see a list appear, including Companies, Contacts, Sales Project and Prospects. You can either choose from this list or hit enter to see a full list where you can see more options and select the contact you are looking for.

You can also click into a contact view from other areas of Membrain where you see a contact name highlighted in blue font. For example, from a Sales Project, Prospect or a Company View.

Contact Information

At the top of the Contact View, a number of fields are visible:

  • Name of the Contact and their job title
  • The company where they work
  • Phone number, Mobile number, Email Address(es)
  • Social media links (Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook, Instagram and Skype)

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Contact Enrichment

Details about the Contact can be updated automatically by using the Enrich enrich_icon.JPG icon, found just to the right of the contact name. The Enrichment tool can be found on the contact pages in Membrain and also when hoovering on a Contact to see the preview dialog.

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Clicking here sends Membrain out to a web service called Full Contact which retrieves and offers company and contact updates which you can choose to accept to keep your CRM database up to date with current information.

Fields that can be updated by using the Enrich service are:

  • Profile picture
  • Job title
  • Phone, Mobile, email address
  • Social media links (LinkedIn, Twitter, Google, Facebook, Instagram and Skype
Membrain will not offer updates to the information that is already recorded. It will only suggest new information for fields that have no data recorded.

Disable the Enrichment Tool

As a Membrain Administrator, you can disable the Enrichment tool in the Privacy & Security section in System Setup.

  1. Go to System Setup and scroll down to Privacy & Security
  2. Click on Contact/Company Enrichment Settingsmceclip0.png
  3. Disable Contact Enrichment (as default, this function is enabled)
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Current

Under this heading you see all current Sales Projects or Prospecting Campaigns this contact is linked to. If the contact is linked to a prospecting campaign, an overview will be shown beside the binoculars icon. The same applies for a Sales Project, if they are involved in a Sales Project, details of this project will be shown beside a green leather wallet. 

A contact can be linked to multiple Sales Projects and multiple Prospecting Campaigns at the same time.

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Preview at Hover

Hover over a sales project to see even more information

  • which process it belongs to
  • how long till closing date (in days)
  • next step in the process
  • Value of the sales project
  • And more

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History

Here you see all the historical Sales Projects and Prospecting Campaigns this contact has been linked to in the past., including date stamp of when they were added.  

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You also see additional information here, such as if a Sales Project was won or archived, or if the Prospect was disqualified or converted to a Sales Project.

This is shown in the status field, and also in subtle changes to the icon itself.

Information

This is where you find more detailed information about the Contact itself.  Information is stored in Custom Fields, which are created by your administrator during the initial setup of Membrain.

Examples of information that can be stored here are things like skill set, Skype ID, or perhaps a birthday.  Anything that you believe is important to record about a Contact should be stored here.  And information can be in the form of single or multiple select lists, text or numerical fields.

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The first 3 fields in this view are default fields which can make filtering your company information even easier -

  • Left Company - This is a yes/no field that is set when a contact leaves a company.  
  • Country - The country where this contact is based
  • External Identifier - Necessary if you link to another program outside of Membrain and need to identify Contacts by unique ID, rather than name. 

If you would like to view the contact page without the "Information" section, you can do so by selecting the arrow on the right hand side. This will hide everything under "Information." 

Activity Stream

At the bottom of the Contact View, you find the Activity Stream. This is a great resource to see all the activity, past and future in chronological order. Every appointment, email, task, note... pretty much anything that ever happens with this Contact is recorded here. And all filterable of course to help you easily find the information you need.

You can also comment on these activities to keep all discussions right there in context, and even mention your colleagues to get their immediate attention on specific items.

Labels

To the right of the Contact View you will see a list of Labels that have been applied to this Contact.  You can edit the labels assigned to this Contact by clicking on the edit button and choosing which labels apply from the list.   

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Contact Hierarchy

Below labels, you will see the Contact Hierarchy. This shows you who the contact reports to within their organization.  Information added here is found in a clear visual form in the Organisational Chart.

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Notes

Under labels is a Notes field.  The notes field is designed to record information specifically related to the Contact only, such as a recent promotion, or some other specific piece of information. 

Tools and Functionality

In the toolbar at the top of the page, a number of quick options are available:

New Prospect - allows you to add the contact to a prospecting campaign 

More More_Menu_3_dots.PNG

  • Organizational Chart - Brings you to the Company Organizational Chart where this contact is found
  • Copy Contact - Clicking copy will create a new Contact which has the same Company, Title, Labels and Custom Field Values as the source Contact. Other data such as Phone, Email and Social is not copied
  • Create Appointment - Create a new appointment which is linked to this contact and related company
  • Create Task - Create a new Follow-Up Task with this contact linked as a participant
  • Delete - Option to Delete this contact.  Confirmation is required before the contact is deleted
    Note, if a contact has left the company, it is recommended that you use the Left Company option, instead of deleting
  • Email - Send a New Email to this contact
  • Email Membrain Meet invite - Send a new Membrain Meet Invite to this contact
  • Export Activities - Allows you to export all activities related to this contact.  Options are available to filter these activities before exporting.
  • Go to Company - Brings you to the company this contact works for
  • Mark as left company - This changes the Left Company field in the Contact View to Yes.  
  • Merge Contact - This allows you to merge duplicate contacts to the same Contact record. Options are available which help you choose the correct details you want to the correct contact before you merge
  • New Prospect - add the contact to a prospecting campaign

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