Introduction

How does the Contacts module help you accelerate your operations?

Let us learn in detail!
 

Key Features of Contact Management

Good contact management improves sales, marketing, and customer service and saves time.  With Vtiger, you have all you need for effective contact management.

Customize Contacts

You can modify the following:

1. Contacts Fields and Layout: You can add/modify fields and the layout of the fields. You can also identify header and key fields that you would like to be shown
2. Deduplication rules: Identify the duplicate matching fields (usually the email address or phone number), and let Vtiger do the rest. Though you can use the duplicate merging tool to merge records after importing, it is better to do this before importing your data.
3. Consents: Vtiger Privacy Guard allows you to configure the consents you need to comply with privacy laws such as GDPR in Europe. Contacts will be able to grant consent from the communication preferences page and contact forms. 
4. Contact Lifecycle Stages and Statuses: From Lead Stage to Customer, your Contact's lifecycle will involve many stages. Each stage will also have statuses (For example: The lead stage might have Hot, and Cold statuses). You can customize these from the picklist editor, and the mapping to the stage-specific statuses can be done on the Picklist Dependency Settings page.
5. Contact Profile Score: You can customize the scoring rules from the Profile Score configuration page.
6. Contact Engagement Score 
7. Contact Closed States: You can customize 
8. Contact One View: In the Contact Summary view, you can see everything you need on one page. From One View Settings, you can customize the related records you would like to see when viewing a Contact
9. Contact Analytics: Any stats related to the contact, such as outstanding invoice amount, and the # of products bought, can be shown on the Contact Analytics page.

Automate Contact creation and updation

1. Import data  - import data from CSV file, 
2. Sync data with existing tools - Vtiger can synchronize with your Contact data in  Google, Office365, Quickbooks, and more
3. Capture Leads directly from Facebook  /  Google / Webforms

Enrich Contact information

1. Enrich data using integrations with Clearbit

Customize Contact Alerts

1. Vtiger sends Idle Contact Alerts. Customize the alert rules from the Actions page.

Calculus AI

1. If you have the Calculus AI add-on installed, you will also see the "Best Time to Contact" on the Contact Record.

Conversations

1. Vtiger connects with all key communication channels, including Email, Phone, Chat, SMS, WhatsApp, and Social to bring your conversations together.​​​​​​
2. The Inbox module makes it easy to bring group emails and individual emails into Vtiger
3. Mailroom allows the automatic creation of Cases, Contacts, and Leads from incoming emails.
4. The Phonecalls module allows you to connect Vtiger to your phone gateway for click2call functions shows incoming call pop-up, and receive call recording.
5. You can also  WhatsApp, SMS, and Social conversations including via Facebook Messenger, can be easily brought into Vtiger. 

Conversations Analysis

1. With the Calculus AI add-on, Vtiger can analyze each call, email, and chat conversation. It will flag the ones that need to be reviewed. It also offers suggestions to improve the conversation.

Related

1. Appointment Scheduling - Make it easy for your clients to pick time by sharing your or your team's calendar.
2. Email Sequences - For outbound prospecting, automate the drip emails
3. Customer Portal - Allow your customers to log in and view information related to them, such as tickets.

Important Fields in Contacts 

Creating a Contact

There are three ways to create a contact.

• From the Contacts module
• Using Quick Create
• By importing

Let’s look at the first method.

From the Contacts module

Follow these steps to create a contact from the Contacts module:

1. Log in to your CRM account.  
2. Click the Main Menu.  
3. Go to Essentials.
4. Select Contacts. 

5. Click +Add Contact.

6. Fill out all the necessary fields.
   • You can fill out only the mandatory fields (marked with *) or all the essential fields. 
   • Click View full form to see all the fields.
7. Click Save.

Using Quick Create

Quick Create is a handy option for creating records from anywhere in the CRM. You can identify Quick Create by the + icon on the top bar of your CRM screen.

Follow these steps to create a contact using Quick Create:

1. Log in to your CRM account.  
2. Click the + icon on the top of your CRM screen.
3. Select Contacts under Essentials.

4. Fill out the necessary fields.
5. Click Save.

By Importing

You can import contact information from a CSV or ICS file.

To learn more about the importing process, click here.
 

Contact Record Views

You can view a contact record in two ways:

List View

The List View is what you see when you land on the Contacts module from the Main Menu (Main Menu > Essentials > Contacts).

On the List View, you can see contact information in columnar format. You can also perform actions such as export, mass edit, merge, etc. 

To learn more about the List View, click here.

Summary View

The Summary View is what you see when you open a contact record. It offers a birds-eye view of a contact with information such as its lifecycle stage, related records, updates made, etc.

Here are a few essential features of the Summary View:

• Header section - This is the part below the contact name. It shows the Header fields you set up under Module Layouts & Fields for Contacts to show important information.
• Best time to contact - This is located beside the Convert Contact button. It uses customer touchpoints, such as emails, meetings, etc., to show the best time to reach out to a contact. 
• Related tabs - The tabs you see on the right-side display the related information of a contact, such as documents, quotes, invoices, etc.
• One View - One View is among the related tabs of a contact. It shows a contact’s related deals, organizations, quotes, and cases. To learn more about One View in Contacts, click here.
• Activity section - It shows internal comments (@mentions and conversations you have with other CRM users), customer touchpoints, and other record updates.
• More icon - The More icon on the top-right corner of a contact record shows all the nice-to-haves, such as options to 
  • Schedule a Zoom meeting with Schedule Conference
  • Send a survey link
  • Send an SMS
  • Create an event
  • Create or link documents, deals, and quotes
  • Delete a contact​​​​​​
• The time zone for contacts ensures that date and time information in automated emails and SMS messages is displayed based on the contact's specific time zone rather than the assigned user's time zone.

Note:

• In the Details View of a Contact record, the Last Contacted On field displays the date the record was last contacted.
• The Source column in Touchpoints indicates how emails or SMS messages were sent, such as via CRM, Workflow, Approval, or Mailroom.
• The Last Contacted Via field specifies the channel and Source (e.g., email or SMS) used to contact the record as listed below:
  • Workflow – Emails
  • Approvals – Emails
  • Process – Emails
  • Workflow-SMSNotifier
  • Approval-SMSNotifier
  • Process-SMS
  • Invitation-Email – For calendar invite emails.

For calendar invite emails, the Last Contacted Via field updates as Invitation-Emails, but no Touchpoints entry is created since no email record is generated. 
Identifying Different Contact Types

Earlier, we mentioned that the contact could be a lead, potential, or a customer. How do you identify which contact is which type?

It’s simple - by looking at its Lifecycle Stage.

Lifecycle Stage is a field in the Contacts Module that depicts the entire lifecycle of a contact. It has different values such as Lead, Marketing Qualified Lead, Sales Qualified Lead, Customer, etc.

When you convert a lead, you can use one of the lifecycle values to represent it. Let us see how.

PI Tagging with Privacy Guard

When the Privacy Guard extension is installed, PI (Personally-Identifying) tagging for the First Name field becomes available.

• In the Contacts, you can mark the First Name field as personally-identifying by enabling the Personally-Identifying checkbox in the field settings.
• This tagging ensures the field is treated as sensitive data, helping your organization comply with data privacy regulations.
• Once marked, the system allows for automated data erase of the First Name field after a defined retention period, supporting your contact data privacy and compliance efforts.

Note: This can also be applied to other relevant fields that contain personally-identifying information.

Converting a Lead

When a lead is qualified and determined to be a potential sale, you can convert them into a deal. You can also create an organization record simultaneously to store their company information.

Converting a lead in Vtiger CRM is a simple process.

Follow these steps to convert a lead:

1. Log in to your CRM account.
2. Click the Main Menu.  
3. Go to Essentials.
4. Select Contacts.   
5. From the List View, open the contact you want to convert.
6. Click the Convert Contact button on the top of the Summary View.  
7. Enter the following information:
   1. Lifecycle Stage - What stage of the sales process is the contact in? For example, marketing qualified, sales qualified, customer, etc.
   2. Status - Is the contact active, inactive, or No Longer With Company (NLWC)? 
   3. Assigned To - Which CRM user is the contact assigned to?
   4. Do you want to create a deal? - Enable the New Deal checkbox if you want to create a deal simultaneously while converting the contact.
      1. Fill out the deal information.
   5. Click Save. 

You can see the deal you created under Main Menu > Sales > Deals.
Setting up Contact Hierarchy

When dealing with multiple contacts in a deal, you can set up a tree structure involving all the contacts to understand their hierarchy. So, if a deal’s contact reports to another contact, you can tell by looking at the hierarchy.

Follow these steps to set up a contact hierarchy:

1. Log in to your CRM account.
2. Click the Main Menu.
3. Go to Essentials.
4. Select Contacts.
5. From the List View, open the contact you want to convert.
6. Click the Edit icon on the top right side of the screen.

7. Look for the Reports To field and select the contact who is a level above in the contact hierarchy. You can do the same if you are creating a new contact.
8. Click Save.   

Follow these steps to view a contact’s hierarchy:

1. Log in to your CRM account.
2. Click the Main Menu.
3. Go to Essentials.
4. Select Contacts.
5. From the List View, open the contact you want to convert.
6. Click the More icon on the Summary View.
7. Select the Contact Hierarchy icon.

You will see something similar to this on viewing a contact’s hierarchy:

Transferring Contact Ownership

If a sales rep has discontinued pursuing a deal, you can transfer the deal’s ownership and associated contacts to another rep. 

Follow these steps to transfer ownership of a contact:

1. Log in to your CRM account.
2. Click the Main Menu.
3. Go to Essentials.
4. Select Contacts. 
5. From the List View, open the contact you want to convert.
6. Click the More icon on the Summary View.
7. Select the Transfer Ownership icon.  
8. Enter the following information:
   1. Select Related Modules - Select the related records you want to transfer to the new owner. 
   2. Assigned To - Select the new owner of the contact and the related records.
   3. Transfer Closed Records - Enable this checkbox to transfer closed records to the new owner. 
   4. Click Save.

You can see the new owner’s name in the Assigned To fields of the contact and the related records that you transferred.
Exporting Contacts

You can export contact information in mass from the List View. Contacts are exported into a CSV file. 

Choose which records to export with the following options:

• Export selected records - You can use this option when you have selected a set of records.
• Export records in the current page - Use this option to export only the contacts on the current page of the List View.
• Export all data - This option allows you to export all the contact records in the CRM.

Follow these steps to export contacts:

1. Log in to your CRM account.
2. Click the Main Menu.
3. Go to Essentials.
4. Select Contacts. 

5. Select records on the List View by hovering over the left corner of the contact rows.
   1. You can select only the records that you want to export.
   2. You can hover over the left side of the leftmost column to select all the records.
6. Click the Export icon on the toolbar that appears on the top-left of the column names.  
7. Choose one of the export options (explained above).
8. Click Export.

Mass Deleting Contacts

What if there’s a clear ‘No’ from a lead? Or is a contact no longer associated with your business? You can delete their records from the CRM to avoid contacting them. 

We know that you can delete individual contacts from the Summary View. But what do you do if you want to delete multiple contacts at once? Let us see.

Follow these steps to delete contact records in mass:

1. Log in to your CRM account.
2. Click the Main Menu.  
3. Go to Essentials.
4. Select Contacts.   
5. Select records on the List View by hovering over the left corner of the contact rows.
   1. You can select only the records that you want to export.
   2. You can hover over the left side of the leftmost column to select all the records.
6. Click the Delete icon in the toolbar on the top-left of the column names.

7. Click Yes, delete to confirm.

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