Contacts
Epic’s contact module is in its third revision and development is already underway for a more interactive fourth version.
Right now you’ll find a Contacts link in the header of any module you’re in so you can quickly get to the Contacts page and when you’re in the Contacts module, you’ll always have a link to the Contacts in the top left of the page for quick navigation. You’ll also see a list of the most recent items that you’ve clicked on which is extremely convenient when you’re wandering around the database.
Directly below the Contacts link you’ll find a Lists link where you can create and manage lists based on companies or contacts.
Combining Duplicates
When a contact or company has been entered into epic more than once, these duplicates need to be combined into one contact. The process is very simple and is achieved using the search function. Simply by searching for the name, you’ll see a check box next to each exact match. If you don’t see that check box, it is usually because you’ve searched for a contact that doesn’t exactly match it’s duplicate. For example; John Doe and Jon Doe wouldn’t be an exact match. You can use the check boxes below the search box to display brief details about all of the contacts returned in your search and also to force those check boxes next to the contacts/companies to appear. When combining duplicates it is highly recommended that you have both boxes checked so that you can make sure the contacts/companies that you are combining are in fact the same contact/company twice. For example, if I searched for Doe and my matches showed me Jon and John, I wouldn’t know they were the same person until I could confirm some kind of similarity, like they work at the same company, have the same phone number or email address. I can see all of that information in one place by checking the show brief details box. Once I’m certain that they are the same person, I can combine them by checking the check box next to each of their names and then clicking the Combine Selected Duplicates submission button.
The system will then gather all of the information attached to each of the contacts (phone, fax, email, awards, seminars, membership, user names, passwords, etc..) and attach all of it to one dominant contact, which is decided based on whichever contact had more information attached to it to begin with. You’ll be presented with the combined contact once you’ve done that and then you can remove any duplicate information like email addresses, phone numbers and if the contact is now linked to the same companies more than once, you’ll have to remove those superfluous links by editing the company records and then pressing the X next to one of them.
At any time you can confirm that a contact is unique on the company record by putting your mouse over the link to their contact page. In the URL which will be displayed at the bottom of your web browser in the status bar, you’ll see part of the address which will say contact=12345. If two contactID numbers are the same, that person is linked to that company more than once and one link should be removed to keep the database clean.
Answers to your questions
Information below comes from Angela Lindsay, June 2010:
Q. What type of text and formatting to use?
A. Use both Upper and Lower case letters and follow Canada Post address guidelines. For example a postal code needs to be all upper case with a space in between and R.R.#8 should be written as RR 8. I will make a note to cover this further in the training.
Q. What to do with multiple company locations?
A. I suggest this be indicated in the company name ie: – Head Office or – Georgetown. This way it is easily recognizable in the search results when only the company name is entered.
Q. What to do with a deceased contact?
A. Currently I indicate this in both the contact and company notes field. I remove any necessary contact info from both areas, for example a personal email address bob@…. I also remove them from any relevant lists, if required, and unlink the contact from the company so they don’t get any future mailings.
Q. What to do when a company goes out of business?
A. Indicate this in the notes field along with the last known address and then remove addresses and other information that is obsolete; address, phone, fax, etc.
Q. What to do when companies merge?
A. Indicate this in the notes field, change company name field and leave old operating name (see note below). Combine company info and edit addresses, etc. as necessary.
Q. What to do with a company changes its name?
A. indicate this in the notes field. Leave operating name as old name and change company name. This allows for the new company to be pulled when someone searches for the old name. Problem here is that you will need to go through all of the notes fields for the companies that show up in the search results to find which company they have changed to. As per Trade Show Dept. old lists are showing up with the new company name not existing name at the time.
