As businesses grow, there’s a tendency for different departments to grow apart. How often does your HR team talk to sales? When do your web developers work with the accounts department?
As departments drift apart, different people end up keeping track of only the business contacts they think they need, and everyone ends up with their own different address book for clients, suppliers, co workers etc.
A great contact management system can help bring your team back together…
Building relationships across the company
It can be difficult, especially in larger companies, to form close relationships with everyone. But friendships at work have a number of business benefits says Christine M. Riordian, writing for Harvard Business Review…
“Camaraderie at work can create “esprit de corps,” which includes mutual respect, sense of identity, and admiration to push for hard work and outcomes.”
How can contact management help your teams make friends, I hear you ask.
Making your employees’ contact details available to everyone in the company makes it easier for people to get in touch with each other without having that “can I have your phone number” conversation that some of your team might find awkward.
We have a Contactzilla team address book (as you’d expect), where staff can add and edit their own contact details and sync them up across their devices. This means our team can choose what information they want to share, update it themselves, and access details from within their device’s native contacts lists.
However you choose to share your teams’ contact information, make sure that you respect their privacy by giving them control over what information they would like to share. Whether or not you use Contactzilla, keeping your teams’ phone numbers synced up across all their devices will make it super easy for them to hook up outside work and form those all important relationships.
Stop interrupting each other
One of the initial problems we wanted to solve with Contactzilla was interruptions. Picture the scene…
Somebody realises they need to contact a client, put in an order with a supplier or schedule some time with a freelancer – but they don’t have the right phone number. So they start asking around. They end up interrupting several people before they manage to get the correct, up to date contact details. They make the call… and forget to save the contact details anywhere. And so continues the cycle…
Mark Woods, author of Attack Your Day! Before it Attacks You, discusses the effect of regular workplace interruptions on stress in this article for the Financial Times Press…
“At some point, everyone in the workplace is irritated by being interrupted during a productive flow of work. Stress caused by interruptions during a looming work deadline is also common.”
We create address books for customers, suppliers, freelancers and other groups of people we need to contact on a regular basis and share these with everyone at Contactzilla. If anyone needs to make a call, they go in the relevant Contactzilla address book and find the details. If a customer requests their information be updated, it can be done by just one person and the changes will instantly appear for everyone else at the company. Simple!
Now we can stop interrupting each other and get more work done!
Build a collaborative culture
To really bring your team(s) together, you want to create a collaborative culture where everyone knows and understands the role they play in achieving a common goal.
While some people will strive to do everything themselves, there are massive benefits to collaboration, at work and at home says Jacob Morgan, author of The Future of Work & The Collaborative Organization…
“Sure, collaboration can make our employees more productive and benefit our customers. But collaboration also allows employees to feel more connected to their jobs and co-workers, reduces stress at the workplace, makes their jobs easier, allows for more work freedom, and in general makes them happier people.”
Contacts are at the centre of your business so why not let your team manage them collaboratively? Share address books, and keep notes on contacts that everyone in the company can see. Allow your sales, marketing and finance departments to work together to build and maintain great relationships with your customers.
A great contact management system can do a world of good for your business. Try Contactzilla free today.
Photo by Steven Lelham on Unsplash
