Contacts that quit - best practice

Hey folks.

"Mr. Green" here - new to this Sugar world  

Ok, regarding Contacts that leave (quit) after some time. There might be a lot of history (emails, opportunities, notes, etc) connected to that Contact that is valuable to continue to keep connected to the Account record. But at the same time, you want to identify this Contact as no longer an employee of that Account.

So what is the best practice to deal with Contacts that quit?

Thanks,

KGM

  • Hi Kristjan,

    The easiest way I can think of would be to create a checkbox field on Contacts called "No Longer With Company." You can then add this to the necessary views (subpanels, record view, list view, etc). Reports and other queries can be filtered by this and you don't have to worry about losing any of the historical activity with the contact.

    Hope this helps!
    Alex

  • Hi Alex

    Ok, that seems like a sensible approach. As I read your comment, another situation came to mind: What if Pete (contact) works for firm ABC (Account), quits and starts at firm XYZ. Both ABC and XYZ exist as our Accounts (yeah, I come from a small country ). Do you suggest we create Pete again as a Contact with new info (email, phone, etc) and check the "old Peter" as "No Longer With Company"?

    Thanks for a speedy reply and have a great weekend!

    KGM

  • Personally, that's what I would do, but I'd say that also depends on your business -- is the relationship with the individual more of a priority, or with the company that he or she works for? For instance, that could be different if you're a B2B versus B2C business.

    Depending on how often your contacts change companies, you could also create a One to Many or Many to Many relationship for Contacts to Contacts and tie the "old" profiles to the "new/current" ones.

    Sorry for a less than definitive answer for you, but hopefully this gives you some scenarios to choose between!