Observation:
Our clients’ lives are constantly evolving. Whether it’s buying a new home, celebrating a marriage, or changing cell phone numbers; keeping the CRM up to date requires diligent attention. Many times, contact data has been migrated to the CRM from a previous system, an excel spreadsheet, added manually, or a mixture of all three. Tackling contact cleanup is an ongoing process for your office. When planned accordingly, the monumental task of cleaning up contact data can become a part of your daily routine rather than a daunting project.
Directions:
When approaching data cleanup in bulk, there are three methods.
Method 1 – Bulk changes within Redtail:
This process is for changing the same field for many contacts to the same value all at once. An example would be updating many contacts’ Status to “Client”.
1. Gather a list of contacts that have a field that needs to be updated. Use the Advanced Search to start by casting the widest net. For example, if none of your contacts have Statuses, use the search: Contact Type is Equal to Individual. By default, when contacts are added they have one of Redtail’s five Types; Individual, Business, Association, Trust, or Union.
Redtail Essentials: Advanced Search Video
2. If all contacts in search results need a field changed to the same value, check the top checkbox to select all contacts resulting in the search. If selecting all contacts, make sure to “Select ALL X Contacts”.
Redtail Essentials: Advanced Search Video
3. Once the contacts have been selected, Contact Options on the righthand side will become clickable.
Redtail Essentials: Advanced Search Video
Method 2 – Individual changes within Redtail:
The second method helps with updating information that is not the same for many records like birthdate, SSN, Client Since date, etc.
1. Gather a list of contacts that have information that needs to be updated.
Redtail Essentials: Advanced Search Video
2. Save the search criteria as a Quicklist.
How do I create saved searches (QuickLists) for repeated use in Redtail?
Redtail Essentials: Advanced Search Video
3. Click into the first contact on the list and make any changes to the contact record. Use the “Next”, “Previous”, and “Return to Search” buttons in the top right corner to navigate to other contacts in that Quicklist/ Search.
Redtail Essentials: Contact Record Video
Method 3 – Bulk and individual changes outside Redtail:
And finally, the third method enlists an excel spreadsheet into the cleanup process. This is the best of the first two methods because information can be added in bulk or individually in the excel spreadsheet.
1. Decide what fields need to be audited or updated for contacts and create a Custom Export with those fields.
2. Gather a list of contacts that have one or more fields that need to be updated and export them to the Custom Export Template.
Manage Your Account: Manage Downloads
Redtail Essentials: Advanced Search Video
3. Update, add, and edit the information in excel for the contacts. Save any changes and send back to Redtail's Import Team for the changes to be imported. Email address: import@redtailtechnology.com saying you have a spreadsheet with updated information to be imported- they will send a secure link for the file to be uploaded to.
BONUS: Create a "contact clean up" workflow that guides your office through the different fields that should always be filled out for contacts based on their Statuses.
Additional Cleanup Resources It is not uncommon for there to be duplicate records of the same contact. This can be caused by an import, incorrect permissions, or contacts added by mistake. Check for duplicate contacts on a regular basis using the Contacts by Duplicate Names report.
Contacts by Duplicate Names Report
Completed activities become notes. Marking an activity completed also indicates that the action or event has been completed or taken place. Check for uncompleted activities that are scheduled in the past; these are referred to as “Past Due”.
Result:
As you can see, cleanup through any of the methods above is as easy as 1, 2, 3!
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