Categorizing CRM Contacts – Location, Location, Location

-By Christina R. Fritsch JD, Founder and CRM Success Consultant

Another type of category you may want to include for your CRM contacts is location. A location category can help to ensure that the right messages reach the right contacts.

For instance, some firms like to include categories for the offices that a particular contact works with most frequently. That way, when the office has an event, they can be sure to invite those Clients. This is also important because sometimes you may deal with contacts who live in one place, but work for a company that is in another. You may not want to invite the Yankees fans to the Braves game. Location categories can help to prevent that.

Additionally, some firms want to be able to categorize their CRM contacts with all of the locations in which they do business. For instance, a company may be headquartered in one state, but may have operations in several states across the country. As a result, they may be interested in legal updates or alerts for multiple locations. If you search only by the company main address when you send the email, you might miss the opportunity to provide information – and possibly legal services – to those Clients. But if you add a category for all of their regional locations, you can make sure they get the targeted information for each state.

Other firms take location categorization to another level by utilizing software to convert zip codes to specific counties or regions. For instance, you might be having an event in Atlanta, but because the population is so spread out, you also would want to invite people in the surrounding cities or counties. As with many other things, CRM success sometimes really is all about location.