Recruitment agency experts say that it is wise to change jobs every two to three years if one's place of work doesn't allow for career growth. Add to this changes in job titles, mailing addresses, email IDs and phone numbers – or even acquisitions that result in a company changing hands – and you’re left with contact details that are, more likely than not, outdated. There are many downsides to letting your contact database fall into disrepair. Primarily, of course, there is the issue of not being able to contact the people you want, but there are other opportunity costs as well, as described below.

Lost productivity

There’s an old saying: Strike while the iron is hot. It means taking advantage of an opportunity as soon as it arises. This is particularly apt for businesses. It is of utmost importance to follow up on potential leads immediately, while you and your business are still fresh in the mind of the potential customer. But what if that person’s contact information is out of date? Or you cannot find the business card? Workers can spend hours searching for the right information and that can cause a loss in productivity as it costs the employee – and the company – time and effort. It also leaves the employee tired and frustrated.

When the contact details are finally found, employees may be too drained and unable to follow up with the same fervour as they might have had at the beginning, had the information been readily available.

Collaboration

The disparate nature of many of today’s businesses – remote and mobile working is just as common at SMBs as at bigger organisations – means that collaboration is more important than ever. And while there are many tools available to make sure workers can communicate and share documents with each other, there’s less emphasis on sharing contact information. That means many workers often rely on out-of-date information that they might have found in an old email or from an old business card. They could be spending a lot of time searching for this information via other channels when it is entirely possible that another colleague might have had the updated information.

Such situations can be avoided by having a centralised, cloud-based contact management solution. All it takes is for one person to scan a business card and the most recent contact information will be uploaded to a cloud system where everyone else in the company can also access it. Sansan is one such contact management solution that companies can use to centralise their database and streamline their work processes.

Keeping a contact database up-to-date helps the smooth running of a business. It helps the sales and marketing teams build and maintain relationships – that’s vital to all companies but even more so for SMBs who require business to enable them to grow. Always having accurate contact details means a business can get in touch with existing and potential clients whenever needed and present themselves as a competent and professional outfit at the same time.