Poll: Do you keep a contact list for your clients including address, email, etc.? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you keep a contact list for your clients including address, email, etc.?".
View the poll results »
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When I started out I created a very detailed contact list (including contact person, address, telephone and fax number, and email for direct clients, translation agencies, colleagues working in different language pairs, colleagues with the same language pair(s) as me and my suppliers) and I kept it up-to-date for a long while but nowadays I'm not really shopping for new clients anymore, I just want to held a few very special customers close to my heart…
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Not only that, even photos! With some people, their names don't tell me if they are male or female, so it's very handy. Also, if there are issues with a translation, I can always contact them via email, phone, mobile, some have shared with me their Whatsapp numbers. Due to timezones, sometimes only a colleague within the agency is available somewhere else in the world, so it's good to have many contact details both from project managers and companies. In other cases an invoice gets lost because ... See more Not only that, even photos! With some people, their names don't tell me if they are male or female, so it's very handy. Also, if there are issues with a translation, I can always contact them via email, phone, mobile, some have shared with me their Whatsapp numbers. Due to timezones, sometimes only a colleague within the agency is available somewhere else in the world, so it's good to have many contact details both from project managers and companies. In other cases an invoice gets lost because a PM left the company or so. So I can ask another person in the company to look for it and its status. All this information helps me be very organized. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Poll Discussion | Oct 7, 2021 |
Yes
I will put them into an excel
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| No, as their postal addresses are on my invoices and other details are in my email archive | Oct 7, 2021 |
All I need to do if I wish to send them a Christmas card or something else by snail mail, is look for their company name in my invoice folder. And if I need an email address and contact person's name, I search my email archive.
[Edited at 2021-10-07 07:50 GMT]
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 00:45
Spanish to English
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All these details are on the bills I issue to them. I don't keep a separate list of contacts. I have a big folder called WORK and inside it there is a folder for each client entity, and inside these there is a folder for each person/client.
| | | | Nikolay Novitskiy 
Russian Federation
Local time: 03:45
Member (2018)
English to Russian
| ...in a well-protected place. | Oct 7, 2021 |
Yes, I keep this information, but I understand how important is it to protect this data from stealing!
All the data it's translated into a hardcoded cipher (I used quantum neuro-networks stochastic algorithms) and is kept in a tritanium-armored underwater bunker. The place is guarded by 7 mute guards without families and close friends. In case of any anauthorized access the data will be self-destroyed by a thermo-nuclear blast, while all survivors will be killed by a deadly flesh-de... See more Yes, I keep this information, but I understand how important is it to protect this data from stealing!
All the data it's translated into a hardcoded cipher (I used quantum neuro-networks stochastic algorithms) and is kept in a tritanium-armored underwater bunker. The place is guarded by 7 mute guards without families and close friends. In case of any anauthorized access the data will be self-destroyed by a thermo-nuclear blast, while all survivors will be killed by a deadly flesh-devouring pathogen.
I assume these safety measures are decent... But who knows ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Half-baked security | Oct 7, 2021 |
Nikolay Novitskiy wrote: Yes, I keep this information, but I understand how important is it to protect this data from stealing! All the data it's translated into a hardcoded cipher (I used quantum neuro-networks stochastic algorithms) and is kept in a tritanium-armored underwater bunker. The place is guarded by 7 mute guards without families and close friends. In case of any anauthorized access the data will be self-destroyed by a thermo-nuclear blast, while all survivors will be killed by a deadly flesh-devouring pathogen. I assume these safety measures are decent... But who knows
No sharks?! Come on, you’re not even trying.
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 00:45
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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"Do you keep a contact list for your clients including address, email, etc.?"
Yes, I learnt the slow, hard way that it's better to have a separate file with all the relevant information about a client (names/addresses of PMs, address for invoicing, special invoicing instructions, instructions on how to find POs in my old mails, login details for various portals, etc.)
I use a program called Cherry Tree.
I have thought about creating cards for each individual PM, along with some information about them (photo, their education, hobbies etc.), so that I can write tailored replies that create the impression that I care, but there are privacy concerns with creating such a list.
Some information w.r.t. PMs can be relevant to keep, however, such as whether it is a man or a woman (useful for my Middle-Eastern and Asian clients, where to my Western European ear many women have male-sounding names) and what their full name and/or use name is (useful for countries where half of the PMs in an agency are all named Mohammad and the e-mails do not specify which one I'm talking to).
| | | | | Depends on the level of confidentiality of the job | Oct 7, 2021 |
When something highly confidential or fully classified is at hand, I prefer to be left with least possible data in my posession. To fear less whether someone'd try to leak it through me.
When I don't have it, I needn't worry it would be stolen from me.
Sometimes, clients accomodate my special needs on that issue, so I get a job in the offline equipment with filled in forms which I sign off and return when all's completed.
| | | | Odile Breuvart
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:45
Member
English to French
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| Relevant info | Oct 7, 2021 |
I keep a list of my suppliers/clients with the rates offered, deadlines for invoice/payment and a column for my personal comments (trusted client or no), etc.
| | | | Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 19:45
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
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| Yes, of course | Oct 7, 2021 |
My client spreadsheet has all these info, and it's linked to the invoice, stats and other files for each client in their own folder, which import these info from the client spreadsheet. Organization is not a bad thing for anyone.
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Kay Denney
France
Local time: 00:45
French to English
I have a good memory for names, and any self-respecting client will have their contact info in their email signature, so I really don't see the need to create a database.
| | | | Aline Amorim
Brazil
Local time: 19:45
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Nan Jia wrote:
Yes
I will put them into an excel
I completely agree.
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but all necessary details are in my accounting system, that is well guarded by the professional provider.
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