VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

mcm · Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2005 6:20 pm Post subject: Keeping Track of Contacts

How do you keep track of all the people you call and email? I have been keeping the information in an Excel spreadsheet but it isn't satisfactory. I would like to have a separate screen for each contact so I can easily see all their information and put in dates of contact and follow-up, and while I'm at it, I would like the program to give me reminders like, here is a list of people that you have not been in touch with for X amount of time. And I can vary X. Like, it has been 2 weeks since the initial contact, and 3 months since they last contacted me, or whatever.

Can anybody help? Rejoicing in advance...

Mary

Chuck Davis · Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2005 7:13 pm Post subject: Here's one

Mary,

Try "Act!". Staples has it. Let's you manage contacts, history, email, snail mailing ect. Good stuff.

Chuck D

Deirdre · Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2005 7:55 pm Post subject:

I used to keep an actual paper diary.

I started with a small loose-leaf binder, so I could add sheets in alphabetical order.

Each page had a single contact on it and I would update the page with a note of what I had sent or if I made a phone call.

The other way to order it would be chronologically. just keep plowing throught the book... when you get to the end, start over.
_________________
DBCooperVO.com

schaer · Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2005 9:07 pm Post subject:

Mary,

If you have a pc that runs on Win XP go to START > NEW OFFICE DOCUMENT, choose the "Databases" tab. There you will find a Contact Management template. Works pretty good.

Bernard

SoundsGreat-Elaine Singer · Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2005 9:21 am Post subject:

I use Time and Chaos which is a pretty good contact manager software package I got over the net. If I remember correctly it costs $45 and you can try it for 30 days for free to make sure it works for you. Check it out at http://www.chaossoftware.com

You should be able to import the data from your Excel file into the program as well.
_________________
Elaine
The Youthful Mature Voice (Emeritus)
Senectitude is not for the faint of heart.

mcm · Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2005 10:22 am Post subject:

Thanks so much for the suggestions. Time & Chaos looks very good and is 1/3 the cost of Act. I never liked Access, and outpaced my handwritten backup to Excel when I started making 40 contacts a day. So I think I will try the trial download of T&C and see if it takes the C out of my T.

Thanks again!

Mary

scooter · Guest

I still use the good old fashioned card file for my phone contacts. I can dig in to that as the mood strikes and make as many or as few calls as I like without screwing around..oops..scrolling around in my computer database..which I do have and which I use for my mail campaigns.

So thescene goes like this. Find a new contact..enter name address,

company etc. on my 5x8 card..enter most of the same material in my conputer catabase and then..and then..and then...

Deirdre · Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 5:04 pm Post subject:

Mary--

Are you seriously making 40 contacts a day?
_________________
DBCooperVO.com

mcm · Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 6:37 pm Post subject:

It has leveled off, but last week I did have several days of almost that many. Actually my record is 37 in one day, and I had two of those last week, and numerous days in the 30's, many in the 20's. You've got to remember I'm still new at this, so these are first contacts, and not all of them have been 2-way. I send out a lot of emails. I'm making fewer first contacts now because I'm writing or calling the ones I have not heard back from. I suppose it could go on indefinitely, once I start branching out from New England.

And during all of this, your words have come back to me several times: "All the time. All the damn time". It's true! It's a good thing it's also fun.

mcm · Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 3:13 am Post subject:

OMG, I love this program. Once you've filled in the data for the contact there's a button you can click to go to MapQuest and get directions. How cool is that?

Elaine, thanks again.

mcm · Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2005 1:32 pm Post subject:

Did I mention that I like Time & Chaos a lot? There seems to be no end to the compulsions I can indulge with it. I can drag & drop files into a contact's folder, like a copy of the invoice, a copy of the audition or gig/ script (text and audio), a copy of the scanned image of the check they sent, a scanned image of the thank-you note I wrote -- and I can sort by contact date and know when it's time to contact 'em again-- what am I going to do with all the time it's saving me? I have so much time on my hands now I've taken to talking to myself into a microphone....

Deirdre · Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2005 1:48 pm Post subject:

ConnieTerwilliger · Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2005 7:24 pm Post subject:

Outlook works pretty well if you already have that and don't want to buy another piece of software.

Connie
_________________
Playing for a living...
www.voiceover-talent.com
YouTube Channel: http://youtube.com/connieterwilliger

Spacegypsy · Guest

I use Outlook as well.

I do have ACT! but in the end, it's so much more convenient to add clients, who I contact via email mostly, directly into the program the emails come in on.

Saves me opening another program too!

John M · Guest

I like to use Thunderbird for E-mail and Sunbird for Organizing. And they're 100% free. Laugh

http://www.mozilla.org