How to Manage Contacts

Purpose

To establish a consistent process for creating and managing contacts in HubSpot, ensuring accuracy, organization, and efficiency in communication and data management.

Contacts entered in our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, HubSpot, should include individuals with whom you maintain regular communication, as well as those who should receive our marketing and informational mailings. These contacts typically include, but are not limited to:

·         Clients

o   Including but not limited to: Village Manager/President, Mayor, Village Engineer, Public Works Director, Assistant Public Works Director, Other Key Municipal Staff (e.g., Directors of Community Development, Planning, Finance, Water/Wastewater Operators, etc.)

• Vendors
• Strategic Partners
• Subconsultants

When entering contacts, ensure they are relevant to our business objectives and may benefit from receiving our firm’s newsletter, invitations to events, or announcements about new services and projects.

For the purpose of this document, the term 'contacts' will include clients, vendors, strategic partners, subconsultants, and other relevant contacts we interact with at Baxter & Woodman.

 

Accessing HubSpot

1. Log in to HubSpot using SSO. If you do not have a HubSpot login, please contact mwuellner@baxterwoodman.com or tmelone@baxterwoodman.com.
2. Navigate to the "Contacts" section from the left hand navigation under “CRM.”

 

Creating a New Contact 

1. Click on the "Create Contact" button in the upper right corner of the contacts page.
2. Enter the required fields to ensure successful integration with Vantagepoint:

• Email Address
• First Name
• Last Name (Mandatory to facilitate searches and avoid duplicates)
• Title
  • Please avoid using title abbreviations (spell out Public Works Director, don’t use PWD)
• Street Address (Optional)
• City (Optional)
• State/Region
  • Please spell the state (e.g., Illinois)
• Postal Code (Optional)
• Phone Number (Optional)
• Sync (Optional if you want the contact to be synced with Vantagepoint for invoice purposes)
• Associate the appropriate Company with the contact by clicking the arrow to the right of “Search” under “Companies”
  • If the Company does not exist in HubSpot, one must be created in HubSpot prior to adding to a contact
  • If the Contact is associated with another company outside his/her primary company such as an elected position or representative, then click “+ Add more” and select the appropriate company and paired association label. A paired label is different words used to describe each side of the associated records' relationship such as Client and Attorney. If you require a paired label that does not exist, please contact mwuellner@baxterwoodman.com or tmelone@baxterwoodman.com.
• Associate any appropriate Deals or Events
• Since an address is optional for contacts, you can associate a contact’s address with Company office addresses using the "Locations" panel. Click on "+Add" next to "Locations" and either select the appropriate location (labeled with the Client ID and office type, such as Village Hall, Public Works, etc.) or create a new location if none exists. If a contact lacks an address, mailing lists will automatically use the primary company address associated with that contact.
  1. For more information on adding multiple locations for a company, please refer to this HubSpot knowledgebase article: https://kb.baxterwoodman.com/how-do-i-add-a-location

1. Click Create
2. Review the entered data for accuracy
3. Click “Save” if additional information entered is added during your review in step 2.4

Additional Resources: Watch this video on Baxter & Woodman’s HubSpot Knowledge Base that covers creating companies, contacts and deals: https://kb.baxterwoodman.com/hubspot-201-training-video

Managing Existing Contacts

Note: Contact records will be maintained in HubSpot. Any contacts requested for Vantagepoint will automatically sync between the two platforms.

1. Locate a contact in HubSpot by using the search bar or filtering options on the Contacts page.
2. Procedure to updating contacts based on the following scenarios:

• If contact changed positions at the same company:
  • Update title
  • Update any other relevant fields, as applicable
  • Add a note denoting change in position
• If contact changed positions and moved to a different company:
  • Click on ‘Contact Employment Change’ field and update the following fields:
    • Job Title
    • Address (Address, City, State, Zip)
    • Email Address
    • Phone Number
    • Associated Company
      • Navigate to the top then click “+ Add” in the Companies panel under the contact record, change the Company to their current employer and select the appropriate association label
      • Note: Their previous employer should be marked with “Former Employee.” Their current employer should be labeled as “Primary.”
    • Add a “Note” under the contact record with their former title and company information (e.g. Former Public Works Director for the City of Elgin from 2018-2024)
  • If contact has retired/deceased:
    • Update status field to “Inactive”
    • Change the title to FORMER [insert title]
    • Add a note identifying the contact retired/passed away
    • Note: We want to keep contact records in HubSpot so that any correspondence records stay in our CRM

Billing Contacts

Billing contacts to be included on emailed invoice submittals should be communicated to Accounting or through the Contract Setup grid on the corresponding project in Vantagepoint.

Syncing HubSpot Contacts with Vantagepoint

1. HubSpot is the single point of entry for new contacts.
2. Unionpoint will sync contacts between HubSpot and Vantagepoint if the button “Sync” is checked on the HubSpot contact record. If your client requires a billing point of contact listed on the invoice, please make sure the ‘Sync’ is selected in Hubspot for that contact.

Note: Baxter & Woodman will keep contact records in Vantagepoint that are active and used for invoicing, all other contacts will be extracted in a backup file for archiving and deleted from Vantagepoint.

Merging Duplicate Contacts

You can merge one contact record into another record, resulting in one contact record with activities and associations from both records. To do this:

1. Identify duplicate contacts using HubSpot’s duplicate detection tool or manually.
2. Click on the duplicate contact, then select "Actions" and "Merge."
3. Search and select the record to merge into the primary record.
4. Ensure that the records are for the same individual. Compare fields such as first/last name, title, and associated company (current and previous employer).
5. Verify that all accurate and relevant information has been transferred to the primary contact record.

Note: Once you've merged two records, it is not possible to unmerge them.

Adding Multiple Addresses for Companies/Contacts

1. The primary company profile should list the main location (Village/City Hall). To add an additional address for other locations associated with the Company/Contact, create additional object type under “locations” and associate the new location to the company/contact profile on the right panel. Additional locations include Public Works, other Departments.
   • How to add additional locations under the locations object style:
     • Click on “CRM” then click on “Locations”
     • Click on “Create Location” in the top right corner
     • Develop a unique location name with the client code as the first five characters
       • Examples of appropriate naming conventions:
         • SCHAM Engineering and Public Works
         • CARYV Public Works Department
       • Fill in the following fields:
         • Street Address 1
         • Street Address 2 (if applicable)
         • City, State, and Zip
         • Associate the appropriate Company

1. Associate the appropriate location with each contact to ensure the contact has the correct mailing address

Annual Review and Data Integrity Maintenance

Business Performance Group will implement annual review/reporting mechanisms for data integrity.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Everyone has a shared responsibility for adding and maintaining contacts in HubSpot. Primary roles to add/update contacts include:
  • Client Managers and Assistant Client Managers responsible for updating their contact records. This includes contacts for Contractors, Vendors, Subconsultants, etc.
  • Project Managers should confirm contacts used for invoicing are added and maintained in HubSpot so that if their client requires a point of contact on the invoice, they are synced with Vantagepoint.
  • Marketing adds/updates points of contacts through proposal development so they are included on future marketing mailings.