Storing and keeping track of your contacts is the first thing any business should do, otherwise how can you know who you are doing business with? Building that customer database, through sales, referrals or even through business networking and exchanging business cards, opens so many potential doors for you, after all knowing who you are dealing with is key.

But besides building a database and knowing who your customers are, why should you store contact information?

• The be able to communicate with people about your business - going out and physically meeting people and talking to them about your business is great, but it's expensive and time consuming. The technology exists to allow you to be able to communicate and update people on what you have been doing within a few clicks
• Business Continuity - paper based records are always at risk, not just from being miss filed and not to hand but from fire and water damage and of course, the dreaded coffee stain! Storing them in a safe online platform means that you can access them from anywhere but you have the peace of mind that no matter what happens to your office (hopefully nothing!), your important customer information will be safe
• Manage your sales - recording your contacts means that you can track what interaction and business you are having with them, which means that every conversation gets a little easier and more successful as you know everything that has happened without trawling through all of the paper work!

So rather than asking Why Store Your Contacts - maybe the big question is - Why Not Store Your Contacts?