Your workspace
How many contacts to keep per company
One is too few, five nobody maintains. And writing «to the company» is the fastest way to get no reply at all.
Address books fill up in two ways and both cause trouble: one record per company with a generic address, or fifteen records for the same company because everyone saved whoever replied to them. The middle ground is not a tidiness question — it decides whether you get answers.
How many records are really needed
| Type of relationship | How many people | Which is the right one |
|---|---|---|
| Small supplier | One | The person who deals with you, with their address |
| Supplier with departments | Two or three | Who signs, who sends papers, who invoices |
| Large client | As many as they ask you to deal with | And note what each is for |
| A company you barely deal with | One | Even a generic one: it does not deserve maintenance |
Important
The detail that changes results: **a generic address is not a contact, it is a door**. Writing to `info@` or `accounts@` lands the message somewhere nobody feels addressed — and what has no addressee has no urgency. It works to introduce yourself and to find the right person, not to ask for something with a deadline. The first serious request is worth far more sent to a name, even one you had to get by phone.
How to avoid the fifteen duplicates
- 1
Search before creating, by the email domain
It is what groups people from one company.
- 2
Store the role, not just the name
«Ana» says nothing a year from now; «Ana, quality» does.
- 3
And merge as soon as a duplicate appears
Better then than in the clean-up six months from now.
Watch out
Before adding someone because they replied once, check what role they play: **whoever replies is not always the one who decides, and sometimes they were only forwarding**. Saving that person as the main contact sends your next requests to someone with no reason to handle them — the shortest route to no more replies. What to store is who is responsible, even if someone else sends the answer.
What is worth noting about each one
Worth knowing
A company with a single contact and no alternative is a single point of failure — the day they are off, the file stops. You need not store five; it is enough to know who to ask if that one is missing.
›Should I save the salesperson who sold to me?
If they will not send documentation, no: it goes stale immediately.
›What if the company insists I write to the generic address?
Respect it and note it as theirs. It is how they work.
›Is a company record worth having as well as people?
Yes: documents belong to the company, even when a person sends them.
A real case
The situation
A company requests documents from a supplier's generic mailbox and hears nothing for three weeks.
What you do
- Calls, gets the name of whoever handles it and sends the request to them
What you get
The document arrives in two days, and the record now holds the person who actually handles it.
The situation
Only one contact is stored and they are on holiday.
What you do
- Records a second contact at the company
What you get
The request does not wait on one person.
The situation
Fifteen contacts are stored and nobody knows who to write to.
What you do
- Marks who the main contact is
What you get
The notice goes to the right person.
The situation
The contact on record no longer works there.
What you do
- Updates on the first bounce
What you get
Notices stop getting lost.
The situation
Emails go to a generic mailbox and nobody replies.
What you do
- Asks for a specific person
What you get
The request reaches somebody who can act.
The situation
Each team member uses a different contact.
What you do
- Centralises the company record
What you get
The supplier receives a coherent message.
This article answers
- how many people to keep per supplier
- writing to info@ or to a person
- billing contact and technical contact
- duplicates from the same company