Contacts: The People Behind the Pallets
Managing contact persons in ReVend OS — because companies don't send you emails, people do.
A company is a legal entity. It has a VAT number and an address. But it has never picked up a phone and asked you about a settlement. People do that. Contacts are the people.
Why contacts matter
When a shipment arrives and half the serial numbers don't match the manifest, you don't call "Econocom." You call Pieter, because Pieter is the one who actually assembled the manifest and might know why laptop number 47 is a ThinkPad instead of a Latitude.
When the settlement needs approval, you don't email "ING Bank." You email Sandra from the asset management team, because Sandra is the person who can actually click the approve button. Or forward it to someone who can. Contacts are the humans who make the business relationship work.
Contact structure
Every contact belongs to exactly one company. They have a name, a job title, a department, and multiple ways to reach them: phone numbers (work, mobile, direct), email addresses (work, personal), and social media links (LinkedIn, X, Xing, WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube).
Yes, WhatsApp. Because in the ITAD world, half of your negotiations happen on WhatsApp and the other half happen in a language that your ERP doesn't speak. At least now you can click the WhatsApp link directly from the contact card instead of searching for the number on your phone.
Primary contacts
One contact per company is marked as primary. This is the person the system defaults to when creating orders, sending notifications, or pre-filling forms. It's usually the person who responds to emails within the same business day. In our experience, this is never the CEO and always someone whose title contains the word "operations" or "logistics."
Contact roles
Contacts can have roles: decision maker, operations, finance, logistics, technical. These aren't decorative labels — they help you find the right person for the right situation. Need to discuss pricing? Filter for decision makers. Need to coordinate a collection? Filter for logistics. Need to argue about grading? Filter for technical. (Just kidding. Everyone argues about grading.)