Practical guide

Review stale contacts without mass emailing them

Last materially reviewed 2026-09-20

Quick answerClassify relevance and outstanding obligations before deciding whether contact is warranted.
What to know

Setup checklist: stale does not mean ready for a campaign

A contact with no recent activity may be a satisfied past customer, an irrelevant lead, an unresolved obligation or someone whose role has changed. Do not collapse these into one outreach list. Review the relationship context and legitimate purpose before deciding whether to act. Capsule’s contact records can help organize the evidence, but they do not determine whether a message is appropriate or whether the information should remain in active use.

What to know

Use a small decision set

Classify the record as active commitment, relevant relationship for later review, needs factual correction or candidate for a retention decision. Keep uncertain cases visible with an owner. Avoid inventing missing details to make the classification complete. If the next step requires contacting someone, state why it benefits the relationship rather than merely filling a gap in your CRM. A record cleanup is not a sufficient reason to send a generic sales message.

What to know

Verify open obligations before changing records

Before archiving, deleting or changing access through supported procedures, check related opportunities, projects and tasks. An old contact date does not prove that every commitment is closed. If information is inaccurate, record the correction without silently rewriting important historical evidence. Retention and legal obligations may require specialist guidance; this page does not prescribe a universal deletion period. Keep the operational review distinct from any formal privacy request or regulated recordkeeping process.

What to know

Reduce repeated review work

Record the outcome and a justified next review condition. Otherwise the same contact can reappear in a stale list every week without a meaningful decision. Adjust the active view so it reflects current work rather than every record ever collected. The result should be a clearer relationship set and fewer unnecessary actions, not an inflated activity count. Continue to retention review for disposal questions or relationship cadence when the record remains useful but does not need immediate contact.

Continue when useful

Next: Review old CRM records without indiscriminate deletion

Use an approved retention policy and check open obligations before disposing of records.

Open Review old CRM records without indiscriminate deletion →

Sources used for this page

These records support the facts and comparisons above. Merchant-controlled records are labelled so you can separate product claims from independent evidence.

  1. Capsule contact management — Merchant documentation · capsulecrm.com · Merchant-controlled · checked 2026-09-20
  2. Capsule task management — Merchant documentation · capsulecrm.com · Merchant-controlled · checked 2026-09-20