Plenty of contacts arrive with an email address and nothing else. Find phone number on the contact searches a business contact database and writes a number back onto the record if it finds one.

Running a lookup

Open the contact and choose Find phone number. It usually takes a few seconds; occasionally the provider is slow and you are told so. If a number is found it is saved onto the contact — there is nothing to copy across.

It is a metered service

Lookups draw on a monthly allowance shared by your whole organisation. Use them on contacts you intend to call, not as a bulk enrichment pass over the database — the allowance is finite and shared.

When it finds nothing

• Sole traders and very small businesses are frequently absent — no allowance is wasted on a miss.
• Try the company instead: a business number from its listing is often more useful than a personal mobile.
• Check the email address on the contact is their work address; a personal one gives the search nothing to match a business against.