Client acquisition gets all the attention.
Calls, demos, proposals, follow-ups, negotiations. A lot of effort goes into winning a new customer.
And then… most teams move on.
Very little effort goes into maintaining the relationship. That’s the gap, that’s where churn starts.
Pipedrive Contact Timeline: How to Stay in Touch With Every Customer
If you’re using Pipedrive to manage your sales, there’s a good chance you’re putting a lot of effort into winning new customers.
Calls, demos, proposals, follow-ups.
But what happens after the deal is closed?
For most teams, not much.
That’s where the Pipedrive contact timeline becomes useful. It gives you a simple way to track customer interactions and make sure no one goes too long without a follow-up.
In this guide, I’ll show you how the Pipedrive contact timeline works, and how to use it to stay in touch with your customers consistently.
What is the Pipedrive Contact Timeline?
The Pipedrive contact timeline is a feature that gives you a visual overview of your interactions with contacts or organisations over time.
You can find it in:
Contacts → Contact Timeline
It displays:
- Activities (calls, meetings, tasks)
- Notes
- Emails
- Deals (open, won, lost)
If you’re logging activity properly in Pipedrive, this timeline updates automatically.
You don’t need to maintain it manually.
Why the Contact Timeline is Important
The main benefit of the Pipedrive contact timeline isn’t just visibility.
It’s consistency.
Most customers don’t complain when something is wrong. They don’t always reach out. They just go quiet.
The contact timeline helps you:
- See when you last interacted with a customer
- Identify contacts you haven’t spoken to recently
- Stay proactive instead of reactive
This is especially useful for reducing churn and creating new sales opportunities.
How to Use the Pipedrive Contact Timeline
1. Define your customers
Before using the contact timeline, you need a clear way to identify who your customers are.
Otherwise, you’ll be looking at your entire database.
Common ways to do this in Pipedrive:
- Use a custom field (e.g. billing status)
- Apply a “customer” label
- Filter organisations with a “won” deal
The goal is to create a clean segment of active customers.
2. Create a filter
Once your customers are defined, create a filter in Pipedrive.
This allows you to view only the contacts or organisations you want to manage.
Without a filter, the contact timeline becomes difficult to use at scale.
With a filter, it becomes a focused follow-up list.
3. Set a follow-up frequency
The Pipedrive contact timeline allows you to define how often you want to stay in touch.
For example:
- Monthly for high-value customers
- Quarterly for standard customers
Once set, Pipedrive will highlight any contacts that are overdue for a follow-up.
These appear at the top of the timeline.
4. Review overdue contacts
When you open the contact timeline with your filter applied, you’ll see a list of organisations or people.
The ones at the top are the ones that haven’t had recent activity.
This becomes your working list.
From here:
- Open the contact or organisation
- Review previous interactions
- Send a follow-up message
5. Log your activity
Every interaction you log in Pipedrive updates the timeline.
This includes:
- Sending emails
- Logging calls
- Adding notes
- Completing activities
Keeping this updated ensures the timeline remains accurate and useful.
Example Follow-Up Process
A simple way to use the Pipedrive contact timeline is to build a recurring follow-up routine.
For example:
- Set a reminder every two weeks
- Open your customer filter
- Review overdue contacts
- Send quick check-in emails
This process doesn’t need to take long.
In most cases, you can complete your follow-ups in under 15 minutes.
What to Say in a Follow-Up Email
Your follow-up message doesn’t need to be complex.
A simple structure works well:
- Greet the contact by name
- Ask how things are going
- Offer help if needed
- Share something useful (optional)
The goal is to stay in touch, not to sell aggressively.
Benefits of Using the Pipedrive Contact Timeline
When used consistently, the Pipedrive contact timeline helps you:
- Reduce customer churn
- Stay top of mind
- Build stronger relationships
- Identify new sales opportunities
It’s a simple feature, but it can have a meaningful impact on how you manage your customers.
Pipedrive Contact Timeline: People vs Organisations
You can use the contact timeline for either:
- Individual people
- Entire organisations
In most cases, using organisations is more effective.
This allows any interaction with someone at the company to count as a follow-up for the whole account.
Final Thoughts
The Pipedrive contact timeline is one of the most useful, and often underused, features in the platform.
It doesn’t require any complex setup.
Once your filters and follow-up frequency are in place, it becomes a simple system for staying in touch with customers.
If you’re already using Pipedrive, this is one of the easiest ways to improve your customer follow-up process.
FAQs
What is the Pipedrive contact timeline used for?
The Pipedrive contact timeline is used to track interactions with contacts and organisations over time, helping you stay consistent with follow-ups.
Can you automate follow-ups in Pipedrive?
You can’t fully automate follow-ups in the timeline, but you can use activities, reminders, and filters to create a structured follow-up system. It's essential to do this, don't rely on memory alone!
How often should you follow up with customers?
This depends on your business, but common intervals are monthly or quarterly depending on customer value.
If you'd like help setting up Pipedrive properly, book an introductory call with our team and we'll help you design a system that actually works.