In our CRM, we have a COMPANY Table and a CONTACT Table (among others). Within each of these tables, we have a CLIENT view and SUPPLIER view.
PROBLEM: EXPANDED RECORDS
That said, when I expand a record in the Contact Table > Supplier View, I’m inundated with irrelevant Client-Contact-specific fields (ex. ‘Won Projects’) haphazardly stacked at the bottom of the record. It’s become very confusing and bulky for our staff and, in my opinion, it’s probably a big reason so many of us wish we could ‘link bases’; but I won’t dive into that.
PROBLEM: EXPANDED LINKED RECORDS
Likewise, when I’m in the Company Table > Client View, and I want to access Contact Info for one of our Client companies, I’ll simply click to expand one of the linked records (linked from the Contact Table). In this case, I’m still inundated with Supplier-contact-specific fields, lumped together at the bottom. Ultimately, we need these gone!
SOLUTION
I’d love for a given record to expand into a Default Expanded View Preference (i.e. with default visible fields) that was specified during the creation of this contact/record (i.e. every time I add a new record to the Contact Table, I can select what type of record it is [“Client” vs "Supplier]; in turn, instructing AirTable on which fields are relevant to that record). The result, in the above example of expanded linked records — our entire sales team will always see this expanded linked record as a “Client”-specific record, per the records’ system-wide default expanded view setting.
DEFAULT VIEW & CUSTOM VIEW PREFERENCE
But then (hear me out!), once any given record is expanded, I’d like the option to specify, from a dropdown within that expanded record view, how I’d personally prefer to view that contact/record going forward. For example, the Default View for a given Contact record could’ve been set to “Client” when it was created; but, depending on my department and the info I typically need, I can now select an alternate ‘view preference’ from the expanded record drop-down (ex. maybe I choose “Client Finance Data” or “Client Holiday Gift Info”). Once I’ve selected a new expanded ‘view preference’, AirTable would remember this selection as my new personal default for that specific contact/record. The result — anytime the record is expanded by ME, I’ll only see the info that’s relevant to my work. If I need additional info/fields in the future, I can always change my “view preference” with the dropdown.
Again, I think this feature would help to calm people’s consistent request to link bases. I do believe all data can be kept in 1 base, and I’d prefer it that way; but we need more features to help us hide things that we don’t want to see.
