Adding contacts makes it easier to not only send messages but also to track replies. In your inbox, messages received by your contacts will appear with the name of the contact as the sender, as opposed to just the mobile number. You can also add contacts to lists, making it easier to send bulk messages.
|
Important - Compliance and consent are extremely important when adding contacts. If you ever have any doubts, reach out to our customer support team via live chat by clicking the profile icon at the bottom left of your screen and selecting Chat with Support, or you can raise a ticket via the Contact Support | submit a request link at the very top of this page. The Hub retains the last subscription preference for all contacts, including deleted contacts. This policy is in place to respect the preferences of the contact and to ensure compliance with communication regulations. Should you need to revert their status to 'subscribed', it must be done manually - this article can show you how. Please note - re-importing contacts does not qualify as a 'Resubscribe' action. |
Creating Individual Contacts
1. In the menu, click on Contacts, then select All Contacts.
2. Click on the Add contact button at the top left of the page:
3. Input the required information:
A) First Name - the first name of the contact.
B) Last Name - the surname of the contact.
C) Contact channel (Required) - the contact's mobile number needs to be in the international format, and the country will default to the sending country nominated in the account holder's user profile.
D) Subscribed & Unsubscribed - new contacts are subscribed by default, selecting Unsubscribed will prevent messages from being sent to this contact.
E) Email - the email address of the contact.
F) Lists - select one or more Contact Lists - lists must be created prior to creating the contact.
G) Alias - used as an alternative name for your contact, as well as for Email to SMS.
H) Birthday - the contact's date of birth.
I) Location - this could be the contact's suburb/town, or office/region location - depending on your preference.
J) State - the state or province associated with the contact.
K) Country - the country associated with the contact.
L) Note - any additional notes or information associated with the contact.
| Note - all contact records include the above default Contact Fields, however you can add as many additional custom Contact Fields as you like. To learn more about Custom Contact Fields, take a look at this article. |
4. Click the Save button at the top right and your contact will now appear in your All Contacts list, as well as in any Contact Lists you added them to.
| RETURN TO TOP |
Creating a Contact from the Inbox
If you're sending to a new number, you can easily add the recipient to your contacts by entering their details (including their subscription status) into the contact panel on the right and clicking Save:
| RETURN TO TOP |
Importing Contacts in Bulk
Step 1 | Preparing Contact Data
Before you import any contacts into the Hub, you'll need to prepare your contact data first:
- You'll need to ensure your contact list is saved as a .csv, .xls or .xlsx file - the optimal file format is CSV UTF-8, Comma delimited.
- If you don't add the international prefix to your contact numbers, the Hub will assume you're importing numbers local to your preset location in your account settings, and will validate accordingly.
- If you want to import phone numbers from a country different from that of your account, please include the corresponding international prefix.
- With local numbers, you don't need to add the leading zero to the number to successfully import - for example, if your spreadsheet cells are formatted as "numbers" then a phone number may appear as "412345678" as opposed to "0412345678", both formats will be accepted for import.
- You can include additional data to your contact list which can then be mapped to the custom fields of each contact profile.
Step 2 | Importing Contact Data
1. In the menu, click on Contacts, then select either All Contacts or Lists as the import contacts option appears in both.
2. Click on the Import button at the top left of the page:
3. Upload your data file to the Hub using either the Browse function or Drag & Drop your file straight into the upload window:
A) You can select which pre-existing groups to which you would like all contacts imported in the bottom field under Add to lists (optional).
B) You also have the option of unsubscribing all of the contacts in the upload - for example, if you're bulk uploading blacklists from other systems.
4. Match the columns in your data file to the various fields in the contact profile:
- The system will attempt to auto-detect the mobile phone and WhatsApp numbers from your spreadsheet; however, if the data that is pulled into the #phone# or #whatsapp# field is incorrect, you can change it to the correct column.
- After you have selected a column to match to a field you will see some sample data from the original spreadsheet.
5. If your contact database includes additional information (e.g. in the example shown we have fields such as "Division", "Role" and "Office"), then these can be mapped to the pre-created Custom Fields in the contact profile:
6. Once you've aligned your data correctly, click Import contacts at the top right of the screen to complete the action.
7. When the import is complete, the Hub will display the import results with links for review which contacts were successful and failed:
| RETURN TO TOP |