External Contacts Management lets you store and find information about people outside your organisation, including names, email addresses, phone numbers and others.

It also lets you track all your company's interactions with external contacts.

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External Contacts vs. Contacts

Regarding managing people outside your organisation, External Contacts and Contacts have the same features and functionalities.

However, when uploading, downloading, editing, or deleting external contacts in bulk, we recommend using External Contact Management in your Dashboard - Contacts Management menu.

Meanwhile, the Contacts in your Workspace (Dashboard and App) are best for adding, searching, editing, removing individual contacts, making calls or sending an SMS text to them.

You can view your contacts by category (e.g., External Contacts, Internal Contacts) and keep their information up-to-date.

 

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CINNOX External Contact Management does not automatically detect and alert your duplicate entries for your contacts. You can merge your contacts manually or based on the suggestions when handling an enquiry by their phone number or email address.
See more details in our Merging Contact section of this Guide.

Creating New External Contacts

Manually Create a Contact

To manually create an external contact

• From the navigation menu, go to Contact Management>External Contacts, then click Create Contact at the top right corner of the screen.

 

• A Create Contact pop-up window will appear.

 

• Fill out or select the appropriate values for the following fields:
  • First Name
  • Last Name (Required)
  • Contact Label (Refer to the Label External Contact in Creating External Contact section)
  • Type - refers to the category of contact with your business. Select the following values: Lead (default), Prospect, Customer or Other.)
  • Mobile
  • Email
• Click Save and create new to save the entered details and create a new Contact without leaving the window.

 

• To view and fill out additional contact details, click More Details.

 

Fill out the following fields displayed on the window:

Personal Information

• Level - refers to the contact tier with your business target. E.g. John Doe is the CEO, while Jane Smith is the PA of the company ABC. John is the primary contact, while Jane is the secondary one.

• Select any of the following values on the Level dropdown list: Primary (default selection), Secondary and Tertiary.

• Phone number - refers to the contact number that can be reached via call or SMS. Click Add new phone number to select the phone number type, such as Mobile, Work, Home or Other and select the country/region. Also, fill out the phone number. Click Add if you complete filling out the form.

• Email address - *refers to the email address where the contact can be reached. Click Add new email to select an email type, like Work, Personal and Other. And fill out the email address. Click Add if you complete filling out the form.

• Other Information

  • Company
  • Job title
  • Team
  • Group
  • Language
  • Birth Date

• Mailing Address

  • Zip code
  • Street
  • City
  • State
  • Country

• Custom Field The number of custom fields available depends on the number created. For details about the custom fields, refer to Managing Custom Field - External Contacts.

• Social Messaging Click Add New Social Media to select any of the social media, such as Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat, LINE, Twitter, LinkedIn, WOZTELL (Whatsapp Cloud), WOZTELL (Facebook) or WOZTELL (Instagram). Enter the User Name/ID of the corresponding social media app you selected. Click Add if you complete filling out the form.)

• Click Create.

 

• The new external contact is added to your External Contacts List.

 

Importing Contacts (Bulk Creation)

• Go to Contact Management > External Contacts from the navigation menu, then click Import at the top of the screen.

 

• On the Import window that will pop out, download and open the CSV template file.

• Open the downloaded CSV template file and remove the sample first record.

• Add your Contacts according to the following guidelines:

  • The Last Name is a mandatory field
  • Phone numbers should start with a"""" followed by the country code, area code, and phone number (e.g., +85212345678). The default country code displayed is based on the user's IP Address.
  • Email addresses should have a valid format (e.g., [email protected])
  • Birthdate format should be MM/DD/YYYY (e.g., 12/14/1980)
  • Language value should be in any of the following: English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese
  • The country value should be in any of the country names listed in https://www.iban.com/country-codes
  • Contact Type value should be any of the following: Lead, Customer, Prospect, or Others. When left empty, the Contact Type value is automatically set to Lead.
  • Contact Level value should be any of the following: Primary, Secondary, or Tertiary.

• Save the updated CSV file.

• Upload the saved CSV file. Back on the Import pop-up window, drag and drop the saved CSV file into the window.

  • You may also click Browse from the pop-up window, then locate and select the CSV file from your folder.

 

• A message will display the number of records that were successfully imported and the number of records that failed.

 

Handling Failed Records

• On the pop-up window, click Download to download the file ErrorDetail.csv.

 

• Click Cancel to close the pop-up window.
• Open ErrorDetail.csv and check the error details in column AA. Each record will show an error log.

 

• Correct the details for each record directly on ErrorDetail.csv and save the changes made.
• Back on the Import pop-up window, upload the updated ErrorDetail.csv file by dragging and dropping the file into the window.
  • You may also click Browse from the pop-up window, then locate and select the CSV file from your folder.
• A message will display the number of records successfully imported and those that failed.

 

How to handle the case of the splitting text in the CSV file

Using a comma (,) to split the text is the function of the CSV file. When importing the CSV file with the comma between texts, the text will be split into the next column in the file after the file upload.

Splitting text in the CSV file

For example, when you enter Head of Marketing, Asia Division and Manager, HR and Administration
into the column Title respectively, the file is shown below:

 

After the file upload, the text is shown below:

 

As the text Head of Marketing, Asia Division and Manager, HR and Administration are added in the column Title, respectively, after the filled CSV file is uploaded, the texts are split into two columns, Head of Marketing and Manager in the column Title respectively and Asia Division and HR and Administration in the column Team respectively.

 

How to avoid splitting text

Using a text editor

• Put the text with a comma in the double quote "), like *" Head of Marketing, Asia Division" and "Manager, HR and Administration"** and save it as a CSV file when you upload the file.

Using Excel or style sheet editors

• Fill in the text in the text format.

 

• Save the sheet as a CSV file and upload it to the CINNOX.

 

• The double quote should be added automatically to the file.

 

Searching External Contacts

You can search for individual contacts by typing their Contact Names or Email Addresses in the search bar.

You can also search for individual contacts by Contact Label using Filter.

• Click the Filter icon and select Matches any labels or Matches all labels from the dropdown list.
• Select the required contact label(s) by clicking the dropdown list and Apply.

• If you select Matches any labels, the external contacts with any selected contact labels will be shown in the table.
• If you select Matches all labels, the external contact with all selected contact labels will be shown in the table.

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Note

Search results depend on the order of the Search Bar and Filter you use. If you use the Search Bar first, results are based on its keywords; otherwise, they're based on the Filter.

Export External Contact

To export external contacts into a CSV file:

• Go to Contact Management > External Contacts from the navigation menu, then click Download at the top of the screen.

• The file Contact.csv file will be downloaded into your default Downloads folder. This CSV file contains the external contact records you created and shared with you.

 

External Contact Details

• On the External Contacts page, click an external contact's name or More(...) and select View contact.

• The External Contact Details has the following tabs:
  • Profile
  • Activity
  • Sharing
  • Change Log

 

External Contact Profile

The Profile tab has the Personal Information entered by the external contact on the pre-chat form, offline support form, or manually entered by the staff member.

• Phone Numbers
• Personal Information
  • First name and other first names selected from merge contact
  • Last name and other last names selected from merge contact
• Phone number
• Email address
• Other Information
• Custom field
• Social Messaging
  • Messenger
  • WhatsApp
  • WeChat
  • LINE
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • WOZTELL (WhatsApp Cloud)
  • WOZTELL (Facebook)
  • WOZTELL (Instagram)
• Device Information
• Notes (If any)

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Important

You cannot edit verified phone numbers and social media IDs.

 

Editing External Contact Profile

• On the External Contacts page, click a Contact Name or click More (...) and select View Contact. The Contact Details will then display four categories.

• Under the Profile tab, click Edit to enable the editing mode.

 

• Enter the details you must add to or update in the contact's profile.

• Click Save.

Or, you can edit the External Contact details in the side panel.

• Edit the required External Contact details.
• Click Save.

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Note

Only agents who are the owners of external contacts or have been shared with external contacts are allowed to view or edit the external contacts of enquiries.

 

Activity

The Activity tab has the Enquiry History, Engagement, and Journey sections, which are separated into three columns:

 

A blue-coloured hyperlink denotes a closed. Clicking on it opens the enquiry's chat conversation history.

 

Sharing

The Sharing tab has information shared with the External Contact's owners. It also indicates when the contact was created.

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The admin or contact owner can remove the contact shared with another staff member.

 

Change Log

The Change Log tab details the updates made to the External Contact. It displays the last five records.

 

Merging External Contacts

If you have duplicate contacts for the same person, you can merge them.

To merge contacts:

• On the External Contacts page, search and click a Contact Name or click More (...) and select View Contact for the contact you want to merge.
• On the Profile tab, click the Merge Contact button. A pop-up window will show the list of Contacts that could merge.

 

• Search and choose the contact to merge
• Click the Next button. It will display two contacts' information. The first selected contact will be the Master Contact to keep the second contact records merged.

 

• These contacts may contain different details. You may keep the old and copy the new records or replace them with the new ones.
• Select the records you want to keep and replace
• Click the Merge Contact button to complete the steps. Once completed, the toast message "Merge Contact successfully" will be displayed.
• The Contact's Profile is updated with what has been selected to be kept and updated.

 

All activities and enquiries will be merged and viewed on just one page for merge contacts. For more details about merge contacts and rooms view, see the Merging Contacts section of this Guide.

 

Sharing External Contacts

You can share External Contacts with your fellow staff members as an owner or a staff administrator.

• On the External Contacts page, click More (..) and select Share contact.

 

• On the Contact List page that will be displayed, select the staff member(s) you wish to share the External Contact's details with.
• Click Share. A pop-up message will appear, asking you to confirm the action.
• Click Confirm.

 

Transferring External Contact Ownership

You can transfer your External Contact ownership to a fellow staff member as an owner or a staff administrator.

• On the External Contacts page, click More(..) and select Transfer Ownership.

 

• On the Contact List page that will be displayed, select the staff member you wish to transfer your External Contact's details.

• Click Transfer.

 

Deleting External Contacts

As an owner or a staff administrator, you can delete External Contacts.

• On the External Contacts page, click More(...) and select Delete Contact. A pop-up message will appear, asking you to confirm the action.

• Click Delete.

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When you delete an External Contact from your Contacts List, your chat room with them will remain in your Recent list unless their enquiry has been resolved and closed.