How to Add Contacts?
A guide on uploading contacts and bulk import to Avochato.
How do I add contacts? Does Avochato support bulk import?
It’s simple to add contacts individually or in bulk (via .CSV) with Avochato. To add contacts, go to the Contacts view within the left sidebar in Avochato:
Next, on the upper-right hand corner, select “Import” (for bulk upload) or “New” (for individual contacts).
Bulk upload
- Select the “Import” button.
- Review Rules for Importing (see below) and select “Choose File” or drag and drop a .csv file directly onto this box you see below.
Individual contacts
- Navigate to the Contacts view and select “+New.”
- Enter contact details.
- Click “Save.”
Additionally, you can add a new contact in the Messages panel by clicking “New Conversation.”When you enter your contact’s number to initiate a conversation a contact will be created automatically.
Rules for Importing Contacts
- All contacts must include a phone number.
- International Phone numbers must include their country code.
- You can add both First and Last name under “Name” and Avochato will separate them out accordingly. You can also separate them out into two columns, “First Name” and “Last Name”. In this case, the “Name” column needs to be removed from the .csv.
- Headers have to match fields in Avochato.
- You can add additional fields to your import. Custom fields need to be added at Settings>Custom Fields prior to import.
- Contacts will not be duplicated. If you left off a piece of information (i.e. Tag), you can reupload the .csv file and Avochato will update the contact record.
Assigning Owners to Contacts
Contacts can have owners within Avochato. If you “own” a contact, new conversations with that contact will get assigned to you by default.
Changing the owner will automatically reassign all non-closed conversations to the new owner immediately.
Use Cases:
- Sales teams where each agent already has a book of business
- Route conversations from a priority customer to an account manager or dedicated support agent
- Migrating a contact list from one Avochato inbox to a new one and pre-assigning owners
There are three ways to assign ownership to a contact:
- Upload a CSV file
- When you upload a CSV file, include a column titled “User Email” that contains the email of the user in Avochato who will be the new owner.
- Manually Edit on the Contact Page
- Click on the contact’s name to view the Contact edit page and select the User dropdown menu when editing the contact and hit Save.
- Updating user_id via Avochato API
- Developers can also set the owner using the Update Contact API by passing a “user_id” field containing the email or hash ID of the new owner.
Contact Owner vs Conversation Owner
Reassigning the owner of a conversation does not change the contact owner. For example, Alex is the main point of contact when talking to her customer William. Any time William reaches out to Alex's Avochato number, Alex is notified and assigned initially to the conversation because he is the "owner" selected in the contact information as seen below:
If Alex needs to go on a vacation, he can assign William’s conversation to his coworker Eden by changing the assignee at the upper right of the conversation thread as seen below. As mentioned before, this won't change the owner of the contact and all future conversation threads created will still be assigned to Alex.
This is useful when a team member is not around and you don't want the contact owned by that team member to be left hanging with no replies.
Import Statistics
When you import contacts via .csv, we will provide you with a breakdown of new contacts added, existing contacts updated, duplicates skipped, and invalid rows. You can click on the created or updated hyperlinks to quickly navigate to the contacts from a specific import.
Mobile Contacts Import
You have the ability to import your existing mobile contacts into your Avochato account. Navigate to the Contacts tab within the Mobile App and click “Import”. You will have the option to import your phone contacts by selecting “Import Phone Contacts”. See below.
