Create and Manage Contact Lists

This article describes how to create and manage contact lists. It includes the following topics:

• Import a list
• View import activity
• Create an empty list object
• Export a list
• Assign weights to contact lists (clicking this link takes you to another page in this manual)
• Edit a list
• Delete a list
• Manage contacts

Import a New List

To add a new contact list, you can either import a list or create one from scratch. In most cases, the Import option is recommended.

Prepare the File

To import new contacts into CX Contact, first prepare the data file for your contact list. This file contains customer contact information, such as phone numbers and email addresses, names, ID numbers, etc.

When formatting your contact data file, include a header record with field names that match those in the CX Contact contact list. When the file is imported, the data is mapped directly into the appropriate contact list field. Alternatively, you can use a specification file to map custom fields to CX Contact fields.

Once the fields have been mapped, you can start the upload process.

Important

For import and export of data defaults, CX Contact supports the default character set ISO 8859-1 (ISO Latin 1), as well as UTF-8 and Windows-1252. It is important to use the correct character set, especially if your data contains non-ASCII characters. Otherwise, some characters, such as accented characters, might appear as other characters.

Upload (Import) the File

To import the list, click New->List and specify the following:

• A list name
• A list description (optional)
• An upload rule or specification file (optional)

Next, if you want to override the automatic system timezone assignment and instead use the entries you created in the time zone compliance section of CX Contact, leave the Use custom time zones option checked (this is checked by default).

Once you click Import, the file will begin loading, and contacts will be loaded into the contact list.

The contact list is available on the Lists page once the import is complete and the following information is presented for each list:

• Name - Name of the list
• Description - Description of the list (if specified)
• Label - The labeling schema being applied to that contact list, if applicable.
• Size - The number of contact records in the list
• Created Date - The date the list was created
• Actions
  • Filter - To create a virtual list using a selection rule, click the filter icon. As part of creating the new list, you can see a preview of the list. The preview can be discarded, overwritten by the selection of a different rule, or saved as a new list, based on the original list.
  • Edit
  • Download
  • Delete
  • View Import Activity

View Import Activity

Once a list has been imported into CX Contact, you can view all import activity associated with it. To do this, go to the main Lists page and from the Actions drop-down menu, click Import Activity. The following information is presented:

• Start Time - The start time of the import
• End Time - The end time of the import
• Original - The number of records imported. Click the download icon to download the imported records.
• Rejected - The number of records rejected during import.
• Action Type - See below for a description of each append type.

Create an Empty List Object

If you want to create a new list from scratch:

1. Select New->List.
2. Enter the list name and description (optional).
3. Click Import.

You can now append contacts to this empty list object, using the append types described below.

Export a List

When you export a contact list, a CSV text file is made available as a download from CX Contact.

To export a contact list, select the Download icon from the Actions area next to the name of the list to be exported.

Edit a List

Once you've created a list, you can edit the list and the contacts contained within that list.

To edit a list, on the Lists page, select the list to be edited by clicking the name or by selecting the pencil icon. Edit any or all of the list details as required.

Or, if you've added contacts to the list and need to update the list, select Select File to import the new records.

In the Upload mode menu, select from the following append types:

• Append and update - the imported records are added to the contact list. If CX Contact finds a duplicate record it overrides the existing record with the new record.
• Append only - the imported records are added to an existing contact list. Duplicate records are always ignored.
• Flush and append - before the new records are imported into the contact list, the existing contact list is completely flushed.

Important

Regardless of the append type, each Client ID in a contact list must be unique. You cannot have duplicate Client IDs in any contact list.

Delete a List

To delete one or more contact lists, select the check box next to the list(s) to be deleted and click Delete.

The list and all contacts in that list are deleted from CX Contact

Manage Contacts within a List

Once you've created a list, you can add or delete contacts within the list.

Add a Contact to a List

You can create a new contact and assign that contact to a list in one of two ways:

Option 1

1. From the Lists page, select New -> Contact.
2. Enter the contact information.
3. From the List drop-down, select the list that the contact will belong to.

Option 2

1. From the tabbed Lists menu, select Contact Search.
2. On the Contact Search page, click New Contact.
3. Enter the contact information.
4. From the Lists drop-down, select the list that the contact will belong to.

For information about contact list fields, go here.

Delete a Contact from a List

When you delete a contact from a list, you permanently delete the contact.

To delete a contact from a list:

1. From the Lists menu, select Contact Search
2. On the Contact Search page, search for the contact you want to delete.
3. Select each contact you want to delete and click the trash can icon.

Important

If a contact you're searching for has multiple devices, the search results will display a separate record for each device. For example, if a contact has three devices, the Contact Search results will return three separate results for the contact - one for each device.