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Contact Management

Manager+ Only

Contact management is available to Department Managers and Administrators only.

Overview​

DutyCall's Contact Management system enables organizing, importing, and maintaining contact lists for manual dialing and campaign operations. Build robust contact databases with custom fields, tags, and bulk import capabilities.

Key Features:

  • 📇 Centralized Database - All contacts in one searchable location
  • 📊 Bulk Import - Google Sheets, CSV, or manual entry
  • 🏷️ Custom Fields & Tags - Organize contacts your way
  • 🔄 Duplicate Detection - Automatic phone number deduplication
  • 📈 Call History Integration - See past interactions with contacts
  • 🔍 Advanced Search - Filter by name, phone, tags, or custom fields

For Managers: Managing Contacts​

Creating Contacts​

Method 1: Manual Creation

  1. Navigate to Outbound → Contacts
  2. Click "Create Contact" button
  3. Fill in contact details:
    • Name: Full name (required)
    • Phone: E.164 format with country code (required) - e.g., +15551234567
    • Email: Email address (optional)
    • Company: Organization name (optional)
    • Tags: Comma-separated tags (e.g., "VIP, Q4-Campaign, High-Priority")
    • Notes: Any relevant information
    • Custom Fields: Additional fields configured by admin
  4. Click "Save Contact"

Method 2: Create During Manual Call

  1. Open Manual Dialer
  2. Enter phone number
  3. Click "Save as Contact" before calling
  4. Fill in details and save
  5. Contact added to database

Method 3: Bulk Import (see Importing Contacts below)

Importing Contacts​

Import from Google Sheets​

Step 1: Prepare Your Sheet

  1. Create Google Sheet with contact data
  2. Ensure first row has column headers
  3. Include at minimum: Name and Phone columns
  4. Share sheet publicly (View access only)

Step 2: Import to DutyCall

  1. Navigate to Contacts → Import
  2. Select "Google Sheets" tab
  3. Paste public share URL
  4. Click "Fetch Data"

Step 3: Map Columns

  1. Review preview of sheet data
  2. Map sheet columns to DutyCall fields:
    • Name → Contact Name (required)
    • Phone → Phone Number (required)
    • Email → Email Address (optional)
    • Company → Company Name (optional)
    • Custom columns → Custom Fields
  3. Click "Validate Data"

Step 4: Review & Import

  1. System validates phone numbers and checks for duplicates
  2. Review validation results:
    • ✅ Valid contacts ready to import
    • ⚠️ Duplicates found (skip or update)
    • ❌ Invalid entries (missing phone, bad format)
  3. Choose duplicate handling:
    • Skip duplicates (keep existing)
    • Update duplicates (overwrite with new data)
  4. Click "Import Contacts"
  5. Confirm number of contacts imported

Learn more: Google Sheets Import Guide

Import from CSV File​

Step 1: Prepare CSV

  1. Create CSV file with comma-separated values
  2. First row must contain headers
  3. Save as .csv format (UTF-8 encoding)

Example CSV:

Name,Phone,Email,Tags
John Doe,+15551234567,john@example.com,"VIP,Q4"
Jane Smith,+15559876543,jane@example.com,"New Customer"

Step 2: Upload & Map

  1. Navigate to Contacts → Import
  2. Select "CSV File" tab
  3. Click "Upload CSV" and select file
  4. Map columns to DutyCall fields
  5. Validate and import (same as Google Sheets)

Searching & Filtering Contacts​

Quick Search:

  • Use search bar at top of Contacts page
  • Searches across: Name, Phone, Email, Company

Advanced Filters:

  1. Click "Filters" button
  2. Apply multiple criteria:
    • Tags: Select one or more tags
    • Date Added: Contact creation date range
    • Last Called: Filter by recent call activity
    • Custom Fields: Filter by custom field values
  3. Click "Apply Filters"

Save Filter Presets:

  1. Configure filters
  2. Click "Save as Preset"
  3. Name your filter (e.g., "VIP Customers - Q4")
  4. Access saved filters from dropdown

Editing Contacts​

Edit Single Contact:

  1. Find contact in list
  2. Click contact name or "Edit" icon
  3. Update fields as needed
  4. Click "Save Changes"

Bulk Edit:

  1. Select multiple contacts (checkboxes)
  2. Click "Bulk Actions" → "Edit Selected"
  3. Choose fields to update:
    • Add tags
    • Remove tags
    • Update custom field
  4. Click "Apply to Selected Contacts"

Organizing with Tags​

Adding Tags:

  • During contact creation
  • During edit
  • Bulk action to multiple contacts

Tag Best Practices:

  • Use consistent naming (e.g., "VIP" not "vip" or "V.I.P.")
  • Create campaign-specific tags (e.g., "Q4-2025-Survey")
  • Tag by customer status (e.g., "Active", "Inactive", "Prospect")
  • Tag by segment (e.g., "Enterprise", "SMB", "Free-Tier")

Manage Tags:

  1. Navigate to Contacts → Tags
  2. View all tags with contact counts
  3. Rename tags (updates all contacts)
  4. Merge duplicate tags
  5. Delete unused tags

Using Custom Fields​

Custom fields enable tracking additional data specific to your business.

Available Custom Fields (configured by Admin):

  • Text fields (short text, long text)
  • Number fields (integers, decimals)
  • Date fields
  • Dropdown selections (predefined options)

Example Use Cases:

  • Customer ID: Link to external CRM system
  • Account Value: Annual contract value
  • Renewal Date: When to follow up
  • Industry: Segment by vertical
  • Lead Source: Track where contact originated

Filtering by Custom Fields:

  1. Click "Filters" → "Custom Fields"
  2. Select field and criteria
  3. Apply filter

Managing Duplicate Contacts​

Duplicate Detection:

  • System checks phone numbers for duplicates
  • Duplicates flagged during import
  • Manual duplicate check available anytime

Find Duplicates:

  1. Navigate to Contacts → Duplicates
  2. System shows potential duplicates grouped by phone number
  3. Review each group

Merge Duplicates:

  1. Select 2+ duplicate contacts
  2. Click "Merge Contacts"
  3. Choose which data to keep:
    • Primary contact (keeps all its data)
    • Merge tags from all contacts
    • Merge notes from all contacts
    • Preserve call history from all
  4. Click "Confirm Merge"
  5. Duplicate contacts removed, data consolidated

Deleting Contacts​

Delete Single Contact:

  1. Click contact to open details
  2. Click "Delete" button
  3. Confirm deletion
  4. Contact removed permanently

Bulk Delete:

  1. Select multiple contacts
  2. Click "Bulk Actions" → "Delete Selected"
  3. Confirm deletion
  4. All selected contacts removed
Permanent Deletion

Deleted contacts cannot be recovered. Call history associated with the contact is preserved but unlinked.

Exporting Contacts​

Export All Contacts:

  1. Navigate to Contacts
  2. Click "Export" button
  3. Select format:
    • CSV - For spreadsheets and external tools
    • Excel - For advanced analysis
    • vCard - For importing to phone/email clients
  4. Download file

Export Filtered Subset:

  1. Apply filters to narrow contact list
  2. Click "Export" → "Export Filtered"
  3. Only visible contacts are exported

What's Included in Export:

  • Contact name, phone, email
  • Tags (comma-separated)
  • Custom field values
  • Date added
  • Last call date and outcome
  • Notes

Learn more: Data Export

Contact Call History​

View Contact's Call History:

  1. Open contact details
  2. Scroll to "Call History" section
  3. See all calls to/from this contact:
    • Manual outbound calls
    • Campaign calls
    • Inbound calls (if they called in)

Call History Details:

  • Date & time of call
  • Duration
  • Outcome (completed, no-answer, voicemail, etc.)
  • Agent who handled
  • Call notes
  • Recording link (if available)

Actions from Call History:

  • Click "Call Again" to redial contact
  • Click "View Recording" to listen
  • Click "View Full Call Log" for detailed view

Best Practices for Contact Management​

Data Quality:

  • ✅ Always use E.164 format for phone numbers (+1XXXXXXXXXX)
  • ✅ Verify numbers before import (use validation tools)
  • ✅ Keep contact data up-to-date (remove bounced numbers)
  • ✅ Add meaningful notes (context for future calls)

Organization:

  • ✅ Use consistent tagging conventions
  • ✅ Create tags for campaigns, segments, and status
  • ✅ Leverage custom fields for business-specific data
  • ✅ Regularly merge duplicates (monthly review)

Privacy & Compliance:

  • ✅ Honor opt-out requests immediately
  • ✅ Tag opted-out contacts (e.g., "DNC" - Do Not Call)
  • ✅ Filter out DNC contacts before campaigns
  • ✅ Maintain records of consent where required
  • ✅ Delete contact data upon request (GDPR/CCPA)

Import Hygiene:

  • ✅ Clean data before import (remove duplicates in sheet)
  • ✅ Validate phone numbers in source system first
  • ✅ Test with small batch (50-100 contacts) before full import
  • ✅ Review import summary for errors before proceeding

Troubleshooting Contact Management​

Import fails with "Invalid phone number":

  • ✅ Ensure phone numbers include country code (+1 for US)
  • ✅ Remove spaces, dashes, parentheses (use +15551234567, not (555) 123-4567)
  • ✅ Check for non-numeric characters
  • ✅ Use text format in spreadsheet (not number format)

Duplicate detection not working:

  • ✅ Phone numbers must be identical to detect duplicates
  • ✅ Format differences prevent detection (+15551234567 vs 15551234567)
  • ✅ Manually search for duplicates using search bar
  • ✅ Export, clean in spreadsheet, re-import

Cannot delete contact:

  • ✅ Check if contact is in active campaign (must remove from campaign first)
  • ✅ Check permissions (Manager can only delete own dept contacts)
  • ✅ Admin may need to delete if contact is system-critical

Custom fields not showing:

  • ✅ Admin must configure custom fields first
  • ✅ Refresh page to see newly added fields
  • ✅ Check field visibility settings (Admin may have restricted)

Need Help?​

  • Managers: Contact support for contact management assistance
  • Admins: Check API documentation or contact technical support

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