Add a contact

Steps

1. Step 1 of 11

   Open New contact

   Anyone on the team can create a contact.

   Contacts is under Conversations, in the menu on the left. At the top right is New contact, the button with a person and a plus icon. The whole team has it, not only people with administration permissions. Choose it to open the New contact panel. It creates contacts one by one; to load many at once from a spreadsheet, the admin console is used, as the console guide «Import contacts» explains.

   • In the Contacts header
   • For the whole team
   • Many at once: Import contacts

   Watch step 1 on the screen

2. Step 2 of 11

   Get to know the form

   The form keeps Bridge’s details apart from your company’s.

   The New contact panel has two parts. Bridge fields holds the details every contact has in Bridge: First name, Last name, Phone, Email and Language. Contact attributes holds the fields your company created in the admin console, in the same order they have there. Details with an asterisk are required. There is no field to choose the advisor: the contact is assigned to whoever creates it. The panel closes only with the X or with Cancel; a click outside it does not close it.

   • Bridge fields
   • Contact attributes
   • Assigned to you

   Watch step 2 on the screen

3. Step 3 of 11

   Type the first and last name

   First and last name come first.

   First name and Last name are required. Bridge stores them tidied: without extra spaces and with a capital at the start of each word. If one is missing, creating shows Required under the field and the contact is not created.

   • Both required
   • A capital at the start of each word

   Watch step 3 on the screen

4. Step 4 of 11

   Add the phone with its country

   The phone always carries its country code.

   Phone is required and stores the country code and the number together, in a single field. First choose the country in the list, where Search country or code finds it by its name or its code; then type the number. Bridge stores it grouped, for example +1 415 555 0142. If the number is incomplete, creating shows Enter the number with its country code.

   • Choose the country, type the number
   • Required
   • Stored grouped

   Watch step 4 on the screen

5. Step 5 of 11

   Add the email and language

   The language follows the phone’s country.

   Email is optional. If you type one, it must be valid; if it is not, creating shows Enter a valid email. It is stored in lower case. Language, with its information icon, is the language this contact is attended in. By default it takes the language of the phone’s country, for example English for a United States number, and follows it as long as you do not change it. If the contact is attended in another language, choose it in the list.

   • Email optional and checked
   • Language: the phone’s country
   • You can change it

   Watch step 5 on the screen

6. Step 6 of 11

   Check whether it already exists

   Bridge warns you if the contact already exists.

   As you type, Bridge compares the phone and the email with those of your contacts. If one already has them, Possible duplicate appears at the top, with that contact’s name and whether it shares the mobile or the email. Open, with its name, opens that contact in Contact info, so you can check or update it instead of creating another one. If you create it anyway, both become possible duplicates in the Duplicates view, where they are merged into one, as the guide «Merge duplicate contacts» explains.

   • Same mobile or same email
   • Open: go to the existing one
   • No duplicate created

   Watch step 6 on the screen

7. Step 7 of 11

   Fill in the attributes

   Attributes hold your company’s own details.

   In Contact attributes, fill in your company’s details, each with the control of its type: text, such as Company; select, one option from a list, such as City or Segment, which starts at Not selected; multi select, several options from that list, such as Interests; and number, such as Orders. Attributes with an asterisk are required, like Segment in this workspace: if they stay empty, creating shows Required. You can leave the others empty and fill them in later.

   • Each with its control
   • Asterisk: required
   • The rest, later

   Watch step 7 on the screen

8. Step 8 of 11

   Create the contact

   Create contact saves everything at once.

   When you are done, choose Create contact. The button turns on once you have gone through every field, that is, once the end of the form has been in view; before that it is off and, when you rest the pointer on it, it says Go through every field to create the contact. If a required detail is missing or one is wrong, you see the warning under that field and the contact is not created. Cancel closes the panel without creating anything.

   • On once you go through the form
   • Warnings under each field
   • Cancel creates nothing

   Watch step 8 on the screen

9. Step 9 of 11

   Check the new contact

   The new contact is yours and not contacted yet.

   Bridge saves the contact, shows the notice Contact created and opens it in Contact info, so you can check it, edit it or start its chat right away. The contact is assigned to you, because you created it, and its connection status is Never contacted: nothing has been sent to it yet. It also appears in the Contacts table and in the Never contacted view.

   • Contact created
   • Assigned to you
   • Never contacted

   Watch step 9 on the screen

10. Step 10 of 11

    See where its history starts

    Its history starts with its creation.

    In Contact info, Activity already has its first event. Choose it to see it: Contact created, with the note Created in Bridge with New contact, your name and the time. From there, every edit, assignment or contactability change of the contact joins that history.

    • Created in Bridge with New contact
    • With your name and the time

    Watch step 10 on the screen

11. Step 11 of 11

    Start its chat or edit it

    The next step is to write to it.

    At the bottom right is Start chat. It opens Send message for this contact only: as it is never contacted, you choose the line if you write from several, who gets the replies and the WhatsApp template that starts the chat, as the guide «Send a message to several contacts» explains. To correct or complete its details, choose Edit in Contact info, as the guide «Update a contact’s details» explains. Next: Send a message to several contacts.

    • Start chat: Send message
    • Edit: correct its details

    Watch step 11 on the screen