Get to know your contacts

Steps

1. Step 1 of 16

   Open Contacts

   Contacts gathers the people your company talks to.

   Contacts is under Conversations, in the menu on the left. Here you manage each contact one by one (open it, edit its details, open or start its chat) and act on many at once: filter by any field, then send them a message, export them or reassign them. A contact is a person your company talks to, such as a customer or a prospect: it has a first name, a last name, a mobile with its country code, an optional email, a language and the attributes your company created, such as City or Segment. As an advisor, you see only the contacts assigned to you. With administration permissions you see the whole team’s contacts, with the Assigned to column. New contact, in the header, creates a contact, assigned to whoever creates it. Importing contacts is done in the admin console, and mass marketing campaigns have their own module, Campaigns.

   • Under Conversations, in the menu
   • Advisor: only your contacts
   • Administration: the whole team

   Watch step 1 on the screen

2. Step 2 of 16

   Read the cards

   The cards sum up your contacts by view, with their count.

   Above the table, six cards sum up your contacts, one per default view: All contacts, Reply pending, Waiting on contact, Never connected, Never contacted and Duplicates. Each card shows how many contacts it has and, after the slash, their share of All contacts; All contacts is the base and shows only its number. Resting the pointer on the number shows the share and the total. The counts follow the active filters, but not the search, and they are the same as in Saved views. Click a card to open that view in the table: the active card is highlighted in blue and Saved views takes its name. As an advisor, the cards count your contacts; with administration permissions, the whole team’s.

   • Count and share of the total
   • They follow filters, not search
   • Click: opens that view

   Watch step 2 on the screen

3. Step 3 of 16

   Read each row

   Each row shows a contact and opens its information.

   Each row is a contact. Contact shows the name and, under it, the email, or No email when there is none. Mobile shows the number with its country code. The other columns tell where the relationship with the contact stands and are explained in the next steps. The table is sorted by Last activity, most recent first, with contacts that have no activity at the end; any header sorts by its column. As you scroll, the table loads more contacts and says at the bottom how many it shows out of how many. Click a row to open the contact’s information: it is the row’s only action, so the whole row is the button.

   • Name and email, or No email
   • Mobile with its country code
   • Click the row: the contact

   Watch step 3 on the screen

4. Step 4 of 16

   Understand the connection status

   The connection status says whether there is already a chat with the contact.

   Connection status tells whether there is already a chat with the contact, that is, a WhatsApp conversation, and it has three values. Open: the contact answered and there is an open conversation. Never connected: a WhatsApp template was sent to open the chat, but the contact never answered it. A WhatsApp template is an approved message used to start a conversation. Never contacted: nothing has been sent to the contact yet. The status moves on by itself: with the first template the contact becomes Never connected and stays so, even if more templates follow, until it answers; its first answer makes it Open. Resting the pointer on the pill shows what it means.

   • Open: the contact answered
   • Never connected: template without a reply
   • Never contacted: nothing sent yet

   Watch step 4 on the screen

5. Step 5 of 16

   See all its chats

   A contact can have several chats, one per line and person.

   A contact can have several chats, one per line and person. A line is a WhatsApp number of your company, such as a brand’s. When there are several, Connection status shows one pill per status, Open first and then Never connected, with × and the number when a status repeats, for example Open × 2. The last pill has a chevron: clicking it opens Chats with and the contact’s name, with each chat on a row: who it is with, that is, all its Bridge users, with a divided avatar when there are several; the line with its number; and the status of that chat. Opening this list does not open the row. A contact with a single chat shows a single pill.

   • One pill per status, with × n
   • The chevron opens the chat list
   • Each chat: users, line and status

   Watch step 5 on the screen

6. Step 6 of 16

   Count the attempts

   Attempts counts the templates the contact has not answered.

   Attempts only has a value for Never connected contacts: it is how many WhatsApp templates were sent to open the chat without a reply. For every other contact it stays blank. Resting the pointer on the number shows the last template sent and its date; the chat opens when the contact answers. The information icon in the header sums it up: at 5 attempts, Bridge sets the contact to Paused · No response and stops sending it templates, as you will see in Contactability. This column does not sort, but it can be filtered by a range of numbers.

   • Never connected only
   • Pointer: the last template
   • At 5 attempts, paused

   Watch step 6 on the screen

7. Step 7 of 16

   See who usually replies

   Responsiveness says how likely the contact is to reply.

   Responsiveness tells whether the contact replies when written to, and how fast. It is a score from 0 to 100 worked out from its last 12 attempts, in business hours, where the most recent attempts weigh more. It does not measure how often you write, but how the contact answers. It shows in three levels: High, 65 to 100; Medium, 30 to 64; and Low, 0 to 29. Resting the pointer on the pill shows the score, how many of the last times the contact replied and how long it usually takes, or that it has not replied to its last templates. A contact with no history starts at 20, Low. Sorting by this column puts those who reply most first.

   • High, Medium or Low
   • From its last 12 attempts
   • No history starts at 20

   Watch step 7 on the screen

8. Step 8 of 16

   Read the last activity

   Last activity says when and through which channel the last contact was.

   Last activity shows the last message or call with the contact: the channel icon (WhatsApp, email or call) and how long ago it was, if within the last 24 hours, or the date and time, if older. Resting the pointer on the icon shows the channel, who wrote to whom and the exact date; for a call, who called whom and how many minutes it lasted; for a never connected contact, which template its advisor sent. A never contacted contact shows a dash. While a send is running, contacts still waiting for their message show Sending. If a message could not be sent, the contact shows Not sent: it is not retried and nothing else changes; to try again, send it another message.

   • Channel and how long ago
   • Pointer: who to whom and when
   • Sending or Not sent

   Watch step 8 on the screen

9. Step 9 of 16

   Know whose turn it is

   The chat status says whether it is your turn to reply or to wait.

   Contacts with an open chat also have a chat status. Reply pending: the contact wrote last and is waiting for your reply. Waiting on contact: you replied last and the chat is waiting for the contact to answer. It has no column in the table: you find it in the Reply pending and Waiting on contact cards and views, in the Chat status filter of Filter and in the contact’s information, in the Chat status field. For a never connected contact, the contact’s information shows Attempts instead, and for a never contacted contact, Chat status reads Nothing sent yet.

   • Reply pending: your turn
   • Waiting on contact: their turn
   • In cards, filter and information

   Watch step 9 on the screen

10. Step 10 of 16

    Choose the columns

    Columns decides which details you see in the table.

    Columns, on the right above the table, chooses the columns you see. Contact is always there; the others can be shown or hidden. By default you see Mobile, Connection status, Attempts, Responsiveness and Last activity. Hidden by default are Contactability, Company, City, Segment, Interests, Orders, Language, Channel and Line. Company, City, Segment, Interests and Orders are contact attributes, the fields your company created in the console: any contact attribute can be shown as a column. Language is the language the contact is attended in; Channel, the channel of its last activity; and Line, your company’s line the conversation with the contact is on, set by the first message ever sent to it and never changed. Restore default goes back to the default columns. You do not need to show a column to filter by it: Filter has every field.

    • Contact always shown
    • Any attribute as a column
    • Restore default: the usual ones

    Watch step 10 on the screen

11. Step 11 of 16

    Know who you can write to

    Contactability says whether Bridge can still write to the contact.

    Contactability tells whether Bridge can still write to the contact; it is a hidden column you turn on in Columns. Available: Bridge can write to the contact, and the cell stays blank in the table. Paused · No response: the contact does not reply. Bridge sets it at 5 templates without a reply, or a person marks it earlier in the contact’s information, and Bridge stops sending it templates; it lifts when the contact replies or when a person makes it Available again, and the count starts over. Do not contact: the contact asked not to be contacted. Bridge AI detects it in the chat and keeps the contact’s words, or a person marks it, and it blocks every template send; it lifts when the contact writes again on their own or when a person makes it Available. Resting the pointer on the pill shows who marked it, when and why. Send message leaves out Do not contact contacts, and Paused ones when they would need a template. Every change is recorded in the contact’s Activity.

    • Available: Bridge can write
    • Paused: Bridge or a person
    • Do not contact: the AI or a person

    Watch step 11 on the screen

12. Step 12 of 16

    Use the views

    The views show your contacts by status or with your filters.

    Saved views carries the name of the active view, All contacts at first. Opening it shows the default views first, each with its count: All contacts, Reply pending, Waiting on contact, Never connected, Never contacted and Duplicates. They are the same as the cards, and choosing one keeps your filters. Under them are your personal views, which only you see: each one keeps some filters and a default view, and choosing it applies them and gives the button its name. The active view has a check mark. At the end, Save current view saves the filters you have as a new view; it needs at least one filter.

    • Default views with their count
    • Personal views: only you
    • Save current view: with a filter

    Watch step 12 on the screen

13. Step 13 of 16

    Act on many

    With a selection, you act on many contacts at once.

    Tick the box of the contacts you want to work with. The header box selects the contacts loaded in the table, and Select all N, where N is the number of contacts in the view, selects them all, even those not loaded. On the right you see how many are selected and Clear. With a selection, Send message appears with the number of contacts: it opens a panel that picks the way for each contact, in its open chat or with a WhatsApp template that starts the chat. Export, the download icon, is always there: it exports the selection or, with none, every contact in the view, with its filters and search. The file arrives by email with 100% of each contact’s attributes, including empty ones and those not shown in the table; an advisor exports only their own contacts. With administration permissions, Assign to also appears, which reassigns the selection to another advisor of the team.

    • Send message: each one’s way
    • Export: every attribute by email
    • Assign to: with administration

    Watch step 13 on the screen

14. Step 14 of 16

    Check the duplicates

    Duplicates gathers contacts with the same mobile or email.

    A contact is a possible duplicate when another of your contacts has the same mobile or the same email. The Duplicates view, from its card or from Saved views, lists them grouped, with the Duplicate of column: Same mobile or Same email and the other contact’s name, with +N when there are more. Records that share a mobile or an email are the same person, so they merge into one contact. In this view, the row opens the contact’s information on Resolve duplicates, where you choose, side by side, which values to keep. While a contact has unresolved duplicates, Start chat stays disabled and the contact’s information says so, with the Resolve duplicates button.

    • Same mobile or same email
    • They merge into one contact
    • Unresolved: no chat starts

    Watch step 14 on the screen

15. Step 15 of 16

    Open a contact

    The contact’s information gathers everything about one person.

    Clicking a row opens the contact’s information on the right. At the top are its name and, under it, its company and segment. Contact details gathers its mobile, email, language and every attribute in the console’s order, with Assigned to if you have administration permissions; then what the system sets: Line, Connection status, Chat status or Attempts, Last activity, Responsiveness and the CRM, with its sync status. Edit changes the details right there. Contactability sits apart, at the end, in its own band: amber when Paused and red when Do not contact, with the reason under it. Below are Chats, with its open and released chats; Duplicates, when it has possible duplicates; and Activity, its history. At the bottom right, Go to chat opens its chat when it is Open, and Start chat opens Send message with a WhatsApp template for the others. It closes with the X, with Escape or by clicking outside.

    • Details, edited right there
    • Contactability in its band
    • Go to chat or Start chat

    Watch step 15 on the screen

16. Step 16 of 16

    Go on with a task

    Each task on this screen has its own guide.

    You now know how to read each contact and each view. These are the tasks of this screen, each with its own step-by-step guide: Find contacts with filters, to search, filter by any field and save views; Send a message to several contacts, to write to all of them at once, each through the right channel; Update a contact’s details, to edit it in its information; Add a contact, with New contact in the header; and Merge duplicate contacts, to turn the records of the same person into one. Next: Find contacts with filters.

    • Filters and views
    • Send to several
    • Edit, add and merge

    Watch step 16 on the screen