Managing contacts

The contacts panel in OonoBox lets you store and organize customer information. Link contacts to conversations, tag them, and store custom attributes.

Viewing contacts

Open OonoBox → Contacts to see all saved contacts. Each contact shows:

• Name — The customer's name.
• Phone — Their phone number.
• Status — When they last messaged or were added.
• Tags — Custom labels (e.g. "VIP", "support issue").

Click a contact to view or edit their full profile.

Creating a contact

Manually:

1. Click Add contact.
2. Enter phone number and name.
3. Optionally add an email and any custom attributes (key/value pairs like "Company" or "Account ID").
4. Add tags for easy grouping.
5. Click Save.

From a conversation:

When you receive a message from a new phone number:

1. Click the phone number at the top of the conversation.
2. Click Save as contact.
3. Fill in the name and any details.
4. Click Save.

The contact is now in your address book.

Custom attributes

Beyond name, phone, and email, every contact can store free-form attributes as key/value pairs (e.g. "Tier" = "Gold", "Account ID" = "12345", "Preferred language" = "English").

To add one:

1. Open the contact.
2. In the contact details, add an attribute with a name and a value.
3. Save.

Attributes are plain text - there are no fixed field types (dropdown, date, and so on). Add whatever keys you need per contact.

Tags and segmentation

Tag contacts to group them for broadcasts, reporting, or quick lookup:

• Click Edit on a contact.
• Add tags (e.g. "VIP", "interested in X", "follow-up needed").
• Save.

Use consistent tag names so you can reliably segment. For example, if you want to send a broadcast to all VIP customers, tag them the same way.

Importing contacts

Bulk import contacts from a CSV file:

1. Go to Contacts.
2. Click Import.
3. Upload a CSV with columns: phone, name, email, etc.
4. Map the columns to contact fields.
5. Click Import.

OonoBox adds the contacts and skips any duplicates (matched by phone number).

Export a sample template from the import dialog to see the expected format.

Organizing contacts

• Search — Type a name or phone number to find a contact.
• Filter by tag — Click a tag to show only contacts with that tag.
• Sort — Sort by name, date added, or last message.

History

From a contact you can see their message history - the conversations they've had with your workspace.

Marketing consent

To exclude a contact from broadcasts, change their marketing consent:

1. Open the contact.
2. Set their marketing consent to opted out.
3. Save.

This is useful if a customer has unsubscribed or requested no marketing messages. They'll still receive your replies in active conversations, but won't be included in broadcast audiences. Contacts who reply "STOP" are opted out automatically.

Deleting contacts

To delete a contact:

1. Open the contact.
2. Click Delete.
3. Confirm.

Deleting a contact permanently erases them along with their conversations and messages. This can't be undone, so use it for data-erasure requests.

Best practices

Use consistent naming — "John Smith" vs "john smith" vs "Smith, John" creates duplicates. Pick a format and stick to it.

Tag strategically — Broad tags ("customer") are less useful than specific ones ("vip", "free_trial", "churned"). Use tags you'll actually segment on.

Use attributes for the data you'll act on — Store the details you actually use, like tier or account ID, as attributes so teammates have context at a glance.

Import once — Don't import the same list twice or you'll see skipped messages about duplicates. Clean your import file first.

Troubleshooting

"Contact already exists" — A contact with this phone number is already saved. Update the existing one instead of creating a duplicate.

"Invalid phone number" — Use international format with + prefix (e.g. +263771234567).

"Import failed" — Check that your CSV has the right columns. Download the template and compare.

"Can't find a contact" — Search by phone number instead of name (more reliable). Verify the spelling.