We’ve been working hard to ensure the platform’s value only moves in one direction: upwards. To that end, we’re announcing three highly-requested updates in this release! Let’s go through Contact Import 2.0, Conversation Unassignment Logic Improvements and Platform Language Available in Spanish. 🚀

Contact Import 2.0

Your feedback about the original Contact import process helped us redesign it to be far more intuitive and flexible. Previously, preparing an import file and cleaning up your Contact database after an import job were tedious tasks:

• Existing Contacts couldn’t be identified and would be imported again, causing Contact duplication
• Column headers in the import file had to precisely match Contact Field titles in the Workspace or their values wouldn’t be imported
• It was impossible to check for errors before an import

All these are addressed in the new Contact Import! 🥳

Bulk Add, Update and Merge Contacts

The new Contact import lets you bulk add, update and merge Contacts as you wish. It distinguishes between new and existing Contacts and has a selection of import purposes so you can configure an import to your exact needs.

For instance, “Add and Update Contacts” lets you merge and update duplicate Contacts while adding only new Contacts to the Workspace. You can even bulk add, update and delete Tags now, making Contact segmentation and management easier than ever. 

Map File Columns to Workspace Contact Fields Easily

The new Mapping feature ends the hassle of editing column headers in your CSV file to precisely match Contact Fields in the Workspace. Just map the file’s columns to Contact Fields in your Workspace to automatically populate their values.

You can also populate the Assignee field, which means you can bulk assign Contacts for the first time!

Want to keep existing values in certain Contact Fields? Simply check the Do Not Overwrite box next to the field so new values will only be added if the Contact Field is empty.

Review Errors Before Importing Contacts

You are now able to review and fix any errors before an import. To view the progress of your import job, check the new Data Import page. The Import History Table logs all past imports and allows you to download a results file within 7 days of an import job.

Do note that Contact import and the Data Import page are only accessible by Managers and Owners.

Agents can Now Add Contacts

Agents are finally able to add Contacts from the Messages Module! Salespeople no longer require a Manager’s aid to add Contacts. Instead, they can grow their Contact Lists even while on the go via the respond.io app.

For more information on the new Contact import process, check out our documentation or contact our friendly Support team.

Conversation Unassignment Logic Improvements

This feature request had over 100 upvotes, and what matters to you matters to us! The platform used to automatically unassign Users when a conversation was closed. Sales or support agents who manage the entire customer lifecycle or VIP clients had to create complex routing Workflows to get around this.

We changed the default behavior so Agents now automatically stay assigned to Contacts when a conversation is closed. 😎 

For existing Organizations, Users will still be unassigned when conversations are closed to prevent operational disruption. You can adopt the new behavior and keep Users assigned to Contacts by switching off the Automatically Unassign function.

We highly recommend moving to the new behavior soon as default unassignment will be discontinued in due time. Additionally, the new behavior has powerful benefits. Let’s take a look.

Complete Control Over Assignment Logic

Depending on your operation or team setup, you can auto-assign Contacts each time they start a conversation, keep them assigned to their previous agent or have different behaviors for different teams or use cases. Just design your Workflow accordingly.

For example, set up your Workflow to check if a Contact has previously been assigned to an agent and only auto-assign new Contacts to an available agent. If you have an existing auto-assignment Workflow, modify it to cater to your desired assignment logic.

In short, you have absolute flexibility in creating the assignment logic you desire.

Define Your Preferred Unassignment Logic

What if you don’t want to keep Users assigned after a conversation? Customer support centers, for example, don’t require Contacts to chat with the same agent if they return. In that case, create a simple unassignment Workflow.

Want to keep Users from a certain team assigned to Contacts while applying auto-assignment logic for other teams? By defining the conditions in your Branches, you can keep salespeople assigned to leads and unassign support agents after a conversation.

You can also manually unassign Contacts from the assignment dropdown in the Messages Module. This creates a contact event that notes the User who performed the unassignment for visibility purposes.

The new behavior is a best-of-both-worlds solution that allows you easily to keep Users assigned or unassign them. For more information, please refer to our changelog or contact our Support team.

Platform Language Available in Spanish

Thanks to over 150 upvotes for this feature request, the respond.io platform is now available in Spanish! 🇪🇸

Users can switch to Spanish by going to Settings > Personal Settings > Profile > Language. In addition to all modules, platform-related emails such as Contact or Monthly Active Contact (MAC) limit alerts and payment pending notifications will also be in Spanish.

Do note that your preferred language will apply in emails to invite new Users to the Workspace. New Users can select their preferred language on the sign-up page before creating an account.

Want to use respond.io in your language? Upvote or add your preferred language on our feature requests board so we can work on it for upcoming releases. 🇵🇹🇦🇪🇨🇳