Searching for Contacts

Why you would perform a search

The action of searching contacts in Dialog Insight is the basis of multiple functions. The search function lets you search for contacts by specifying very specific information such as the last name, first name and email, or to search for multiple contacts by widening the criteria.

The search can also be applied to a given group, to the contact profile information, to results from a previous search or to various administrative information. By combining different types of criteria, you can end up with very specific results. There is also a quick search tool that is always available from the right pane of the application.

By default, if no criteria is defined, the search result will correspond to all the contacts in the project. To refine the results and reduce the number of contacts, you just need to change the criteria.

How to perform a search

Access Path

> Contacts > Search

From any page in the application

The quick search tool offers a few fields to use. Amongst the fields are the project mandatory fields (that is Email, LastName and FirstName) and all other fields included in the primary key, thus tagged by the key icon .

1. To perform a quick search, just enter the searched information in the appropriate fields.
2. Click on the magnifier icon  to launch the search and see the matching contacts in the result window.

Based on the values contained in the contact profiles

When searching for contacts based on information contained in their profiles, you are looking for a specific value in one of the fields of the project. Fields that are shown in the Profile search section are those that have been configured to show (their visibility is set to Default, Always shown or Optional. For more infoDefining Field Availability

To perform a search on other project fields, click on the Change field list link to show all the project fields that can be used in searches. Note that if a field's visibility was set to Never shown, this field will never be available for searching purposes.

However, the field called Permission status  is a system field and is always available for searching, even when no project field is set to show in the search window.

1. Under the Profile section of the Search page, locate the field to search. If the field you want to use to search contacts is not shown, open the field selector by clicking on the Change field list link and select the desired fields. It is important to click on Apply for you changes to be saved.
   
2. If the field presents a drop-down list of values, you will just need to select the desired value from those in the list. However, if the field does not provide a list of predefined values, you will need to type it in the corresponding text box.
3. You can used as many fields as you need to apply criteria.

Based on personas

Searching contacts based on personas lets you find contacts who correspond to a specific persona, or to more than one. To perform this type of search, you must first have defined personas, and have specified the characteristics to be met. To be certain your search takes into account the most updated information, it can be a good idea to recalculate your personas before performing your search.

1. Under the Other criteria section of the Search page, select the Advanced options option.
2. From the list of possible options, select Personas.
3. Specify whether you want to include only one, or all, of the personas you will select.
   
   

Based on data in a custom table

Searching contacts based on information contained in a custom relational table lets you find contacts using information other than what is found in the project fields. Relational tables are normally used to store contact information that you might not want to keep in profiles. To perform such a search, the project must obviously contain at least one custom relational table.

1. Click on the Search in a custom table tab.
2. In the Search records in the table field, select the table in which you want to search the specified value.
3. Once the table is selected, select the Match the following criteria option to define which value to search in which field. based on the specified operator.
4. If some table fields are not shown in the search section, click on the Change field list link to open the field selector and indicate the fields you want or do not want to show for search purposes by checking or unchecking the related fields. It is important to click on Apply for your changes to be saved.
   
5. Click on Count to see the number of contacts that matches the search criteria.
6. Click on Search to display the actual list of contacts.
7. Click on Save this search to keep and save the search criteria you have just defined in order to use it again in the future.
   1. In the search saving window, specify the name of the search.
   2. If more that one language is available, you can specify a search name for the other languages as well, otherwise the provided name will be used for all languages.
   3. If you think you might need to quickly view these search results again in the future, you could activate the Add to shortcuts option for this search to display in the right pane of the application.
      
      
   4. If you want this search to also be available to other users in the company, check the Share this search option.
   5. Click on Save.

8. The next time you access the search page, the saved searches will display in the drop-down list of the Targeted by the search field.

Based on errors or quarantines

This type of search lets you find contacts based on the status of their email address or phone number. You can therefore get a list of contacts placed in quarantine or whose email address or phone number format is invalid.

1. Under the Other criteria section of the Search page, select the Advanced options option.
2. From the list of possible options, select the In error option.

1. Click on Count to see the number of contacts that matches the search criteria.
2. Click on Search to display the actual list of contacts.
3. Click on Save this search to keep and save the search criteria you have just defined in order to use it again in the future.
   1. In the search saving window, specify the name of the search.
   2. If more that one language is available, you can specify a search name for the other languages as well, otherwise the provided name will be used for all languages.
   3. If you think you might need to quickly view these search results again in the future, you could activate the Add to shortcuts option for this search to display in the right pane of the application.
      
      
   4. If you want this search to also be available to other users in the company, check the Share this search option.
   5. Click on Save.

4. The next time you access the search page, the saved searches will display in the drop-down list of the Targeted by the search field.

Based on the reception or click status of messages

This type of search lets you find contacts that have received or not a specific message or clicked or not in a given message.

1. Under the Other criteria section of the Search page, select the Advanced options option.
2. From the list possible options, select the option to search contacts Based on behavior.

1. Click on Count to see the number of contacts that matches the search criteria.
2. Click on Search to display the actual list of contacts.
3. Click on Save this search to keep and save the search criteria you have just defined in order to use it again in the future.
   1. In the search saving window, specify the name of the search.
   2. If more that one language is available, you can specify a search name for the other languages as well, otherwise the provided name will be used for all languages.
   3. If you think you might need to quickly view these search results again in the future, you could activate the Add to shortcuts option for this search to display in the right pane of the application.
      
      
   4. If you want this search to also be available to other users in the company, check the Share this search option.
   5. Click on Save.

4. The next time you access the search page, the saved searches will display in the drop-down list of the Targeted by the search field.

Based on various administrative information

This type of search lets you find contacts based on information automatically generated by the application in relation to contacts; this information is not shown in contact profiles.

1. Under the Other criteria section of the Search page, select the Advanced options option.
2. From the list of possible options, select the Administrative information (date and subscription source) option.

1. Click on Count to see the number of contacts that matches the search criteria.
2. Click on Search to display the actual list of contacts.
3. Click on Save this search to keep and save the search criteria you have just defined in order to use it again in the future.
   1. In the search saving window, specify the name of the search.
   2. If more that one language is available, you can specify a search name for the other languages as well, otherwise the provided name will be used for all languages.
   3. If you think you might need to quickly view these search results again in the future, you could activate the Add to shortcuts option for this search to display in the right pane of the application.
      
      
   4. If you want this search to also be available to other users in the company, check the Share this search option.
   5. Click on Save.

4. The next time you access the search page, the saved searches will display in the drop-down list of the Targeted by the search field.

In an existing group

This type of search lets you display all the contacts in an existing group or to search for specific contacts in a given group, either to refine the group or to update a value for the contacts of a given group.

1. Under the Other criteria section of the Search page, select the desired group from the list of the Part of the group field.
   If the project does not contain any groups, this option will not be shown.
2. If needed, specify other criteria to further refine the result.
3. Click on Count to see the number of contacts that matches the search criteria.
4. Click on Search to display the actual list of contacts.
5. Click on Save this search to keep and save the search criteria you have just defined in order to use it again in the future.
   1. In the search saving window, specify the name of the search.
   2. If more that one language is available, you can specify a search name for the other languages as well, otherwise the provided name will be used for all languages.
   3. If you think you might need to quickly view these search results again in the future, you could activate the Add to shortcuts option for this search to display in the right pane of the application.
      
      
   4. If you want this search to also be available to other users in the company, check the Share this search option.
   5. Click on Save.

6. The next time you access the search page, the saved searches will display in the drop-down list of the Targeted by the search field.

In a previously saved search

This type of search lets you quickly access the contacts previously found with a previous search, that was registered, or to further refine the search from an existing saved search.

1. Under the Other criteria section of the Search page, select a search from the drop-down list of the Targeted by the search option.
   If the project does not contain any saved searches, this option will not be shown.

2. If needed, specify other criteria to further refine the result.

3. Click on Count to see the number of contacts that matches the search criteria.
4. Click on Search to display the actual list of contacts.
5. Click on Save this search to keep and save the search criteria you have just defined in order to use it again in the future.
   1. In the search saving window, specify the name of the search.
   2. If more that one language is available, you can specify a search name for the other languages as well, otherwise the provided name will be used for all languages.
   3. If you think you might need to quickly view these search results again in the future, you could activate the Add to shortcuts option for this search to display in the right pane of the application.
      
      
   4. If you want this search to also be available to other users in the company, check the Share this search option.
   5. Click on Save.

6. The next time you access the search page, the saved searches will display in the drop-down list of the Targeted by the search field.

What to do next?

Once you have the search results displayed, you can perform various actions:

• Using Contact Search Results
• Exporting a List of Contacts