How To Search For Contacts In The Address Book

How To Search For Contacts In The Address Book

The Address Book is the home of all the contacts that are created in autoplayauto.com - a count of the total records is listed in the red header (shown as 'Contacts (54) in the screenshot below). 

As each dealership could have hundreds of thousands of contacts, by default we only show 25 at a time (this can be changed to 10, 25 or 50 by clicking on the "25 per page" selection box).  This is done to ensure your Address Book remains fast no matter how many contacts are loaded.  You can cycle through the pages of contacts using the page numbers located on the right of the screen at both the top and bottom of the results.

The Address Book table will display the following data (if being viewed on smartphone less data will be visible due to space limitations).  Like all tables within autoplayauto.com you can click on the column headings to sort alphabetically/numerically/by date as required.
  1. ID (AutoPlay Contact ID)
  2. Name (First and Last)
  3. Company
  4. Mobile
  5. Email
  6. Status (New, Current, Opted Out)
  7. Client Ref (3rd Party/DMS Contact ID - if integrated)
  8. Created Date (date contact was first created in AutoPlay)
  9. Updated Date (the most recent date that anything was modified on the contact in AutoPlay)


Searching For Contacts
By default the first visible contacts will be the last 25 records created.  To search for a specific contact you use the keyword search to narrow down the visible contacts by typing in any of the following types of values;
  1. Contact ID
  2. Email
  3. Name (First or Last)
  4. Company
  5. Mobile
  6. Phone
  7. Client Ref
You can clear your keyword search using the small x inside the search field.

If required you can also click on the 'Show/hide advanced search options' icon to further narrow down your search.

By default you will be searching 'New' or 'Current' contacts (New Contacts are those brand new contacts that have yet to successfully recieve an email via AutoPlay vs Current Contacts are those that have successfully been sent an Email Response or Email Campaign to verify the email address).  You can change the filter to view Contacts that have 'Opted Out' (via email or manually by a user), "Undeliverable' (unable to successfully email this contact via AutoPlay) or 'Invalid Email' (the format of the email address is not valid).  Clicking on each additional filter will add those types of contacts to your search, or you can select 'All' to view every type of contact.

By default you will be viewing 'All Dates' but this can be changed to only Contacts created 'This Month', 'Last Month', 'This Year', 'Last Year' or 'Custom' using the options provided in the date range drop down.

Managing Multiple Contacts 
In some cases you may want to Delete or add multiple Contacts to a group.  Instead of having to access each individual contact you can select multiple contacts at once via the Address Book.  By clicking on the 3 squares next to the search filter you can show the multi-select options.  A small check box will appear next to each contact which can be checked in order to select that customer to be managed.  You can also click on the 'Select All Filtered Roles' icon that appears to choose every contact you have filtered to.  Once selected click on the 'More' icon in the grey action menu to do either of the following;
  1. Update Group - adds the selected contacts to a specified Contact Group set up within your account
  2. Delete Selected - will Delete the selected contact(s).  Please be aware it is not advisable to do this if you have integration with your DMS, or have leads against this contact.
Note - when the multi-select menu is engaged you can not click on an individual contact to view their full details - you must first hide the mutli-select options again in order to return to your normal view.


 download a PDF or Excel file with all your currently filtered to contacts.  This will provide you with data for all filtered contacts - not just the 25 you are currently viewing.  



Import Contacts 
It is also possible to Import Contacts from a CSV file into autoplayauto.com via the Address Book.  To do so click on the Import Contacts button pictured below (highlighted with red underline).  You can then elect to add directly to a 'Contact Group', 'Yard' or even a 'Manager' (The Managers shown in the drop down will be any user ticked as a Manager in the Manage Contacts role).

Please note that Contacts can only be uploaded using a specific CSV format with AutoPlay headers/field names.  A template can be downloaded directly from the Import Contacts popup via the 'Download Template' button.  Before you upload any file make sure it is saved as a CSV, and Excel is closed.  Once the file has uploaded these contacts will be available to send emails to, or load leads against.





    • Related Articles

    • Overview - Managing Contacts Via The Address Book

      Watch the short video below to find out more about how to create and manage your contact database via the 'Address Book' screen in autoplayauto.com The 'Address Book' contains all of the customers/contacts that exist in AutoPlay.  If you have ...

    • How To Import Contacts To Your Address Book

      It is possible to Import Contacts from a CSV file into autoplayauto.com via the Address Book.  To do so click on the Import Contacts button pictured below (highlighted with red underline).  You can then elect to add directly to a 'Contact Group', ...

    • How To Manage Your Individual Contacts (Incl Opt Out, Groups, Activity And History)

      To view an existing contact click on the record from the Address Book.  This will open the View Contact screen. At the very top of the screen you will see icons for; Days Since Last Contacted - shows the number of days since an Email Response, SMS, ...

    • Bulk Create Leads from Address Book

      Users that have access to the Bulk lead management options are now able to create leads in Bulk directly from the Address Book This functionality works well with the filtering options built into the customer dashboard and could be used with Contact ...

    • How To Add A New Contact Via The Address Book

      All leads in AutoPlay must be attached to a Contact record.  Contacts can be added to AutoPlay in several ways Via Customer Integration with a DMS or CRM system Via Leads captured via API or Email Capture Via 'Import Contacts' in the Address Book or ...