Archiving Contacts

Overview

Viewing Archived Contacts

1. Go to the Contacts tool.
2. Click on the filter icon to launch the filter tool:
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3. Select Archived and then Apply Filter.
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4. When you click on an individual contact in the list, the contact panel will open. (See Navigating the Contacts Page.)
5. Contacts that are archived will display a badge at the top of the contact panel.

Archiving an Individual Contact

1. Select a contact in the Contacts or Conversations tool. The contact panel will open on the right.
2. Click the pencil Edit button in the top left.
3. In the Status section, toggle the Archived field on.

Archiving Multiple Contacts via Audience

An Audience is a set of rules that defines a group of Contact records. For example, you could create a group of students who have already graduated from your institution. The contacts who currently meet an Audience's criteria can be directly archived from the Audience Manager. See Managing Audiences for more information.

Archiving Multiple Contacts via Search

1. Navigate to the Contacts page in the Mainstay platform.
2. Optional: Use the Search contacts input and/or the filter tool to find specific contacts. 
   1. Search for name, phone number, or email to find a specific contact 
   2. Filter using import id - these are automatically applied to all imports, e.g. import-12345678910. (Find the id for any import on the Import History page.) 
   3. Filter by user-created contact label - this works best with shorter labels. (These are also listed in Import History.)
   4. Use the channel filter options to limit population to contacts engaging via SMS, web chat, Facebook Messenger, etc.
3. Click the “...” overflow menu in the top-right and select Archive Contacts from the menu.
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4. Review the number of contacts to be archived and ensure it matches your expectations. Note: Test users won’t be automatically archived (but can be archived manually). 
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5. Check the box next to Confirm, then click Archive to update contacts. 
6. Archived contacts will be visible in the Archived Contacts section of the Contacts page and will have the "Archived" flag in their profile. Archived contacts will automatically be excluded from future campaigns, will receive the filter campaign 

Archiving Multiple Contacts via Import

1. In a CSV of contact records, include a true/false column to indicate whether the contact should be Active.
   1. Set the value to true for contacts who should be Active.
   2. Set the value to false for contacts who should be Archived.
2. Optionally include the value "UNSET" for any fields you wish to clear out, such as CRM ID or phone number.
3. Navigate to the Contacts page in the Mainstay platform.
4. Click Import Contacts in the top-right corner.
5. In addition to the standard fields for matching (First Name, Last Name, Phone, ID or CRM ID), map your Active column to Permitted User.
6. Import the contacts.
   1. For a row where the value is false, this will archive the matching contact.
   2. For all other rows, this will unarchive the matching contact.

Unarchiving Contacts

Contacts currently meeting an Audience's criteria can be unarchived via the Audience Manager, as above.

Contacts can also be unarchived via the Contact Profile or Contacts page, following the same steps detailed in the instructions in the sections above.

If a contact is included in a CSV import or an automatic integration or sync, they will be automatically unarchived and added to the active population, unless:

• (a) a column in the import is mapped to Permitted User and the value is false for that row
• OR (b) a column is mapped to Archived and the value is true for that row

Archive Contacts Script

When an archived contact texts your bot, the bot will respond with a pre-scripted message, which is configurable via the SMS Settings page:

FAQ

Is there anything I should do before archiving contacts?

If you are archiving a group of contacts, we recommend letting those contacts know the bot will stop being available to them (and perhaps collecting feedback in the process). Mainstay's Script Library has example scripts to help you draft your message - just select "Goodbye" from the Mainstay Tags menu at the top of the page. 

Reach out to your Partner Success Manager if you'd like help strategizing about how to wrap up communication with your current population of contacts.

Do I have to archive contacts?

There is no requirement to archive contacts, it's purely optional!

• If you do not archive contacts, please be mindful of not including contacts in future campaigns or contacting them accidentally.
• Once contacts are contacted, they will be considered part of the active population.

Should I archive Facebook and/or web chat contacts?

Similar to SMS contacts, Facebook and web contacts do not need to be archived, but you are welcome to archive contacts from those populations if you'd like to do so.

Can I unarchive contacts?

Contacts may be unarchived at any time. There are three ways to unarchive contacts:

• Include their data in a csv import or data integration. 
• Use the Unarchive Contacts tool on the Contacts page. 
• Toggle a contact's "Archived" status in the contact profile on the Conversations page or Contacts page. 

Can I archive a specific segment of the population?

See above for archiving contacts via Search or Audience.

Is there any downtime when I archive contacts?

Archiving contacts is instantaneous; there is virtually no downtime for the account or the platform.

How are unknown contacts different from archived contacts?

Unknown contacts are those who initiate a conversation with your bot, without you having imported their data into the platform.

Unknown contacts make up most of the population of a web-chat account and "open" SMS accounts. 

In "closed" SMS accounts, unknown contacts are not permitted to engage and are automatically archived.

What happens when an archived contact sends a message to the bot?

When an archived contacts messages the bot, the bot will respond with its Response to Archived Contacts script, which may be configured via the Settings page.

Can I edit my bot's response to archived contacts?

Yes, this can be edited in the SMS / Text Messaging Settings page.

If not script is configured, your bot will use this default: Hi! I'm {bot name}, a virtual assistant for students at {institution name}. I'd love to help you, but I'm only available to certain students right now. Please search online for the contact information of an office that can assist you.

Can I continue to engage with contacts using a different account?

Archiving will only update contact data in one institution account; it will not affect data in other instances. If you have a population "graduating" from one account to another, read more about transferring contact data in this article. 

Can Mainstay copy contact data from one account to another?

Mainstay can’t copy data between institution accounts. Discrepancies in data or process between two accounts could prevent a copy from updating contacts as expected.

Instead, download contacts, ensure they adhere to the format of data source for the new account, then upload the data to the new account. You can even map the admissions records Mainstay Internal Id to a contact attribute to make a contact’s previous record easier to look up.

Why aren't we just deleting contacts?

Many partners like the opportunity to look back at past aggregate data or see conversations for previously engaged contacts. In addition, the active population is flexible: it's possible for a contact to be active over more than one year, and we want to maintain an archived contact's conversation and status if they re-enter the active population in the future.

What happens to test users when I archive contacts?

Test users are automatically excluded from the bulk-archive tool on the Contacts page, however, any test user can be archived manually via their contact profile.