Contact Lists

This article was developed to explain how to build, edit, and filter custom contact lists in the Forth CRM.

Building lists allows you to organize and display contacts for operational and reporting purposes. They are also used with other parts of the system, like E-Marketing Campaigns. 

This article includes the following topics:

• Building custom lists
• Adding list filters
• Adding fields to show (table columns)
• Editing lists

Building custom lists

1. After clicking on the Contacts tab, there is a Contacts Lists menu containing three (3) lists:
   • System Lists are standard lists built into the system; these are not available to be edited.
   • My Lists contain custom lists you have built.
   • Shared Lists are lists built by other users and shared with you.
     
     
     
2. Select New List next to the Contacts Lists menu.
   The List Builder page opens.
3. In the List Name field, type a descriptive and concise list name.
   

   NOTE
   Over time you will build multiple lists and need to be able to identify them easily.

4. To set how the list will be sorted when you view the list table, select an option from the Default Sort menu. Whatever field you choose here will need to be added as a Field to Show (table column, covered more later in this article).
   

   NOTE
   Depending on the list you build, you may wish the list to automatically sort by created date, enrollment date, alphabetically by last name, or time in status.
   

5. Select an option from the What Contacts menu.
6. Select any of the following to make the list available to other users from the Shared With menu:
   • For specific users, hold down the CTRL key when making selections to highlight multiple options.
   • For a set of users, it may be easier to create a team to share the list with. For example, if you are building a set of lists you want Sales users to use, you should create a team that contains only sales users. This way when adding a new sales user they will be automatically included under the shared settings.
   • To add users individually, you will need to edit the lists every time you add a new user.
7. Do one of the following,
   • If finished, click Save List; or
   • If you'd like to add filters, go to the next section.

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Adding list filters

Filters are basically a qualifying statement of whether or not a contact should appear on the list. You can add multiple filters to a list but it is best practice to add them one at a time, as adding many filters at once can make it difficult to determine what is wrong if the list isn't displaying properly.

1. Scroll down to the Available Filters section.
   
   The Available Filters menu contains a series of system filters then custom fields and also secondary assignments at the bottom of the menu. Any custom fields you create could then be used as a list filter and is available as a field to show.
2. Select the filter you want to add > a list of options appears.
3. Put in the appropriate information.
4. Click the Add Filter button.
   
   

   NOTE
   You should notice the number of contacts found changes once the filter has been added. You can use this number to judge whether or not the list is going to display the right contacts. If the number drops to 0, you have probably set your filter incorrectly. Try removing the most recent filter and reset it differently.

5. Do one of the following:
   • If finished, click Save List (found in the Navigation Bar at the top of the page); or
   • To add additional filters, repeat steps 2-5 until finished.

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Click to collapse.

Filtering by a Date Field

There are more complicated filters like those based on a date. In the example below, we are setting up a filter based on the Enrolled Date. With the filter as pictured below, we want the list to contain only leads who have been enrolled today.



You can set up a more complicated filter by selecting one of the other date filter options. In the example below we are filtering again by the enrolled date but only contacts who have been enrolled more than 30 days ago.


Filtering by a Multiple Option Field

For fields (system or custom) that have multiple options, like multiple choice, multiple select or check box fields, the fields options are available to filter the list by (hold down the 'CTRL' key when making selections to highlight multiple options). In the example below a filter is being added for 'Filing Status' which is a custom field. The field has four (4) options but we are populating the list with leads where either "Married Filing Jointly" or "Married Filing Separate" has been selected.


Filtering by Workflow Stage or Status

Common filters used with list building are Workflow Stage and Status. If set correctly, your Workflow will reflect a lot about the current state of a particular contact and therefore you should be able to filter lists based on the workflow status. Like the multiple-choice options, you can select more than one status to filter by (hold down the 'CTRL' key when making selections to highlight multiple options). In the example below, you can see we are filtering so contacts who are in the "Lead: New Lead", "Lead: VM 1", "Lead: VM 2" and "Lead: VM 3" statuses will appear on the list.



Filtering by an Input Field

When filtering by a field where information is inputted without a preset option, like an email address, phone number, or any text field you will need to enter a value to filter by. In most cases, the system will locate contacts where a value for that field is near what you are trying to filter by. In the example below, we are filtering by email address but only the domain. The CRM will then find contacts where the domain on the email address is "@test.com".



You can also filter by numerous values separating them with a comma. However, the system will only be able to search by the exact values in this case. So in this case the list would populate contacts whose email addresses saved are either "test@test.com" or "example@example.com".


You can also filter by whether or not the field has a value saved for it by using !BLANK (if there is an empty value) or !NOTBLANK (if there is any value saved).

Payment Reminder - This set of filters will display a contact who is enrolled, not paused, and have a payment due 3 days from now. This means every day a new set of contacts will populate this list. Typically you would use this list as part of an E-marketing Campaign.



Follow Up - This set of filters will provide a list of contacts who have been in the status "Docs Out" for three (3) days or more. You can use this as part of an E-Marketing campaign or for tracking leads. In theory, these contacts have contracts sent to them for signature and are waiting for them to be returned signed. You can also set up an E-Marketing Campaign to contact them as a follow-up.



Anniversary - This set of filters will populate contacts who were enrolled and are still enrolled a year from now. You may use this to send a 'Thank You' E-Marketing Campaign, or if your service involves an annual renewal, you can use this as a reminder.



Missing Information - This set of filters will populate a list of enrolled contacts with no email address. You may use variations of this to check for needed info from contacts as part of your process.

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Adding fields to show (table columns)

The Fields To Show are the data columns you see when viewing your list. The only requirement is to include the Sort By field. When you first create a new list, the system will place a default set of fields to show.

1. Do either of the following:
   • If you are not still on the List Builder page, go to the list you want to edit.

     NOTE
     Only custom lists, with the proper permissions, will allow you to make edits.

   • Scroll down to the Available Fields To Show section.
     
2. Drag and drop the fields you want to appear on the contacts list from the Available Fields To Show to the Show Fields On List section. You can then also drag and drop the fields in the order of how you would like them to appear on the list (top to bottom = left to right).
   
3. When finished, click Save List.

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Editing a list

1. If you need to edit a list, select the list from the Contacts Lists menu.
2. When the list has loaded on the page, click the link name, which should be a link. This opens the List Builder page for that list.
   
3. Make any edits as needed, and click Save List when finished.
   

   IMPORTANT
   Only Super Admin Users can edit contact lists that were created by other users.

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