## Overview

The **contact** is the central record of each person you communicate with. Every contact stores
identity data (name, email, phone, identifier), additional information and the custom attributes you
define. From the contact you open conversations, create CRM deals and follow the history.

You can populate your base in three ways: **creating contacts manually**, **importing a CSV file**,
and letting **new conversations** create contacts automatically. To find groups quickly, organize the
base into **segments** — saved filters by combined criteria.

## Prerequisites

- An active ConversaLabs account and a user with access to the Contacts area.
- To import, a **CSV** file with a header row as the first line.
- Define the **custom attributes** you want to fill during import beforehand (see the custom
  attributes article).

## Step by step

### Create a contact manually

1. Open the **Contacts** area from the sidebar.
2. Use the new contact action and fill at least one identity field (name, email or phone).
3. Save. The contact becomes available for conversations and for the CRM.

### Import via CSV

1. In the Contacts area, open the **import contacts** option.
2. Download the sample CSV template, if offered, to see the expected columns.
3. Fill the file: one row per contact, with a column header on the first line.
4. Upload the file. The import runs in the background.
5. When it finishes, you get an email notification with the result (success or failure).

### Create and use segments

1. In the Contacts list, build a filter combining criteria (attributes, labels, dates, etc.).
2. Save the filter as a **segment** with a clear name.
3. Open the segment whenever you need that group, without rebuilding the filter.

### Bulk actions

1. In the contact list, use the **"Select all" checkbox** at the top of the list (or hover a
   contact's avatar) to pick contacts.
2. With the whole page selected, the **"Select all N contacts"** button extends the selection
   to the entire view (every page, including label views).
3. With an active selection, the bar offers the bulk actions: **assign/remove labels** (with
   on-the-fly label creation for administrators), **change type** (visitor, lead or customer),
   **assign/remove owner**, **block/unblock**, **export selected** (CSV by e-mail, administrators)
   and **delete** (administrators).
4. Actions apply to every selected contact; the list refreshes when done.

## Settings & options

- **Standard fields**: name, email, phone, identifier, city, country, company and blocked status.
- **Custom attributes**: extra columns you create for your business.
- **Segments**: saved per user and reusable; each user has a limit of saved filters.
- **Deduplication**: email, phone and identifier help avoid repeated contacts.

## Use cases

- Upload an existing base from another tool via CSV in minutes.
- Create a "leads with no reply in the last 7 days" segment for a follow-up.
- Split customers by city or by custom attribute for regional campaigns.

## Tips, limits & best practices

- WhatsApp may provide a business name to complete contacts whose name is still unknown or automatically generated. Existing real names are preserved. Masked phone numbers and temporary names do not prevent trying another available source.

- Make sure the CSV is **UTF-8** to preserve accents and special characters.
- Use a unique **identifier** column (or email/phone) to avoid duplicates.
- Import a small test batch first before the full base.
- Standardize formats (phone in international format, dates in the same pattern).

## Troubleshooting

- **The import failed**: check the notification email; it is usually a header, encoding or column
  format error.
- **Duplicate contacts**: verify the identifier/email column is filled and consistent.
- **Broken accents**: save the CSV again as UTF-8 and import once more.
- **I cannot find a segment**: segments are saved per user; confirm you are on the right user.

A real name set by an agent, the API or an automation is preserved when WhatsApp profile updates arrive. Those updates can fill contacts still identified only by a phone number or technical identifier; edit the contact to correct an existing name.

## See also

- [Contacts and CRM overview](/hc/ajuda/articles/contacts-crm-overview-en)
- [Contact and conversation custom attributes](/hc/ajuda/articles/contacts-crm-atributos-personalizados-en)
- [Companies and contact linking](/hc/ajuda/articles/contacts-crm-empresas-en)