Merge, move and block contacts

In short: If the same customer appears twice in aishaa, you merge the profiles without losing any tickets or contact details. For companies, you can move a contact to another customer or turn it into a separate customer. From a ticket, you link the ticket to another customer or contact, and you block an email address you no longer want to receive tickets from.

Where to find this

You start most actions from a ticket: open the ticket via Tickets and click the three-dot menu in the customer card on the right. There you find Open customer profile, Link ticket to another customer, Link to an existing customer, for companies Select contact for this ticket, and for email tickets Block {email address}.

You can also merge from the customer profile: via the Possibly the same customer notice (button Compare) or, in the profile panel that opens from a ticket, via the Merge button. You move or split off a contact in that same panel, on the Profile tab.

Who: from the Agent role. Contacts belong to the whole account, so a merge or move applies in all organisations of the account. An email block also applies to the whole account.

The three-dot menu in the customer card next to a ticket with Open customer profile, Link ticket to another customer, Link to an existing customer, Select contact for this ticket and Block (email address).

Merging two customer profiles

Use merging when one customer has two profiles, for example one profile with the email address and a second profile with the WhatsApp number.

1. Open the Merge customers dialog (via Link to an existing customer in the customer card, via Merge in the profile panel, or via Compare in the Possibly the same customer notice). At the top you see the Current customer with name, type and primary contact detail.
2. Under Merge with, search for the other customer by name, email address or number and select it. The dialog shows the Selected customer and below it an explanation of what is going to happen (see the table below).
3. If both profiles are people with different names, choose under Which name do you want to keep? which name the merged profile gets.
4. Check the Merged contact details list: all email addresses, numbers and other details the merged profile will get.
5. Optionally fill in a Reason. It is saved in the customer’s timeline.
6. Click Merge. You see the confirmation Customers merged.

After merging, one customer remains; the other is deleted. All tickets, contact details and notes from both profiles are kept under the remaining customer.

The Merge customers dialog with Current customer, the Merge with search field, the Selected customer, the Which name do you want to keep? choice and the Merged contact details list.

When aishaa merges by itself

When aishaa retrieves an order or file from a connected system for a ticket, it sometimes finds an email address, phone number or customer number in it that already belongs to a different customer in aishaa. That is proof that the two profiles are the same person. What happens next depends on the account setting What aishaa does with what connected systems say about a customer. See Account settings.

Even with Add and merge automatically, aishaa only merges by itself if all of these conditions are met:

• the proof is hard, for example the same email address or customer number in the record;
• both profiles are of the type Person; aishaa never merges companies by itself;
• the detail points to only one other customer; if it belongs to several profiles, nothing happens;
• both customers are in the same customer group, or neither is in any group;
• nobody has previously rejected this pair with Not the same. A record never overrules such a decision by a colleague.

If any of these conditions is not met, it becomes a Possibly the same customer suggestion on the customer profile and on the customer card, with the system and the record the proof comes from as the reason. See The customer profile.

A merge by aishaa appears in the customer’s timeline as aishaa merged this customer with another one because a connected system proved they are one customer. In the ticket you see Customer ‘{old name}’ was merged into ‘{new name}’.

Moving a contact to another customer

This action is for companies: you move a contact who is listed under the wrong company to the right company or to another customer.

1. Open the profile panel from a ticket (Open customer profile) and, on the Profile tab, click the Move to another customer icon next to the contact.
2. The Move contact dialog shows the Contact and the Current customer.
3. Under Move to customer, search for the target customer and select it.
4. Tick Also move open tickets for this contact if this contact’s open tickets should go along to the new customer.
5. Optionally fill in a Reason and click Move. You see Contact moved.

Turning a contact into a separate customer

If a contact does not really belong to the company, you turn it into a standalone customer without losing the history.

1. In the profile panel, on the Profile tab, click the Create separate customer icon next to the contact.
2. Fill in the New customer name (required) and choose the New customer type: Person or Company.
3. Tick Also move open tickets for this contact if the open tickets should go along.
4. Optionally fill in a Reason and click Create separate customer. You see Separate customer created.

Linking a ticket to another customer

If a ticket has ended up with the wrong customer, you relink it without moving or merging the ticket.

1. In the ticket’s customer card, choose Link ticket to another customer.
2. Under Customer, search for the right customer.
3. Under Contact, choose the contact, or leave Choose automatically selected.
4. Optionally fill in a Reason and click Save. You see Ticket linked to another customer.

Changing the contact of a ticket (companies)

For a company with several contacts, you can indicate which contact a conversation belongs to. In the three-dot menu of the customer card, choose Select contact for this ticket, choose the Contact (the dialog shows the contact details of the chosen person), optionally fill in a Reason and click Save. You see Ticket contact changed. The second line of the customer card then shows the name of that contact.

Blocking an email address

If you no longer want to receive tickets from a sender (for example a spammer or an automated mailer), block the email address from the ticket.

1. In the customer card of an email ticket, choose Block {email address}. This option only appears if the ticket came in by email.
2. The Block email address dialog asks Are you sure you want to block {email address}? and states This action was started from ticket #{number}.
3. Choose Block to block only the address, or Block and close ticket to block the address and close the ticket straight away. With Cancel, nothing happens.

You see the confirmation {email address} has been blocked. New emails from exactly this address then no longer come in as tickets, in any organisation of the account. Existing tickets from the sender remain.

The block is saved as an incoming email rule with the action Block for the Sender (type Exact). An Organisation admin can view and lift the block via Account > Incoming email rules. See Incoming email rules.

The Block email address dialog with the question Are you sure you want to block (address)? and the buttons Cancel, Block and Block and close ticket.

Good to know

• Merging cannot be undone. Check the Merged contact details list before you confirm.
• When profiles are merged, aishaa automatically rebuilds its picture of the customer (What aishaa knows about this customer).
• When profiles are merged, the objects of one customer go along to the other (see Objects in The customer profile). If they both had the same object, it remains one object.
• The Possibly the same customer notice appears in two ways: because the full name matches exactly and the profiles complement each other with email and phone or WhatsApp details, or because a record from a connected system ties the two together. With Later you hide the suggestion for seven days; with Not the same it disappears for good, also for aishaa.
• Blocking only works for email. There is no blocking function in aishaa for WhatsApp or other channels.
• A block applies to an exact address; if you want to block a whole domain, create an incoming email rule yourself with the type Domain.
• An email that is stopped by the spam filter is something different from a block. See Reviewing spam.
• If you want to merge two tickets from the same customer rather than two customers, use Merge ticket in the ticket. See Merge, split, move and link.

Related

• The customer profile
• The contact overview
• Customer context next to the ticket
• Merge, split, move and link
• Incoming email rules
• Reviewing spam
• Account settings