Using Custom Contact Fields

Custom contact fields are an easy way to capture information and details about a contact in the way you and your team find useful for your process.

Default fields are great to capture standardized information to help identify, communicate and understand each and every contact in your database. However, often times, you or your team will want to gather additional details about a contact. That's where Custom Contact Fields come into play.

These easy-to-add fields not only store the information about a contact, but they can be used as merge fields in emails and SMS/text messages - further customizing and helping ensure your outbound communications are accurate and relevant to the recipient.

There are three data types of to choose from:

1. Text - Open text to add anything details from a single word to sentence length
2. Number - Limited to numbers only
3. Date - Month, Day, Year

In this article, we will demonstrate the following:

• Add a Custom Contact Field
• Edit a Custom Contact Field
• Delete a Custom Contact Field
• Editing Contact to Add Data to Custom Fields
• Custom Merge Fields

Add a Custom Contact Field

1. To begin, in the menu group, choose 'Team Settings'. Then, 'Custom Contact Fields'.
   
   
2. The Contact Custom Fields page will load. If you do not have any created for your team, it will look like this. Click the '+ Add Custom Field' button in the upper-right -or- in the middle.
   
   
3. The add field drawer will slide out from the right allowing you to add the field details you want to add.
   a. Field Name: This is what will display next to the new field - Keep it easy to understand and consistent with current and future custom fields.
   b. Field Type: Text, Number or Date
   c. Merge Field Name: This will populate automatically based on the 'Field Name', and is editable, but does not need to be changed.
   
   Once you're satisfied, click the 'Create Custom Field' button.
   
   
   Additionally, we can also update the 'Merge Field Name', which is used for merge fields in emails and text messages. Usually, we won't update it. However, there may be cases where we will want to update it. In the animated GIF below, we'll demonstrate updating this after it is automatically generated based on the Field Name.
   
   
4. Now, your new contact custom field will be listed on the page, and available for use on any Contact.
   
   
   
   
5. Once you're finished adding a custom field, you may begin adding additional fields, as desired.

Edit a Custom Contact Field

Editing a custom contact field is as easy as adding one. Once we're in the Team Settings and then Custom Contact Fields, we're presented with two options for each custom field, 'Edit' and 'Delete', but only on those with a Field Source = Team.

After clicking the 'Edit' link, we'll be presented with the Edit dialog. We'll click within the 'Field Name' and update the text. Once we're happy, we'll click the 'Edit Custom Field' button at the bottom to confirm.

Custom Fields are always displayed in numerical first, then alphabetical order. In the following video, we'll demonstrate a quick way to update the order by using numbers first.

Delete a Custom Contact Field

Please use caution when deleting any custom field. When deleting a custom field, the data contained will be removed from all contacts. 

Once we're in the Team Settings and then Custom Contact Fields, we're presented with two options for each custom field, but only on those with a Field Source = Team - 'Edit' and 'Delete'

After clicking the 'Delete' link, we'll be presented with the Delete dialog. We'll simply type (or copy/paste) the exact text that is presented to us. In the below animated GIF, we'll demonstrate deleting a custom contact field.

Finding and Updating a Contact's Custom Field(s)

Each custom field you add will be visible in every contact. In the below animated GIF, we'll demonstrate viewing and editing custom contact fields. For more details on how to do so, here's a great article.

Custom Merge Fields

Each custom field also creates a custom merge field for emails and SMS. This will allow you to merge data from these fields into any outbound communication.

When creating a message, simply click the 'Merge Field' icon to search for the custom field you want to add, as seen in the animated GIF below: