When you start using The Receptionist, one of the first things you'll do is upload your employees to the system. Employees you've uploaded to the system are called Contacts.

A Contact is an individual that can be selected and notified by a visitor upon check-in. If you are using the Employee button to manage employee clock-in and clock-out times, Contacts are also the folks who can sign in and out using that button. It's easy to add Contacts to your account, and it can be done individually or via uploading a CSV file. The number of Contacts you have also affects the plan level you'll need; you can view our plan levels, pricing, and the number of allowed Contacts on each plan here.

New Contacts can be added one at a time or in bulk.

To add Contacts one at a time, start on the Contacts page of the web portal. Select the "+Add Contacts" button and fill out the relevant categories. The name fields are both required, and you'll need to populate either the SMS field, the email field, or both. You'll also need to select a location if you've got multiple locations.

You can set their messaging rules (which dictate when and how your Contacts are notified) once you save, as well as upload a Contact photo.

You'll also start on the Contacts page to add new Contacts in bulk. If you have multiple locations, start by selecting the relevant location from the dropdown menu at the top of the page.

Then, select the "Import CSV" button and a popup will appear. That popup includes an example CSV to download to add your contacts' information. Be sure that your file contains the first name, last name, and the email OR phone number columns at a minimum, and that there are no special characters included, or the import will not run correctly.

Additionally, if you have multiple locations on an account that are not using global configuration, you can also add a Locations column to the CSV file. Please verify that the locations you type into this new column are spelled exactly as they are on your account under Locations > edit > identifier. If you would like a single Contact in multiple locations, duplicate the Contact, one for each location, with the proper location identifier for each. If your configuration is global, they will automatically be added to all locations.

If you have an internal database such as Active Directory, you can use our AD Integration to import Contacts automatically.

Contacts will be automatically assigned messaging rules based on the information you import them with; for example, contacts entered with an email address will automatically have email messaging rules.

Please note that contacts cannot be made searchable by nicknames or aliases; they are searchable solely by the information you edit, and the system has no way of knowing that Katherine usually goes by Katie.

Now that your Contacts have been added, you'll need to assign them to your buttons to ensure that they show up on your iPad when it's time for visitors to check in! Like most of our features, you can do this per button, meaning different contacts can be displayed on different buttons.

You can assign your contacts one by one or en masse.

To assign contacts one at a time, start on the Contacts page and click the pencil icon next to the Contact. Below your Contact's personal information are the assignment and messaging preference options. Toggling on any button in the "Button Assignment" section will assign contacts to the selected button. Be sure to save!

If you want to mass-assign all or many contacts, navigate to the Buttons page of your dashboard. Select 'Existing Buttons' on the right, then 'edit' for the button you want to assign contacts. Scroll down to the 'Select Employee Contacts' section. Now you can select all (or check boxes for specific contacts)! If you check the "Select All" option, all new contacts added to the system will automatically be added to that button. You can also reorder your contacts from this page

Make sure to save your changes! From here on out, visitors can select any contacts you've toggled on when they check in! When visitors check in to see them, your contacts can be notified via SMS, email, Teams, and Slack. You can read all about Contact notifications here!

You may want to edit contacts already in your system. Maybe John's phone number changed, or Erica no longer wants to be notified via email. To edit a contact, navigate to the Contacts page and select the pencil icon to the right of the Contact's name. Then, you can edit the contacts' information. Don't forget to click "Save!"