Recognising key customers
A supplies company saves its main customers. When the purchasing manager calls, the operator sees "Paul Black (Black Construction)" straight away and greets him by name.
Management
Know who is calling before you even answer
A phonebook shared by every operator: when a saved number calls, its name appears on the phone, on the live dashboard and in the call report. Desk phones read it as a remote phonebook too.
Incoming callPaul Black (Black Construction) · +44 7700 900 236
Found in phonebookSara's phone, extension 104, rings with the caller's name
Import complete248 contacts imported into Customers
Phones updatedThe office Yealink phones read the remote phonebook
What it is for
The Cloud phonebook holds your company's contacts in one or more phonebooks: for each contact you save the name, company, e-mail, notes and all their numbers, each with its type (Office, Mobile, Other).
With "Recognise callers" on, when a call comes from a number in the phonebook your cloud phone system shows the contact's name and company on the operator's phone, on the live dashboard and in the call report. The name also appears in the operator panel and in conversations.
Contacts are added one at a time or in bulk from a CSV file, with a check that first tells you how many will be imported, how many already exist and which lines have errors. Every phonebook can be exported as CSV.
For Yealink, Fanvil, Snom, Cisco and Grandstream desk phones the portal creates an address to set as remote phonebook; with auto-provisioning it is set automatically.
Use cases
One phonebook for every office
A firm with several offices had a different phonebook on each phone. With the cloud phonebook every operator reads the same contacts, updated in one place.
Importing contacts from your CRM
An agency exports its customers from its management software as CSV and imports them into a phonebook: the file check flags lines with no name or invalid numbers before importing.
Suppliers and customers kept apart
A garage keeps a "Customers" phonebook and a "Suppliers" one. Caller recognition uses them all, and search finds a contact by name, company, e-mail or number.
Readable call reports
A manager scrolls through the call report and sees contact names instead of a list of numbers, so it is clear at once who called and who needs a call back.
How it works
Create a phonebook
Open Cloud phonebook and click "New phonebook", for example "Customers". You can have as many as you like, rename and delete them.
Add or import contacts
With "New contact" enter the name, company, numbers with their type, e-mail and notes. With "Import CSV" upload a file, click "Check file" and then confirm the import.
Turn on caller recognition
Keep "Recognise callers" on: the contact's name will appear on the operator's phone, on the live dashboard and in the call report.
Connect your desk phones
Click "Create address for phones" and copy the address for your phone brand as the remote phonebook. With auto-provisioning there is nothing to do.
A call comes in
The phone system looks up the caller's full number in the phonebook: if found, it shows name and company, and the call detail shows "Found in phonebook".
What you can set
Phonebooks
- New phonebook
- Creates a named phonebook, for example to keep customers and suppliers apart.
- Rename phonebook
- Changes a phonebook's name without touching its contacts.
- Delete phonebook
- Deletes the phonebook together with all its contacts.
- Export CSV
- Downloads a phonebook's contacts with name, company, numbers by type, e-mail and notes.
Contact
- Name
- The name shown when the contact calls; the only required field.
- Company
- Shown in brackets next to the name, such as "Paul Black (Black Construction)".
- Numbers
- One or more numbers in international format, each typed Office, Mobile or Other.
- The contact's e-mail address, searchable from the phonebook.
- Notes
- Free text of up to 2000 characters.
- Phonebook
- Which phonebook the contact belongs to.
Search and import
- Search
- Finds a contact by name, company, e-mail or number, in one phonebook or all of them.
- Import CSV
- A file with a header (Name, Company, Office, Mobile, Other, Email, Notes) or in the "number;name" format without header, up to 10 MB.
- Check file
- Before importing it shows how many contacts will be imported, how many already exist and the lines with errors, such as a missing name or an invalid number.
- Numbers without prefix
- On import they take the country code of your account.
Recognise callers
- Recognise callers
- On: the contact's name appears on the operator's phone, on the live dashboard and in the call report.
- Exact match
- Recognition compares the full number, never just part of it, so a similar number is never mistaken for another.
- Operator panel and webhooks
- The name also appears in the operator panel, on inbound and outbound calls and in the history, and in the call data sent by webhooks.
Directory on desk phones
- Create address for phones
- Generates remote phonebook addresses for Yealink, Fanvil, Snom, Cisco and Grandstream; with auto-provisioning they are set automatically.
- Regenerate address
- Creates a new address: phones configured with the old one can no longer read the directory.
Frequently asked questions
How do I show the caller's name on my phone system?
Save the contact with their number in the Cloud phonebook and keep "Recognise callers" on. When that number calls, the name appears on the operator's phone, on the dashboard and in the report.
Can I import contacts from Excel?
Yes. Save the sheet as CSV with the columns Name, Company, Office, Mobile, Other, Email and Notes, or in the "number;name" format, and use "Import CSV". The file check shows what will be imported first.
Does the phonebook work on desk phones?
Yes, on Yealink, Fanvil, Snom, Cisco and Grandstream phones as a remote phonebook. With auto-provisioning the address is set automatically.
Can a contact have several numbers?
Yes. Each contact can have several numbers, each marked Office, Mobile or Other, and is recognised from any of them.
Can I keep separate phonebooks?
Yes. You can create several phonebooks, for example customers and suppliers. Caller recognition searches all of them.
Why is a saved number not recognised?
Recognition compares the full number in international format. Check that the number is saved with the right country code and that "Recognise callers" is on.
Related features
Try it on your own phone lines
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