Contacts Management
Your contacts are the audience you send surveys to, and SurveySparrow gives you one place to manage all of it. Use this guide whenever you need to add contacts one at a time or in bulk, clean up a messy list, group contacts with labels, build custom fields for segmentation, control who can see exported data, or handle opt-outs. Whether you're onboarding a new store's worth of contacts, tidying up duplicates before a campaign, or setting up a custom field your team keeps asking for, this article covers it.
Navigating to the Contacts page
1. From the top navigation, click More, then Contacts.
Adding a contact
Click Add Contacts at the top right of the Contacts page to see every way to bring a contact in.
Adding a contact manually
1. Click Add Contacts, then Add Manually.
2. Fill in the contact's details (name, email, phone, and any other fields you've set up) and save.
Importing contacts from a file
1. Click Add Contacts, then choose Upload CSV to bring in a spreadsheet, or Import via SFTP to set up an automatic, recurring file-based import.
Syncing contacts from another platform
1. Click Add Contacts, then More ways to import to see every platform SurveySparrow connects to directly.
2. Pick your platform and follow its connection flow.
Each platform has its own detailed setup guide:
- Importing Gmail Contacts to your SurveySparrow account
- Importing G Suite Contacts to your SurveySparrow account
- Integrating SurveySparrow With ActiveCampaign
- Integrating HubSpot with SurveySparrow
- Intercom Integration with SurveySparrow
- Integrating Klaviyo with SurveySparrow
- Integration SurveySparrow with Mailchimp
- Integrating MS Dynamics 365 With SurveySparrow
- Integrating SurveySparrow with Salesforce
- Integrating SurveySparrow with SugarCRM
Managing contact imports
Every import you run — a one-off CSV upload or a recurring SFTP feed — shows up in one place so you can check what ran and when.
1. Click the ⋮ menu next to Add Contacts, then Manage Imports.
2. Review the import list: each row shows its Name, Source, who imported it, when it last ran, and its Schedule (for recurring imports — a one-off upload shows NA).
3. To start another import from here, click New Import and pick a method.
Editing a contact
1. On the All Contacts table, hover over a contact's row to reveal the edit (pencil) icon, then click it.
2. Update any field in the Edit Contact panel.
3. Click Save & Close to save and close the panel, or Save & Add Another to save and immediately start adding a new contact.
Your change appears in the table right away.
Bulk actions and labels
Working on more than one contact at a time? Select their checkboxes and an Actions menu appears with Apply Label and Delete.
1. Select two or more contacts using the checkboxes on the left of each row, then click Actions and choose Apply Label to tag the whole selection at once, or Delete to remove them.
2. If you chose Apply Label, pick an existing label or create a new one, then save.
The label's contact count updates immediately, and you'll find it in the sidebar alongside your other labels — a multi-location business might use one label per store (a "Downtown" label, a "Riverside" label) so a manager only has to look at their own store's group.
Labels can also be created from survey activity — if a survey question is configured to map to a contact field, SurveySparrow can generate a label from the answers it collects.
If you're working from a large list, applying bulk actions in smaller batches is a good habit — very large selections can take longer to process.
Contact Properties
Contact Properties are the custom fields you can track for every contact — beyond the defaults like name, email, and phone.
1. Click the ⋮ menu, then Manage Properties.
2. The ALL PROPERTIES tab lists every property on your account, its data type, and its group. Click Add New Property, give it a Label and a Type (Single line Text, Dropdown, Date, and more), and fill in any options it needs.
3. Click Save & Close. Your new property appears in the list right away, and you can now fill it in per contact or use it in Manage Columns (below).
Each property also has a GROUP column, and groups are managed from the PROPERTY GROUPS tab. If that tab doesn't open for you, contact support and we'll sort the grouping out with you.
For the full add-a-property walkthrough with more examples, see How to add custom properties to your contact?
Managing columns
Control which fields show up as columns on your All Contacts table.
1. Click the ⋮ menu, then Columns.
2. Check the fields you want visible — any property you've created, including custom ones, shows up here — and click Update.
Your table now shows the columns you picked.
Opt-out reasons
When a contact unsubscribes, they can tell you why. You control the list of reasons they choose from.
1. Click the ⋮ menu, then Edit Opt-out Reasons.
2. Type a reason into Enter your options here and click + to add it, or drag existing reasons to reorder them, then click Update to save.
Creating a Smart List
Smart Lists are dynamic — instead of manually keeping a group up to date, you define rules once and SurveySparrow keeps the list current for you automatically, filtering on properties like score, location, or status.
For the full walkthrough — building filter groups, combining rules, and naming your list — see How to filter contacts using Smart Lists?
This is different from the Smart Lists you'll see inside a 360 Assessment, which segment assessment participants rather than your Contacts audience — see What is Smart Lists in 360 Assessments? if that's what you're looking for.
Exporting contacts
1. Click the ⋮ menu, then Export.
2. Choose Export csv or Export xlsx, depending on the format you need.
Your export either downloads straight away or is emailed to the account owner as a download link. If nothing downloads, check that inbox.
Troubleshooting
The Edit Contact panel is stuck loading, or Save buttons look greyed out. This can happen intermittently when opening the edit panel for a contact. Press Escape or close the panel and reopen it — reloading the panel clears the stuck state. If it keeps happening on the same contact, contact support.
A bulk action seems slow or incomplete on a very large selection. Try applying it to a smaller batch of contacts at a time.
A re-imported CSV merged contacts I expected to stay separate. Contacts that share an email address or phone number can still merge on re-import, even when you've set a Unique ID field. Double-check your file's email and phone columns if you're seeing unexpected merges, and contact support if the merges don't match what you'd expect.
I don't see a confirmation after exporting. There's no separate confirmation message — the file either downloads directly or is emailed to the account owner. Check that inbox if nothing downloads.
FAQ
How do I get to my contacts settings? Click More in the top navigation, then Contacts. Most account-level settings — properties, columns, imports, and opt-out reasons — are in the ⋮ menu on that page.
How do I clean up my contacts list? Use bulk actions to select and delete unwanted contacts at once, or apply a label first to review a group before deleting. See the Bulk actions section above.
Can I map a contact property to a survey variable? Yes — contact properties can be pulled into your survey content and used in logic. See Personalize Your Surveys With Contact Params.
How do I change a contact property's data type? Open Manage Properties and look for an edit option on the property. Changing a property already in use can affect existing data, so double-check before converting a heavily-used field — contact support if you're unsure.
Does opting out delete a contact's data? Opting out marks a contact as unsubscribed and records their reason if they gave one — it's a status, not a deletion. If you need a contact's data removed entirely, contact support.
Related articles
- How to filter contacts using Smart Lists?
- How to add custom properties to your contact?
- How to import contacts from a .csv file?
- Personalize Your Surveys With Contact Params
- Setting up Storefront for restricted data access
Still stuck? Reach out to us — we're just a chat away.