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The Contacts section gives you full visibility into each person your telli agent is trying to reach or has already interacted with.

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Add or Search Contacts

At the top, you can:
  • Add new contacts manually
  • Search existing contacts using filters or contact IDs

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Contact Status

Each contact is labeled with one of the following statuses:
  • New: The contact has been added but hasn’t been called yet
  • Pending: The agent has attempted to reach the contact, but no successful interaction has occurred yet. The contact will be automatically called again
  • Reached: The agent successfully reached the contact and had a conversation
  • Closed: The contact is marked as done and will not be called again
You can filter by these statuses using the dropdown at the top left.

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Contacts Table

The contacts table shows your contacts along with their key information. You can customize which columns are visible using the column picker — including any custom properties you’ve defined for your account.

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Contact Details Panel

Clicking on any contact opens their detailed view. The panel is organized into sections:
  • System properties — Core fields like phone number, email, timezone, and external ID
  • Custom properties — Any contact properties you’ve defined, displayed with type-appropriate inputs (date pickers, dropdowns, checkboxes, etc.)
  • Call attempt history — Full timeline of interactions with this contact
You can edit any property value directly in the panel and save your changes.

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Call Attempt History

Scroll down in the contact detail view to see the Call Attempt History. For each attempt, you’ll find:
  • Timestamp of the call
  • Call direction (e.g. outgoing)
  • Result (e.g. completed, failed, not reached)
This lets you trace the full communication history with one contact — the call details can be found in the Call History section.

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CSV Import

CSV import provides a convenient way to add contacts & schedule calls without using the API. You can import up to 50,000 contacts at a time. At the end of the import wizard, you can choose to schedule calls for all newly added contacts with any agent in your account. Your CSV file must include a header row with all column names. The following system columns are available:
Column NameDescriptionMandatory
external_contact_idYour unique internal identifier for the contactYes
first_nameContact’s first nameYes
last_nameContact’s last nameYes
phone_numberContact’s phone number in E.164 format (e.g. +4917642048466)Yes
external_urlExternal URL linking to the contact in your CRM or external systemNo
salutationFormal title or greeting (e.g. ‘Mr.’, ‘Ms.’, ‘Herr’, ‘Frau’). If empty, will auto guess based on first name for German callsNo
emailContact’s email addressNo
timezoneIANA timezone identifier (e.g. Europe/Berlin). Defaults to account timezone if not setNo
Here’s an example of a valid CSV file: 
external_contact_id,first_name,last_name,phone_number,email,lead_type
ID10001,Sarah,Smith,+491724222923,[email protected],REACTIVATED
ID10002,Michael,Scott,+4917682494115,[email protected],NEW_LEAD

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Custom Properties in CSV

If you’ve defined contact properties, they are fully integrated into the CSV import workflow:
  • Download the CSV template to get a file with columns for all your existing properties pre-filled in the header
  • Automatic mapping — telli detects CSV columns that match your existing properties by name and maps them automatically
  • Manual mapping — During import, you can map any CSV column to a custom property using the field mapping dropdown
  • Create properties on the fly — If a CSV column doesn’t match any existing property, you can create a new property directly from the import wizard

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External Contact ID

The external contact ID is a unique identifier from your system, such as a lead ID from your CRM or a database primary key. You can choose any identifier that makes sense for your workflow. telli uses the external contact ID to deduplicate contacts. Note that you can only have one contact per external contact ID. When you upload a CSV containing external contact IDs that already exist in the system, telli will update those existing contacts rather than creating new contacts.

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Scheduling Calls

At the end of the CSV import wizard, you have the option to automatically schedule calls for all newly imported contacts. This feature allows you to:
  • Select an agent: Choose which agent will handle the calls for these contacts
  • Batch scheduling: Schedule calls for up to 50,000 contacts at once
  • Automatic call placement: Once scheduled, telli will automatically place calls to the contacts based on your agent’s configuration and dialer settings