A list or integration to building one is required. Clients who do not have an adequate number of contacts (ideally 250+) to begin with may find it difficult to increase their number of contacts over time and experience less engagement with their requests and offers. The more contacts and integrations a client is able to connect, the better the performance of Assistant will be.

Contact lists must include email addresses. Names and phone numbers are helpful, but the email address must be there.

No, there is no maximum number of contacts. However, contacts added by CSV have a max of 5,000 contacts per file. You may upload multiple CSV files.

Yes. It's important to note, however, that any lifecycle assigned from the first time the contact was uploaded will be overwritten by the upload.

To identify the most recent lists uploaded, as a matter of best practice clients should always append the date to the name of the list in a month. date.year format.

Only the To and From fields are pulled in, not the content of the emails.

Assistant has high-level filtering in place to not sync emails that contain common shared inbox phrases like sales, marketing, support, alumni, billing, communications, customer service, no-reply, etc. It also contains common big box companies such as Gap, Williams Sonoma, Chase, AmEx, eBay, JCrew, Twitter, Facebook, Craigslist, Legal Zoom, Spotify, USAA, Visa, etc. Assistant will also not sync email accounts that are from the same domain as the clients. For instance, if the client purchasing Assistant has an email account that is bob@bobthebuilder.com, Assistant will not pull in any email account that is @bobthebuilder.com as they are assumed to be colleagues of the client and not marketable contacts.

To do this, the client may view and remove contacts in the Contacts tab of the Assistant Dashboard. If the client wants to add a "block list:"  Upload a new list via CSV and when prompted to assign contacts to a list, select "Create New List", name it something unique, and import it as normal.

All @hibu.com email addresses are NOT automatically added to the contact list.  However, if a rep wants to add their email address to the contact list, it can be done manually but not recommended, due to the potential of being overwhelmed if they're added as a contact for all their Assistant clients.  @hibu.com email addresses are the only ones we block from automatically adding to the contact list.

Yes, the client can log into their yahoo email and configure the settings for Assistant:

Server name: imap.mail.att.net or imap.mail.yahoo.com

• SSL Required: Yes
• Port: 993
• Username: Client's full email address

Follow these steps:

1. Account Settings (NOT MAIL SETTINGS)
2. Account security 
3. Generate app-specific password
4. Choose “other” and name it Hibu
5. It will generate a code
6. Connect the email to the Assistant Dashboard and use the above code as the password

Alternatively, clients may toggle on “Allow less secure apps to sign in” if the option for a 3rd party app password is not available.

iCloud  (as well as me.com and mac.com) email addresses need to be connected via IMAP settings with an app-specific password.

IMAP settings:

• Server name: imap.mail.me.com 
• Username: prefix of the iCloud email address (e.g. emilyparker not emilyparker@icloud.com)
• Port: 993
• SSL required: Yes 

To generate the app-specific password:

1. In the Security section, click Generate Password below App-Specific Passwords.
2. Follow the steps on the screen.
3. Name the password Hibu

Use the app-specific password and IMAP settings to connect to Hibu Assistant

New software integrations may be added at times, but these are the current integrations for Assistant:

Communications:

• Constant Contact
• Mail Chimp
• Zapier: https://zapier.com/apps (you can search apps on this site, these may change over time as well)

Payments and Accounting:

• FreshBooks
• Paypal
• Quickbooks online
• Square
• Stripe

More to come!

No. We are able to see the contacts in the software and any payments and invoices when a payment is made.

Different integrations follow different rules, but in general, contacts are not added until payment is marked as complete. Make sure that the client is marking all transactions as "complete" in their payment system and that they are adding the name and email and/or phone number for each contact.

It will pull in all data we have collected through Hibu.

Yes, Assistant will work best if all available integrations are utilized. Connecting as many as possible - lists, email, and software are highly encouraged. The more connections they have, the more contacts can be pulled in and marketed to.

There are two ways to do this: 1) via Zapier so contacts are automatically added with each new calendar item, or 2) In Google Calendar you can export via Settings > Import/Export. The exported file would need to be converted to a CSV file (open in Excel and follow the prompts).

Unknown – These are brand new contacts until we learn more

Contacts enter the Unknown lifecycle through:

• Email sync​
• Communications integrations (Mailchimp, Constant Contact)​
• Not selecting a lifecycle stage when uploading a contact list

Prospective – These have engaged with offer campaign but no other interactions

Contacts enter the Prospective lifecycle through:​

• Form fills, leads, phone calls​
• Certain transaction integrations if there is no associated transaction/payments​
• Selecting the Prospective lifecycle when uploading a contact list

Active – These have written positive feedback or have made a transaction

Contacts enter the Active lifecycle through:​

• Transaction integrations when a payment is tracked​
• Selecting the Active lifecycle stage when uploading a contact list

Inactive – These have stopped engaging or have never engaged with campaigns

Contacts enter the Inactive lifecycle through:​

• Transaction integrations when the last tracked payment was >90 days​
• Not opening/clicking emails in >90 days​
• Selecting the Inactive lifecycle stage when uploading a contact list

Unhappy – These have submitted negative or neutral feedback or review

Contacts enter the Unhappy lifecycle through:​

• Giving negative or neutral (1, 3, or 3 stars) feedback or review​
• Selecting the Unhappy lifecycle stage when uploading a contact list
  

This is dependent upon many factors, so there is no hardened timeline. Assistant's automation will only send a certain amount of feedback requests, review requests, and offer campaigns at a time to ensure not to overload the contacts or the client, who may need to respond to these. A larger contact list may take more time than a smaller contact list, so be sure to set expectations appropriately there.

Each list is assigned a lifecycle when it is imported. If a client has a list with multiple lifecycles they want assigned, they should separate the list into multiple files, one per lifecycle. Then multiple files can be uploaded, each assigned to lifecycle. Any lifecycle assigned via an uploaded list overrides the lifecycle of the contract if they already exist on the platform. If a contact is on multiple lists, the most recent file upload is used to determine the lifecycle.

Yes, this can be changed in the dashboard.

Yes, you can go into each individual contact in the dashboard to edit their contact information, unsubscribe them to campaigns, see recent activity, such as feedback requests, and also send a manual request for feedback or reviews. The contact can also be deleted.

Yes, you can go into a contact in the dashboard and view their recent activity, including feedback requests and if they have submitted a review

No, each new platform requires a new opt-in, so those contacts would have to opt into text marketing for Assistant specifically.

The only way Assistant knows there was a "hire" is when a transaction event is passed from a connected integration like an accounting tool (PayPal, Quick Books, etc)

See example.

Errors during the upload process  

Error messages that pop up during the contact list file upload process may hinder the ability to successfully upload the list. Here are some reasons why these messages may be appearing: 

• "No contacts found!" Double-check the file to ensure that it does contain contacts. If it does, delete all columns aside from the ones containing names, email addresses, and phone numbers—too many columns can sometimes confuse our system. 
• "We noticed your file contains over 5,000 contacts." Our system cannot handle uploads of over 5,000 contacts at a time. Try deleting duplicates from the file and deleting contacts without email or phone data from the file. If there are more than 5,000 breaks the file into multiple files, each with 5,000 contacts. More than one file may be uploaded. 
• "The columns you selected don't seem to exclusively contain Email/Phone data." This means that our system is having trouble reading some of the entries in that column. This could be due to entering extra information ("N/A," "--," etc.) when no data was collected or entering information that our system deems invalid (see "Invalid phone(s)" and "Invalid email(s)" below). If the "Continue" button in the bottom right-hand corner is purple, a substantial enough number of entries were in the correct format, and you can ignore this message and move on. If the "Continue" button is gray, the client will need to clean out the entries in the list before uploading.  

Errors on the Final Confirmation page 

Errors that pop up in your Final Confirmation "Contacts we can't save" list can usually be ignored; however, if there are a large number of them, the client should take another look at the list file and clean it up before it is uploaded. Possible errors include: 

• Invalid Phone(s): This means that our system found some phone numbers that are not ten digits long. This includes phone numbers missing area codes, phone numbers with extensions, and phone numbers with text in the same box (such as "Cell: 800-555-1234" or "John 800-555-1234).  
• Invalid Email(s): This means that our system found some email addresses that are incomplete. This includes addresses that are missing the @ symbol, addresses missing the final .com or equivalent, addresses with spaces or invalid characters, or words/websites that are not in an email address format. 
• Non-marketable Email(s): This means that our system found some email addresses that are typically not associated with an individual (ex: info@smoothies.com, accounting@painting.com, support@baseballteam.com) or contain a domain name for a company that we cannot send emails to. 
• Non-marketable Phone(s): This means that our system found some phone numbers that are typically not associated with an individual (ex: information numbers beginning with 800, 866, etc.) 
• No email or phone data: This means that our system found a row that did not have any applicable information that could be pulled into your account. 

There are a few possible reasons why newly uploaded contacts are not yet visible in the account: 

1. The client did not complete all the necessary steps in the contact upload process. For contact list files, the final step involves clicking the "Save Valid Contacts" button. For individual contact additions, the final step involves clicking the "Add Contact" button. 
2. It has not yet been 24 hours since the upload. Sometimes, our system gets overloaded with contact list uploads. For that reason, we suggest waiting 24 hours and checking back to see if the new contacts have processed and appeared in the account. 
3.  The contacts from the upload were previously in the account, but deleted. Deleted contacts cannot be re-added into an account through a file upload. If there are just a few contacts in the upload that were deleted and need to be re-added, the client may choose to undelete those contacts. Deleted contacts can be accessed from the Contacts tab. 
4. A large amount of contacts have been uploaded within the past week. If the client uploads a list containing a high amount of contacts, or has uploaded several lists with high amounts of contacts within the past 7 days, some contacts may be initially placed into a “Pending” tab. This is because lists with large amounts of contacts are at risk of containing email addresses that are no longer in service, which can put the reputation of the email account and future deliverability rates for that email account at risk.  

Contacts from this tab will be automatically transferred to your subscribed marketing list at a rate of 1,000 contacts per week to ensure that your account’s reputation and deliverability are not negatively impacted.

Yes, several email providers need to be connected via IMAP settings. You’ll find these instructions below. 

AT&T/Yahoo

• Server name: imap.mail.att.net or imap.mail.yahoo.com 
• SSL Required: Yes 
• Port: 993 
• Username: Your full email address 

Follow these steps: 

1. Account Settings (NOT MAIL SETTINGS) 
2. Account security 
3. Generate app-specific password 
4. Choose “other” and name it Hibu Assistant 
5. It will generate a code 
6. Connect the email to the merchant center and use the above code as the password 

Alternatively, you may toggle on “Allow less secure apps to sign in” if the option for a 3rd party app password is not available. 

Outlook/Microsoft

• Server name: imap-mail.outlook.com 
• SSL Required: Yes 
• Port: 993 
• Username: Full email address 

iCloud/Apple

• Server name: imap.mail.me.com 
• SSL Required: Yes 
• Port: 993 
• Username: Prefix of the iCloud email address (for example, dorothyparker, not dorothyparker@icloud.com) 

To sync with @iCloud.com / @me.com / @mac.com AM’s will need to generate an app-specific password with the merchant. Steps to generate an app-specific password: 

• Login to appleid.apple.com 
• Client will get a verification code to let you into their account 
• Generate app-specific password and name it Hibu Assistant 
• Copy and paste the app-specific password that was generated into the case.* 
• Sync the email with the email address and password you created. No IMAP necessary. 

AOL

• Server name: imap.aol.com 
• SSL Required: Yes 
• Port: 993 
• Username: Your full email address 

Follow these steps: 

Account Settings (NOT MAIL SETTINGS) 

1. Sign in and go to the AOL Account security page. 
2. Click Generate app password or Manage app passwords. 
3. Select your app from the drop-down menu and click Generate. 
4. 4. Follow the instructions below the password. Be sure to enter the password into your app without any spaces. 
5. Click Done. 
6. Use this app password and your email address to sign in to your email app. 

Alternatively, you may toggle on “Allow less secure apps to sign in” if the option for a 3rd party app password is not available. 

Remove an app password - Click Manage app passwords and then click the Delete icon to stop using an app password. 

In order to preserve email deliverability, Hibu Assistant has a contact sunsetting policy. We'll regularly review contacts and unsubscribe those that have received at least 10 email campaigns in the last 12 months, but haven't opened any of them. Continuing to send email and SMS campaigns to non-responsive contacts lowers open rates and campaign conversion, which can cause more communications to be caught and filtered as spam. 

tent for this FAQ is here: How To Perform Actions on Selected Contacts.docx 

Yes, during Consultation, we will help them set up their New Customer Offer Campaign. If a client calls into support, they can guide the client through creating other offer emails, or set up an offer email on their behalf.

Contacts should receive their first campaign within 15-20 days of upload depending on their upload source. Automated campaigns (feedback/review requests, lifecycle campaigns) are sent approximately once every 30 days. Which ongoing campaigns are sent to a contact is dependent on recent campaigns they have received, which is automatically determined by built-in Assistant logic.

No, however, Automatic Send Limits can be adjusted and applied to all automated campaigns. See Settings > Customization > Automatic Send Limits. The default is set to automatically manage how many marketing messages a customer will receive. This can be changed to manually override the limit to 1-10 messages sent to customers who are not responding to marketing messages. 

The maximum image size is 5000x5000 pixels and 5MB for file size. You can upload JPEG, PNG, and GIF files.

No.  This email has been tuned over time to yield the best response rate.

No.  Not at this time.

This can be done, just not during initial consultation through the Onboarding Wizard. If a client has a compelling message without an offer then they will be directed to use the advanced setup options in the Assistant Dashboard.

This is for CAN-SPAM compliance. If we do not get an address from the client, we will have to use our Cedar Rapids address.

Each campaign has its own tracking number to tie conversions back to that campaign. When you generate a preview, it will show as a blank number but the contacts receiving the campaign will see an actual phone number.

The best way for them to see this is to add themselves as a contact in Assistant so they receive the campaigns that are sent out. The previews do not include the actual phone numbers.

For text marketing, there must be an opt-in from the contact. Emails can be sent without opt-ins but texts cannot.

All lifecycles are eligible to receive One-Time Campaigns 

• Unknown - Receive Feedback and Review requests, New Customer campaigns until we determine more
• Prospective - Receive only New Customer campaigns 
• Active - Receive Feedback and Review requests, and Active Customer campaigns
• Inactive - Receive Feedback and Review requests, Win Back campaigns
• Unhappy - One-Time campaigns only; does NOT receive automated campaigns

No, attachments cannot be added to offer campaigns but the client can put a link in the body copy for contacts to click on.

No.

No, they have to mention it. 

No, the text feature can only be used that way to send text messages to all contacts that have opted in to receive text messages from Assistant. If a contact sends a text to the RCF, however, the client can respond to that text in the dashboard.

Each campaign for each client will have a different look and feel. There are also different versions of each feedback and review email, as we test subject lines, design parameters, and other measures. You can see here [link to 3 images] some very basic, generic examples of what these emails might look like. Please note that the offer email can include an image as well.

Assistant campaigns are not enabled until the consult is complete. If a client has finished setting up Assistant but has not yet completed their consultation, they will not be able to send campaigns until the consult is marked complete.

Review the lifecycle that contacts were loaded into. Contacts in the Prospective lifecycle are not eligible for feedback/review campaigns and are only eligible for New Customer Campaigns. If your client uploaded contacts to the Prospective lifecycle and skipped setting up a New Customer Campaign, those Prospective contacts would not receive any ongoing campaigns.

When an RCF number is provisioned for Assistant:

• It will appear as the main phone number in the Listings Dashboard if no Listings Management RCF exists.
• If a Listings Management RCF exists for Local Ranking or Solution Call Tracking the RCF stays the same in Yext and the Target number is replaced with the Assistant RCF.
• If two Search RCFs exist, the RCFs stay the same and the Target number is replaced with the Assistant RCF. If more than two Search RCFs exist, this indicates the client has multiple locations and/or contact numbers.  The RCFs stay the same, and the main target number is replaced with the Assistant RCF.  All other target numbers remain the same.
• If Social and Display RCFs are provisioned (SCT), the RCFs stay the same and the Target number is replaced with the Assistant RCF.

Note:  The target number for all products must be the same. The goal is to have the Assistant RCF replace as many target numbers for other RCF’s as possible, so contacts are collected.

This provides an opportunity to grow a client’s contact list for Text Marketing.  If the IVR (Interactive Voice Recording) is enabled and a Text Marketing Campaign has been set up when a customer calls any of the tracking phone numbers Assistant will intercept the call and play an IVR  message to ask the caller if they want to opt-in or subscribe to Text Marketing.  If the IVR is disabled, when a customer calls any of the tracking phone numbers, Assistant will capture the contact number but will not play the message to allow the caller to subscribe to Text Marketing.

Below is an example of the message a caller would hear if they are not already part of the client’s contact list.

“Thank you for calling {BUSINESS NAME}. Press one to consent to receive offers or updates via automated text and get {Offer title}! Consent is not required for purchase.”

People can text the word "START" to the Assistant RCF to opt-in. Businesses can advertise this on their own or send out a one-time campaign to their email subscribers asking them to join their text marketing list. If email contacts join the text marketing list those contacts will receive their communications via text rather than email.

Yes, clients can opt-out of using the call tracking, which means they are also opting out of SMS marketing. Obviously, we don't recommend that, but it can be done if the client is adamant. yes, a client can opt-out of the Assistant RCF. If they do so, they won't be able to collect text marketing opt-ins through it, but the other features of the product will work just fine.

For clients who do not have a Hibu site, the Assistant RCF still goes into the Listings network, including GMB (if connected). But we will not put it on the client's site. There is no code to embed, like with DPNI code for Search, etc.

There is a primary RCF for Assistant which is used within Listings and on the Website (if it's a Hibu site). That's the one you see in the RCF View in SF. But for each email campaign you run, there is a new RCF number that's provisioned and used just in that email. The purpose of that is to be able to track and attribute actions that happen from that email. That number is not pulled into the SF view or the Assistant dashboard settings as it is only there to support that specific email campaign.

No, they are not. However, if you have a client with Solution Call Tracking, those ARE recorded. But the standalone Assistant calls are not recorded.

We need to have their email address to add them to their marketing list.  If they call from a landline, they can't opt into text marketing and we may not be able to associate that number with an email address.

We do not have the option of a customized recording at this time. The Assistant Call Tracking is set up in order to build out an SMS Marketing List for clients. If the client has opted in to Call Tracking and the IVR for Assistant, they can set up an Opt-In Offer. This is an offer that when a consumer calls and opts into SMS marketing, gets delivered to the consumer, but it is only played to contacts that opt-in and is not recommended for listing general specials.