Learn how to manage and integrate contact data from Zeffi using the Contacts API. This API allows you to fetch, update, and create contact records, making it easy to keep your contact information up to date across multiple systems.
Overview
The Zeffi Contacts API opens the door to dynamic and automated management of your contact database and related information. Whether you’re sending surveys, segmenting customers into targeted groups, or maintaining a detailed background profile for each individual, this API offers a flexible set of endpoints to make these tasks easier and more efficient.
Below, we’ll help you understand what’s possible with the Zeffi Contacts API, outline common scenarios, and spark ideas on how you might apply it to your own workflows. For technical details and code examples, please refer to the dedicated developer documentation page.
Core Capabilities
Create and Enrich Contact Profiles
Central to this API is the ability to create and update contact records. You can define primary fields like email addresses and phone numbers, as well as attach custom fields (or “contact fields”) to store deeper context—such as job titles, industries, or even preferences and behaviors.
What this means for you:
- Seamless CRM Integration: If you maintain customer data in a CRM or data warehouse, the API lets you keep your Zeffi contacts in sync. For example, when a new lead enters your CRM, you can instantly push it to Zeffi.
- Personalized Surveys: With rich background data fields at your disposal, you can design tailored surveys. By knowing someone’s department, language preferences, or last interaction date, you can deliver more relevant invitations and questions.
- Consistent Data Quality: The API makes it simple to ensure each contact record is always up-to-date, enabling smarter decision-making in your Zeffi surveys and analytics.
Retrieve and Explore Contacts at Scale
Potential uses:
- Automated Lead Segmentation: Pull a subset of contacts that match certain attributes (e.g., leads in the “Enterprise” segment) and then route them into a relevant survey by adding them to a specific contact list.
- Progressive Profiling: Over time, add more background data to your contacts as you learn more about them. Then, retrieve and filter these enriched profiles to identify opportunities for more targeted outreach.
Delete and Clean Up Contacts
Not every contact stays relevant forever. Sometimes you need to retire old leads, remove bounced emails, or comply with data retention policies. The API allows you to delete contacts in a controlled manner, ensuring your database remains clean and manageable.
Practical scenarios:
- GDPR and Compliance: Easily remove contacts who request data deletion to maintain compliance with privacy regulations.
- Data Hygiene: Regularly purge inactive contacts or invalid emails to keep your lists fresh and accurate.
Manage Contact Lists for Targeted Outreach
Lists in Zeffi help you group contacts based on criteria that matter to your organization. The API lets you create, retrieve, and manage these lists, as well as add or remove contacts in bulk.
Ways to leverage lists:
- Automated Invitations: Imagine you have a standing survey scheduled to go out monthly to all new clients. You can automatically add new clients to a “New Customers” list via the API, triggering Zeffi’s automated invitations.
- Dynamic Targeting: Need to regularly survey different departments or geographies? Maintain separate lists and add/remove contacts as roles change or people move locations.
- Re-Engagement Campaigns: If someone hasn’t responded to a survey in a while, you can re-add them to a list after a certain number of days and send a follow-up invitation, all handled programmatically.
Define and Customize Contact Columns
Your business has unique data points that standard fields may not cover. The API allows you to create custom “contact columns”—fields that reflect any characteristic or label you want to associate with a contact.
Ideas for custom fields:
- Lifecycle Stage: Track if someone is a “Prospect,” “Active Customer,” or “Lapsed User.”
- Interests or Preferences: Store information about their product usage, preferred communication channel, or event attendance.
- Demographic and Firmographic Data: Add critical attributes like industry, company size, region, or age bracket that help you segment and understand different audiences.
With these columns, your Zeffi surveys become more personalized and your subsequent reporting more insightful.
Bringing It All Together
Think of the Zeffi Contacts API as a toolbox for managing not just who you survey, but how, when, and why you reach out. By maintaining complete, accurate, and organized contact data, you create a solid foundation for building meaningful feedback loops, improving response rates, and delivering more relevant customer experiences. Some combined use cases might include:
- Trigger-Based Survey Distribution: When a customer hits a new milestone—like purchasing a product—instantly add them to a relevant contact list and prompt a feedback survey.
- Continuous Contact Enrichment: As your understanding of a contact grows, update their record with fresh data points. Later, use that data to tailor more thoughtful follow-up surveys.
- Periodic Database Cleanup and Compliance: Schedule a periodic audit to remove outdated contacts and ensure you’re always working with accurate, compliant data sets.
Next Steps
- Dive Into the Documentation: For technical details, authentication methods, request/response samples, and best practices, refer to our developer documentation page.
- Start Small: Begin by creating a single contact, then gradually explore managing multiple contacts, lists, and fields.
- Integrate with Existing Workflows: Identify where this API can save time or enhance insights in your current systems and processes.
With a solid understanding of the Zeffi Contacts API, you’re now equipped to streamline your data management, improve survey targeting, and ultimately enhance the quality of insights you gain from your respondents.