Contact Association

Overview

Contact Association allows admins to link two contact profiles within the same organization. This association helps maintain reporting relationships and allows admins to optionally send a copy of a message to associated contacts. Some examples of relationships for when an associated Contact might need to receive a copy of a Regroup message include:

Employee and a manager
Student and a parent/legal guardian
Family member and healthcare resident

Enable Contact Association

Contact Association must be enabled by the Regroup team for your organization.

When enabled:

The Associated Contact field appears on contact profiles with a default label of 'Manager'
The 'Manager' label can be customized based on your specific use case and relationships
Contacts can be linked through the Web UI, CSV import, or API import.

Associate a Contact in the Web UI

Eligible admins can add or update an associated contact directly from an existing contact profile.

Steps

Open the contact profile.
Select Edit Profile.
In the Associated Contact field, search by email address, username, or database ID. Search results are limited to contacts visible within the admin’s permission scope.
Select the appropriate contact.
Scroll down and select Save Finish

To remove an associated contact, place the cursor in the Manager field and press Backspace, then save.

Associate a Contact via CSV Import

Steps

Add a column header link_to_manager (case insensitive).
Provide an email, username, or database ID of the contact to be linked

Note: The associated contact must already exist in the same Regroup network.

firstname	lastname	email	phone	groupname	link_to_manager
John	Mathews	j.mathews@mail.com	8557347687	Operations	d.smith@mail.com

Behavior

If a matching contact is found, it is linked as the manager.
If no match is found, the contact is created without a manager.
Import processing continues even if a manager cannot be linked.

To remove an existing manager, enter remove in the Link to Manager column.

firstname	lastname	email	phone	groupname	link_to_manager
John	Mathews	j.mathews@mail.com	8557347687	Operations	remove

Associate a Contact via API Import

Endpoint

POST /api/v3/orgs/import_users

Tag

"link_to_manager": " "

{
  "users": [
    {
      "firstname": "John",
      "lastname": "Mathews",
      "email": "j.mathews@mail.com",
      "phone": "8557347687",
      "groupname": "Operations",
      "link_to_manager": "d.smith@mail.com",
    }
  ]
}

Behavior

Links the matching contact as the manager if found.
Ignores invalid or missing values without failing the request.
Updates the manager when a new valid value is provided.

To remove a manager, set the value to remove.

{
  "users": [
    {
      "firstname": "John",
      "lastname": "Mathews",
      "email": "j.mathews@mail.com",
      "phone": "8557347687",
      "groupname": "Operations",
      "link_to_manager": "remove",
    }
  ]
}

Rules and Conditions

A contact can have only one Associated Contact.
An Associated Contact must already exist within the same Regroup network.
A Contact cannot be their own Associated Contact.
If an Associated Contact profile is deleted from the network, it is automatically unlinked.
If no Associated Contact value is provided during import, the existing association remains unchanged.

View Manager Associations

When a manager is linked, the association appears on the contact’s profile view page. Visibility follows the admin’s permission scope.

Sending Messages to Associated Contacts

Steps

Select Ad Hoc Message or Message to Channel
Select the required Recipients
Select Recipient Type

i. Contacts: The message will only be sent to the selected Recipients
ii. Managers Only: Only the Associated Contact for the recipients will receive the message
ii. Both: Recipients will receive the message, and their Associated Contact will receive a copy.
Complete the rest of the New Message as normal

Automating NOAA Weather Alert Messages to Associated Contacts

Note: NOAA Weather Alerts Add On must be enabled. View the complete guides to Setup NOAA Alert Triggers for a Channel and NOAA Alert Best Practices

Steps

Select a Channel with NOAA Weather Alerts Enabled
Select Alert Triggers from the side menu bar
Select and configure your Alert Events
Select Recipient Type

i. Contacts: The message will only be sent to the selected Recipients

ii. Managers Only. Only the Associated Contact for the recipients will receive the message

ii. Both: Recipients will receive the message, and their Associated Contact will receive a copy.
Complete the rest of the New Message as normal

Behavior

Associated Contacts will appear in the Preview Recipients list
The message sent to an Associated Contact will include a suffix showing the details of the contact who was the primary recipient. This is intended to help them understand it is a copy and not necessarily directed to them.