Contacts: Communication Preferences and Do Not Contact

Communication Preferences let you record exactly how a contact does and doesn't want to hear from you. If someone asks you to stop texting them but is happy to get emails, you can block SMS only and keep every other channel open, instead of marking them Do Not Contact and losing them from all of your marketing.

Spam and privacy laws expect you to honour a channel-specific opt-out, and these settings let you record one on the contact. For more on this, see - Spam Laws & Working Within Them.

This article covers how to block individual channels, how to mark a contact as Do Not Contact, where to see a contact's preferences, and what Rex does when a channel is blocked.

What Are Communication Preferences?

Every contact has five communication settings:

Do Not Contact - blocks every channel for this contact
Email
Letter
Phone
SMS

Each setting is a block. A toggle that is off (grey) means you can contact them on that channel, and this is the default. A toggle that is on (red) means that channel is blocked.

A contact with no preferences set is treated as contactable on every channel, so nothing changed for your existing contacts when this feature was introduced. Contacts who were already marked as Do Not Contact are still fully blocked.

How Do I Block a Contact on One Channel?

Open the contact and pop out to the full contact record
Open the Communication Preferences window using any of the following:
- The round button beside the contact's name
- The pencil icon on the Communication Preferences panel in the right-hand pane
- The round badge on the contact's avatar in the contact drawer
Under Block communication with this contact via selected channels only, turn on the toggle for each channel you want to block (Email, Letter, Phone or SMS)
Click Confirm

You'll see the message Communication preferences saved. The block applies from the next send.

To unblock a channel, follow the same steps and turn the toggle off.

Please Note: If you block all four channels, Rex will automatically mark the contact as Do Not Contact. Blocking every channel and Do Not Contact are the same thing in Rex.

How Do I Mark a Contact as Do Not Contact?

Use Do Not Contact when a contact has asked you not to contact them at all.

Open the Communication Preferences window on the contact (see the steps above)
Turn on the Do Not Contact toggle at the top of the window
Click Confirm

All four channel toggles will switch on and become locked, and the window will show This contact is marked as Do Not Contact. All channels are blocked.

Where Can I See a Contact's Preferences?

On the full contact record, the Communication Preferences panel in the right-hand pane shows all four channels at a glance:

Green - you can contact them on this channel
Red - this channel is blocked

Hover over an icon to see whether that channel is open or blocked. If the contact is marked as Do Not Contact, the panel shows a red Marked as do not contact banner.

Every change to a contact's preferences is recorded in the contact's change log, so you have a record of what was changed and when.

What Happens When a Channel Is Blocked?

Where you're sending from	What happens
Email, SMS and letter merges	The contact won't be sent the merge. You'll see a message saying the contact has opted out of receiving that channel.
Newsletters	Contacts with email blocked are left out of the recipient list. No error is shown, so check the recipient summary to see who was excluded.
Match profile campaigns (automatic updates)	If email or SMS is blocked, any running campaign on that channel is stopped overnight.
Calendar confirmations	Confirmations aren't sent on a blocked channel, the same as a merge.
Phone	Nothing is blocked. The Phone preference is shown on the contact record so your team can see it, but it doesn't stop you from calling the contact.

Please Note: Blocking Phone is a visual reminder only. Always check the Communication Preferences panel before calling a contact.

❗ Please Note: Removing Do Not Contact Clears Channel Blocks

When you turn off Do Not Contact, all four channels are unblocked. Rex does not remember which channels were blocked before the contact was marked as Do Not Contact.

For example, if a contact had SMS blocked, was then marked as Do Not Contact, and later had Do Not Contact removed, SMS will be unblocked again. If they still don't want to receive SMS, turn the SMS block back on after removing Do Not Contact.

🔒 Who Can Change Communication Preferences?

Anyone who can view a contact can see their Communication Preferences panel. To change preferences, a user needs the privilege to update contacts. Without it, the toggles and the Confirm button are greyed out, and the contact drawer shows You do not have permission to update this contact.

No privilege lets a user override a blocked channel.

Can I Set Preferences for Lots of Contacts at Once?

There's no screen for changing preferences on many contacts at once. Instead, preferences for people and companies can be included in a contact data import. This is especially useful if you're moving to Rex from another system and want to bring your existing opt-outs across.

For more information, see - Monthly Data Imports (Free & Paid), or contact our Customer Care team for a quote.

❓ FAQs

Do I need to ask Rex to turn this on?
No. Communication Preferences are available on every account in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Why were all the channels blocked when I blocked the last one?
Blocking all four channels is the same as Do Not Contact, so Rex marks the contact as Do Not Contact for you.

I removed Do Not Contact and now SMS is unblocked again. Why?
Removing Do Not Contact unblocks all four channels. Set any channel blocks again after removing Do Not Contact.

Does blocking Phone stop calls or click-to-dial?
No. The Phone preference is recorded and shown on the contact record, but it doesn't block anything. Email, SMS and Letter blocks are applied automatically.

Will a contact receive a newsletter if their email is blocked?
No. They're left out of the recipient list. You won't see an error, so check the recipient summary to see who was excluded.

Is blocking email the same as unsubscribing from a mailing list?
No. Unsubscribing from a mailing list only stops newsletters sent to that list. Blocking email stops all email merges, newsletters and email match campaigns to that contact. For more on mailing lists, see - Mailing Lists: Manually Subscribe a Contact.

Can a contact update their own preferences?
Not at this stage. Preferences are recorded by your team on the contact record.

Does this apply to property records?
No. Communication Preferences are set on contacts. Do Not Contact on a property record works as it did before.

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