Overview
This article provides critical information and instructions for deleting contacts.
CRITICAL INFORMATION:
Deleted data cannot be recovered.
When a contact is deleted from Ambassador, all data associated with it is deleted from Ambassador as well, this includes referral link(s), shortcode(s), commission records, reward records, referral association, loyalty points, and activity history.
Referral link(s) belonging to a deleted contact will no longer track referrals.
Any metrics that previously reflected the deleted contact(s) will be changed.
Please take the time to read through this article in detail so that you understand your options to manage any risks or concerns noted above.
Permissions
To protect your account, contacts can only be deleted by a team member with "Admin" permissions.
Considerations before deleting contacts
Consider updating the status of a contact to unsubscribed or banned instead of deleting.
This can be reversed and will keep the contact record and it's associated data in Ambassador, while still preventing the creation of new referrals, commissions and points. Previously created commissions for a contact with either status can still in pending or unpaid status can still be denied or approved/paid.
For future reference, collect the following data/exports before deleting contacts:
Record metrics from the Dashboard
Export "All" Contacts
Export "All" Commissions from the "Pending", "Unpaid", and "History" tables
Export "All" Payment History
Reward History
Tango Rewards
If a deleted contact still has Reward Link or Promo Link rewards that have not yet expired, they can still redeem those even after their records are deleted from Ambassador unless cancelled by the Tango team.
Custom reports from Tango will still include some limited reporting related to rewards issued to deleted contacts.
PayPal Rewards
You may still have access to Transaction History reporting in PayPal for rewards issued from Ambassador after a contact is deleted from Ambassador.
Available Methods to Delete Contacts
API
CSV Import (only available from Admin 2)
How to Delete a Contact via API
Use the Ambassador /compliance/remove/ API endpoint to delete a single contact.
A few important notes for this endpoint:
You can use the contact's email or UID (remote_customer_id) as the unique identifier.
You can delete contact right away by including the parameter 'immediate:true' - otherwise the standard operation will queue the contact for deleting on the following Monday.
The API will delete contacts with commission/payout data. Unlike the CSV Import process, there is no safeguard to prevent that.
How to Delete a Contact via CSV Import
Follow the steps below to delete a single contact or list of contacts using a CSV import within the Ambassador Admin platform.
Step 1: Create a CSV file with the following columns/data:
remote_customer_email = input the email for each of your contact(s)
required
You cannot use the uid (remote_customer_id) to delete a contact at this time.
To eliminate the risk of an incorrect email mismatch, you can export contacts from your account or do a lookup from the Contact table to verify and/or create your list.
delete_all = input a 1, to delete contacts with and without commissions/payouts.
optional
As a safeguard, if this column is excluded, contacts with any commissions/payouts cannot be deleted.
Step 2: Login to the Ambassador Admin 2, then click on "Contacts" on the left.
Step 3: Click the "Delete" button and follow the prompts in the pop-up modal to upload your CSV file > select an email to send import results > select the field mapping > review and submit.
Step 4: Monitor your email for the results file that either says the import was complete or provides an error result file. If there is an error result file, review the error messages to resolve and retry. If you have any questions about the error file, reach out to support@getambassador.com.