How to Identify Contacts by Email and Phone NumberI

Business Goal: Collect Contact's phone number or email when you get a new Contact to identify if they are an existing customer.

Identifying an existing customer gives support agents more context on the customer. With a better understanding of a customer, agents can provide better assistance. On respond.io, Contact identifiers can be collected using Workflows and Website Chat Widget.

Benefits of Collecting Emails and Phone Numbers

Use the email address or phone number collected to:

merge Contacts when a Contact messages you from a different Channel.
be able to sync Contacts and contact properties with another CRM.

Methods to Collect Contact Identification

Here are four methods that you can use to collect Contact identifiers:

Automatically obtained from Channel's Metadata.
Ask for a Phone Number or Email using Workflows.
Pre-Chat Form on Website Chat Widget.
Identify logged-in Contacts via Website Chat Widget.

Automatically obtained from Channel's Metadata

Use this method when you are using channels that pass metadata containing Contact's phone number or email to respond.io platform.

respond.io platform automatically receives Contact's phone number or email address for the following channels:

For channels that do not provide Contact's phone number or email to respond.io platform, use the other three methods to collect Contact identifiers.

Ask for a Phone Number or Email using Workflows

Use this method when you expect Contacts to message you via instant messaging.

Method Objectives

Select a Workflow Template and customize steps if needed
Continue the Workflow when the question is skipped

Workflow Setup

There are Workflow templates set up by our team that you can use immediately. These templates can be edited to fit your business needs.

Learn more about Workflow Templates here.

Select Workflow Template and customize steps if needed

On the respond.io platform, click Workflows > + Add Workflow and choose your template.

To collect emails, click Welcome Message & Ask For Email > Use Template.

To collect phone numbers, click Welcome Message & Ask For Phone Number > Use Template.

Then, customize the Welcome Message & Ask a Question Step as desired.

Ask a Question step configuration for Email

Click the Ask for Email step to edit the Question Text. The Question Type should remain as Email. Finally, click Save and Publish to activate the Workflow.

Ask a Question step configuration for Phone Number

Click the Ask for Phone Number step to edit the Question Text. The Question Type should remain as Phone. Finally, click Save and Publish to activate the Workflow.

Additionally, you can configure the Save Response As to save the answer as a variable to reference it at a later step of the Workflow.

Continue the Workflow when the Question is Skipped

These Workflow templates are set up with a Branch Step to check if the Contact Field already contains the email address or phone number.

Condition	Outcome
Contact identifier does not exist	Ask the question
Contact identifier exists	Skip the question

Condition

Outcome

Contact identifier does not exist

Ask the question

Contact identifier exists

Skip the question

Add a Jump Step to define the next step in the Workflow when the question is skipped. Often, you will choose the Step after the Ask a Question Step.

Learn how to configure the Jump Step here.

Consider continuing your Workflow with Contact Enrichment, Routing, or Assignment.

Use this method when you expect Contacts to message you via Website Chat Widget.

Unlike instant messaging channels which will provide the name of the Contact, when Contacts message from the Website Chat Widget, you’ll also need to get their name in addition to the phone number or email address.

Method Objective