Article updated: December 04, 2023
Manage contacts in Inbox 2.0
Contact attributes are useful details about a contact, such as email address, first and last name, account ID, or job title. These details can help agents personalize their responses, build stronger relationships with customers, and reduce time spent asking questions.
Audience: Inbox 2.0 admins
When you add and turn on contact attributes, they appear on the right side of the agent workspace. Enterprise admins and agents can fill in contact attributes. Enterprise plan members can also populate details by integrating with an external customer relationship management system (CRM) or other back-end business application.
Different plans offer different Inbox 2.0 features. Select the tab for your plan type and follow the steps to get started. If you don't know your plan type, go to My profile
- you'll see it at the top of that menu.
Choose what contact attributes agents see
You can choose the contact information you want your agents to see and the order in which they're shown.
- In Inbox 2.0
, select Admin settings. - Expand Agent workspace, and then select Contact attributes.
- Select Reorder and drag contact attributes up or down in the list to order them in the view. Use the switch to turn on and off contact attributes.
Choose what contact attributes agents see
You can choose the contact information you want your agents to see and the order in which they're shown.
- In Inbox 2.0, select Admin settings.
- Expand Agent workspace, and then select Contact attributes.
- Select Reorder and drag contact attributes up or down in the list to order them in the view. Use the switch to turn on and off contact attributes.
Create your own contact attributes
Create custom contact attributes to meet your business needs.
- In Inbox 2.0, select Admin settings.
- Expand Agent workspace, and then select Contact attributes.
- Select Add attribute.
- Select from one of the following options:
- Text field - Freeform text or numbers.
- Dropdown list - A set choice of two or more options.
- Follow the steps to complete and save your attribute.
- Select Reorder and drag contact attributes up or down in the list to order them in the view. Use the switch to turn on and off contact attributes.
Types of contact attributes
There are two types of contact attributes:
- Platform contact attributes are attributes that are automatically populated by the system with channel metadata, and they vary by channel.
- Custom contact attributes (only available to Business and Enterprise members) are created by admins. Any new contact attribute you add is a custom contact attribute.
| Platform contact attributes | Custom contact attributes |
|---|---|
| Appear on the Contact tab in relevant channels. | Appear on the Contact tab in all channels. |
| Automatically populated by the system. They can’t be populated or edited by agents or through integration with an external application like a CRM. | Can be added by agents or automatically populated by an auto responder or a CRM lookup. Admins can also configure them to be populated as freeform text or selected from a list. |
| Can be used as lookup attributes to trigger a CRM lookup but can’t be classified as CRM-managed attributes because they’re populated with channel metadata. | Can be classified as CRM-managed attributes as well as lookup attributes. |
| Admins can turn on or off seeing their channels on the Contact tab. | Admins can turn on or off their appearance on the Contact tab for all channels. |
| Admins can create any number of custom contact attributes. |
Show a contact's conversation history
Link conversations from the same contact across different channels using shared contact attributes. For Twitter and Instagram, conversation histories are matched across channels using unique user IDs. For all other channels, you can specify a contact attribute to match conversation histories automatically.
- In Inbox 2.0, select Admin settings.
- Expand Agent workspace, and then select Contact attributes.
- Under Attribute used for matching, select Change to choose a new attribute.
If you don’t select a matching attribute, the conversation histories in different channels for the same contact will not be linked, with the exception of Twitter and Instagram contacts.
Use the VIP contact attribute
VIP is a standard contact attribute used for the following purposes:
- Route important contacts to a specific team.
- Prioritize contacts higher in your queue.
- Exchange data with a virtual agent to trigger a specific VIP bot flow.
- Export data to a third-party system, such as a ticketing system or CRM.
Contacts with the VIP attribute are also part of the VIP contact group and get prioritized and routed accordingly. Learn more about priority scores.
VIP is turned on by default so agents can designate and identify VIP customers. To turn it on or off for agents, use the following steps:
- In Inbox 2.0, select Admin settings.
- Expand Agent workspace, and then select Contact attributes.
- Scroll down to find the VIP entry in the Name list and turn it on or off.
When VIP is turned on, agents can do the following:
- Designate a customer as VIP by selecting VIP
on the Contact tab. - Filter by VIP status by selecting Filter, Contact groups, and then selecting VIP.
When the VIP attribute is turned off, agents won’t see the VIP button.
Allow agents to add and edit CRM-managed contact attributes
You can allow agents to add and edit all contact attributes that are managed by your CRM on the Contact tab in Inbox 2.0. After an agent makes a change to a contact attribute and the conversation status changes, the attribute is updated in the CRM. To allow agents to make changes to contacts in your CRM, use the following steps:
- In Inbox 2.0 , select Admin settings.
- Expand Integrations and APIs, and then select CRM.
- At the bottom of the page under Contact attributes, turn on Enable editing of contact attributes managed by CRM.
Report on contact attribute data
To generate a report containing contact attribute data, follow these steps:
- In Inbox 2.0, select Exports.
- In the On-demand exports, select Contact attributes from the Export type list.
- Follow the steps to build your report, and then select Generate export.
Integrate your CRM with Inbox 2.0
To learn how to connect your CRM system using contact attributes, see the Inbox 2.0 API Reference.
Delete a contact
When you delete a contact, you delete their conversation history, attachments, and contact attributes. If the person communicates with you again, they’ll appear as a new contact. To delete a contact, select Delete under the contact's name.
When you delete a contact, we'll create a log of the event that includes contact hint information, the deleted contact's platform, the deletion date, and the admin who deleted the contact. To view all deleted contacts, go to Admin settings, expand Privacy and security, and then select Deleted contacts.
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