FAQs: External Contacts

In an interaction, Genesys Cloud applies the identity resolution algorithm and categorizes the contact as identified, ephemeral, canonical, or curated. Their retention or storage periods are:

• Identified contacts expire 60 days after their last interaction with your organization. However, they are renewed on every meaningful interaction.
• Ephemeral contacts expire 60 days after their last interaction with your organization. However, they are renewed on every meaningful interaction.
• Canonical contacts do not expire.
• Curated contacts do not expire.

You cannot assign division directly to an existing contact. By default, all existing contacts appear as unassigned to a division. This display allows existing contacts to be visible to users who have the appropriate permissions.

To use divisions for external contacts, you must delete existing contacts and recreate them with the preferred division assignment. For more information about how to delete and recreate existing contacts, see Divisions for External Contacts quick start guide.

No. You cannot switch the division for an existing External Contact. To change the division for a contact, you must delete the existing contact, create a new one, and specify the division when you recreate the contact.

No. You must create a different contact for each division.

Yes, Genesys Cloud supports open messaging for identity resolution. For open messaging interactions, Genesys Cloud uses the opaque ID provided through the open messaging integration. If the opaque ID is not available, Genesys Cloud uses the phone number or email address, if supplied. The opaque ID is stored as an external ID. If either the opaque ID, the email address, or the phone number search results in a single match, Genesys Cloud auto-links the contact. For more information about configuring identity resolution for open messaging, see the Developer Center.

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Genesys Cloud categorizes external contacts into ephemeral, identified, canonical, and curated. You can merge any type of contact records and the merged contacts become one canonical contact. The target of a merge operation is always a curated contact.

You merge contact records to indicate that both records represent the same person.

To disable External Contacts and single customer view, remove the Externalcontacts > Contacts > All permissions from the user role.

Yes, external contacts and single customer view are Division aware. You can access the contacts associated to the divisions for which you have access to and the contacts in unassigned division status.

You can promote an ephemeral, or temporary, contact to be a curated contact.

In an active interaction with a new unlinked contact, follow these steps:

1. Search for the contact.
2. If your search does not find the contact, create a new contact.
3. When you save the new contact, it is a curated contact.

You can add an email address, phone number, or other communication channel to an existing External Contact. 

In an active interaction, follow these steps:

1. To search for an existing contact, type the name of the contact in the Search for a Contact… field.
2. From the results, click Select Contact for the contact record that you want to add the new channel to.

Single customer view is a capability enhancement in External Contacts. It allows different identifiers, such as email address, phone number, web ID, to be associated under the one contact record and links conversations across channels in Genesys Cloud. 

Single customer view puts empathy into action and your contacts at the center of their experiences with your organization. Relying on identity resolution and customer journeys, single customer view enables agents to provide personal service with a view to each contact’s complete story.

To add non-E.164 numbers, or numbers that do not conform to the international telephone numbering plan, do the following:

1. From the country flag list, click No country code .
2. Enter any combination of letters and numbers.
   Note: SMS does not currently support non-E.164 format phone numbers.

Yes, via data actions.

Yes, via data actions.

Yes, you can use the API to import and export custom field information.

The contact and the organization values are available.

Genesys Cloud provides a sample CSV file to help you format the information properly for your external contacts and organizations. To ensure the file is always up to date, the sample CSV file resides in Genesys Cloud.

Use these steps to download the file.

When entering phone numbers, use the full E.164 phone number, which includes the country code. If you enter no country code, Genesys Cloud uses the US as the default.

• You automatically get the basic External Contacts feature with any Genesys Cloud user license, including the free license.
• SalesForce integration requires a Genesys Cloud CX 1 license.
• Interaction History requires a Genesys Cloud CX 2 license.

You can specify up to 4 phone numbers. For more information, see Edit contact information.