First-time, unidentified contacts and contacts with no data linked to them appear in chat as an anonymous contact. If a customer gives you their personal information, you can either add them as a new contact or link them to an existing contact in your account.
When you link a contact in chat, you link a customer’s chat session to a contact card in your account.
Whether you use the in-chat email address request feature or obtain and enter the details manually, we automatically let you know if the contact already exists in your account. We do this by matching the email address.
The email address request feature is only available for webchat, and not for SMS or WhatsApp chat.
Where an SMS or WhatsApp chat user’s mobile number already exists as a contact in your account, we automatically match the chat session to their contact record for you.
If the contact does exist, you see the customer’s details in the right-side panel, and either a verified or unverified icon next to their name. If the contact is unverified, you must verify them before linking the account.
Before you start
Things you need to know:
You must read and understand the information in Chat verification security and compliance.
Link a chat session to an existing contact
Verify the email address belongs to the customer.
Learn how in Verify an email address received in chat.On the chat interface, select the chat session you want to link a contact from – this opens the chat window.
Expand the CONTACT ACTIONS drop-down menu at the bottom of the right hand panel, and select Link to existing contact.
Enter the visitor's email address in the search box.
Select the email address to link the contact to.
The contact is now verified and linked to the contact in your account.
View the message history of a chat contact
If a contact has previous Chat sessions linked to them, you can view their message history from within the Chat interface. The message history lets you see all the chats, past and present, from your contact.
First-time contacts and contacts with no data linked to them are known as anonymous contacts and have no chat history.
On the chat interface, select the chat session of the contact you want to view the history for — this opens the chat window.
Expand the CONTACT ACTIONS drop-down menu at the bottom of the right hand panel, and select View history.