External Contacts

Navigation: Admin → Directory → External Contacts 
 
 What Are External Contacts? 
 External Contacts is the central repository for people and organizations outside your company — customers, vendors, partners, suppliers. Contact records surface in the agent workspace during live interactions, giving agents immediate context without switching systems. 
 There are two object types: 
 
 
 
 Object 
 What It Represents 
 
 
 
 
 External Organization 
 A company or entity (e.g., "Oracle Support", "Acme Corp") 
 
 
 External Contact 
 An individual person, optionally linked to an External Organization 
 
 
 
 
 ✅ Best practice: Create the External Organization first, then create contacts linked to it. This allows you to track all individuals from the same company under one record. 
 
 
 Creating an External Organization 
 
 Admin → Directory → External Contacts 
 Click Add → Organization 
 Fill in: 
 
 
 
 
 Field 
 Notes 
 
 
 
 
 Name 
 Company name — required 
 
 
 Website 
 Company URL 
 
 
 Address 
 Physical address 
 
 
 Custom Fields 
 Org-specific fields you've configured (e.g., Account ID, SBC Serial Number) 
 
 
 
 
 Click Save 
 
 
 Creating an External Contact 
 
 Admin → Directory → External Contacts 
 Click Add → Contact 
 Fill in: 
 
 
 
 
 Field 
 Notes 
 
 
 
 
 First Name / Last Name 
 Required — the only mandatory fields 
 
 
 Associate Org 
 Link to an External Organization (search and select) 
 
 
 Email 
 Work, cell, or home addresses 
 
 
 Phone 
 Add one or more numbers 
 
 
 SMS Toggle 
 ⚠️ Click the SMS icon next to each phone number to explicitly enable or disable SMS — not enabled by default 
 
 
 Social Media 
 Add handles for WhatsApp, Twitter/X, Facebook, Line 
 
 
 Survey Opt-Out 
 Check to prevent automated post-call surveys from being sent to this contact 
 
 
 Notes 
 Free-text historical context not captured in standard fields 
 
 
 External System Link 
 A URL pointing to your own internal CRM or database record for this contact 
 
 
 
 
 Click Save 
 
 
 SMS Toggle — Important Detail 
 SMS capability on a phone number is not enabled by default . For each number on a contact record: 
 
 Click the SMS icon next to the number 
 Toggle to On to allow agents to send SMS to that number 
 Toggle to Off to block SMS to that number 
 
 This must be set explicitly — there is no org-wide "enable SMS for all contacts" switch. 
 
 Survey Opt-Out 
 The Survey Opt-Out checkbox on a contact record: 
 
 Prevents automated post-interaction surveys from being sent to that contact 
 Applies across all survey methods configured in the org 
 Should be set when a customer has explicitly requested no surveys 
 
 
 Custom Fields 
 Both External Organizations and External Contacts support custom schema fields : 
 
 Fields are configured by admins at the schema level (not per-record) 
 Examples: Account Tier, Contract ID, SBC Model, Support Level 
 Appear in the contact/org record and in the agent workspace pop-up 
 
 
 Bulk Management 
 For large contact databases, manual entry is not practical. Three methods: 
 
 
 
 Method 
 Best For 
 
 
 
 
 CSV Upload 
 One-time or periodic bulk imports from a spreadsheet 
 
 
 CRM Sync 
 Continuous sync from Salesforce or other supported CRMs — keeps contacts current automatically 
 
 
 External Contacts API 
 Custom integrations pushing data from internal systems (ticketing, billing, ERP, etc.) into Genesys 
 
 
 
 
 Where Agents See This Data 
 During a live interaction, the CX Agent Workspace automatically surfaces the matching External Contact record when the caller's number matches a record in External Contacts. Agents see: 
 
 Contact name and organization 
 Phone numbers and email addresses 
 Social handles 
 Notes and custom fields 
 Link to the external system (if configured) 
 
 This eliminates the need for agents to look up customer records manually during a call. 
 
 Division Behaviour 
 
 ⚠️ External Contacts cannot be reassigned between divisions after creation. If a contact needs to move to a different division, you must delete the record and recreate it in the correct division. 
 
 Plan your division structure before bulk-importing contacts. 
 
 Quick Reference — Key Facts 
 
 
 
 Feature 
 Detail 
 
 
 
 
 Object types 
 External Organization + External Contact 
 
 
 Required fields (Contact) 
 First Name and Last Name only 
 
 
 SMS 
 Must be explicitly toggled per phone number 
 
 
 Survey opt-out 
 Per-contact checkbox 
 
 
 Division reassignment 
 Not supported — delete and recreate 
 
 
 Bulk import 
 CSV, CRM sync (Salesforce), or API 
 
 
 Agent visibility 
 CX Agent Workspace during live interactions 
 
 
 Custom fields 
 Configurable at schema level for both Orgs and Contacts 
 
 
 
 
 See Also 
 
 Divisions & Access Control — division assignment at contact creation time 
 Integration Management — CRM sync configuration (Salesforce, etc.) 
 Queue & Routing Management — how interaction routing connects to contact lookup