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) |
| 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