Contact identification from web form submissions
Contact identification determines how Creatio recognizes a person when data is received from a web form. This mechanism is used when form submissions arrive from Creatio landing pages or from external services via webhooks.
When a submission is received, Creatio attempts to match incoming data to an existing contact. If no suitable match is found, Creatio adds a new contact automatically. This ensures that each submission is associated with a contact record and can be processed further.
At a conceptual level, contact identification in Creatio is implemented as a set of interconnected business processes:
- "Define search options and create contact from webhook" extracts identification data from a submission and prepares search parameters.
- "Searching and creating contact" orchestrates the identification flow, deciding whether to update an existing contact or create a new contact.
- "Searching contact" applies a sequence of matching rules to find the most relevant contact based on prepared data.
Each process has a clear responsibility and passes only prepared identification parameters to the next step. This design keeps the mechanism predictable, reusable, and easy to adapt to different business scenarios.
Contact identification is performed only for data that arrives as submissions. A submission represents a web form entry received either from a Creatio landing page or from an external service via webhook and added to the Submissions section.
Reliable contact identification is a critical foundation for working with customer data in Creatio. It provides following key benefits:
- Data consistency: web form submissions are always linked to a single contact profile.
- Duplicate prevention: prioritized matching rules reduce the risk of creating duplicate contacts.
- Automatic enrichment: existing contacts are enhanced using new communication details when available.
- Foundation for analysis: identified contacts can be used to track and analyze online behavior.
Identification data
The first part of the identification flow focuses on preparing data that can be used to recognize a person. Only fields that help identify a contact uniquely are selected from the submission.
Typical identification parameters include:
- first name
- middle name
- last name
- full name
- phone number
Other form data is excluded intentionally at this stage. Separating identification data from the rest of the submission helps keep matching logic focused and reduces the risk of incorrect associations.
Contact search logic
To identify an existing contact, Creatio applies a rule-based search strategy. The goal of this strategy is to maximize matching accuracy while minimizing the creation of duplicate contacts.
Before searching, phone numbers are normalized to ensure consistent comparison. Creatio then evaluates several combinations of identification parameters, starting with the most specific and gradually moving to more general parameters.
The matching logic prioritizes combinations that provide the highest confidence, such as name, phone number, and email together. If no match is found, broader combinations are used, for example, email alone.
As soon as a matching contact is identified, the search stops. If the submission contains new email or phone values that are not yet associated with the contact, Creatio automatically adds them as valid communication options.
Contact creation logic
If none of the matching rules identify an existing contact, Creatio adds a new contact record. The creation approach adapts to data available in the submission:
- When a name is provided, it is used to create the contact.
- When name information is missing, Creatio creates a technical contact record that has "New contact {ContactId} from web form" name.
This approach ensures that every submission is linked to a contact, even when incoming data is incomplete or minimal.
Customize the contact identification logic
Creatio provides default contact identification logic out of the box. However, you can adapt the mechanism to match your company's specific business requirements. Customization typically includes:
- Extending the set of identification parameters extracted from submissions in the "Define search options and create contact from webhook" process.
- Adjusting how identification data is prepared and validated in the "Searching and creating contact" process.
- Modifying or extending search parameters and logic in the "Searching contact" process.
Because identification is implemented as a chain of processes, each part can be updated independently without affecting the overall flow. Learn more: Business process setup.
Once a contact is identified or added, Creatio can associate further digital activity with this contact profile. Learn more: Analyze online behavior of a contact.