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Inbound contacts are people who have called or messaged your agent. Any contacts that have shown any interest will be saved to inbound contacts.

Contact Details

Each inbound contact stores:
  • Phone number — the caller’s phone number (always present)
  • Name — collected from calls or manually added
  • Email — collected from forms or manually added
  • Notes — free-form notes you can add to a contact

Preferred Number

The preferred number is the default “from” number used when creating new SMS threads with a contact or call with a contact. We automatically link one number to one contact so the contact associate the number and trust it more. A perferred number is automatically linked when the contact calls / texts a number for the first time.

Message Threads

You can send and receive SMS messages with inbound contacts directly from CallCow.

Creating a Thread

  1. Open a contact from the /contacts/inbound page.
  2. Click New Thread to start a conversation.
  3. Select a “from” number (the preferred number is pre-selected if one is set).
  4. Type your message and send.

Viewing Threads

Each thread shows the full message history between you and the contact on a specific number. You can have multiple threads with the same contact using different phone numbers.

Sending Messages

Type a message in the thread view and click send. Messages are delivered via Twilio using the thread’s “from” number.

Inbound SMS Contacts

When someone sends an SMS to a phone number that is assigned to a workflow, an inbound contact is automatically created for that person.
  • Automatic creation — The contact is created as soon as the first SMS is received from a new phone number.
  • Preferred number — The phone number they texted is automatically set as their preferred number.
  • Workflow trigger — If the phone number is assigned to an SMS-triggered workflow, the workflow will run automatically for the new contact.
This means you do not need to manually create contacts for people who text your numbers. Simply assign a phone number to your workflow, enable SMS, and any incoming text message will create the contact and trigger the workflow. For instructions on enabling SMS on a phone number, see the Phone Number Guide.