How Contacts Match Customers and Which Address Gets Messages

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Once a customer has additional contacts, two questions come up: how does ServiceVisit decide that a new request belongs to a customer you already have, and which of their addresses receives a message? This guide explains both so you can set up a customer's contacts with confidence.

How a new request is matched to a customer

When someone books through the marketplace, ServiceVisit looks for an existing customer of yours who already holds the same email address or phone number. It checks both the primary details and every additional contact. The match must be exact once the value is tidied up (email letters are compared in lowercase, phone numbers as digits). A name that looks similar, or an address that is close, is never merged.

If one customer matches, the request is attached to that customer's record and their history stays in one place.
If the request brings a new email or phone that the customer does not have yet, it is added as an additional contact with the label From booking. If the name on the request differs from the customer's name, it is saved on the contact as well.
If the email belongs to one customer and the phone belongs to a different customer, the request is linked to the oldest of the two and neither record's contact details are changed. Open both customers and decide whether they are the same person; nothing is merged for you.

Adding a customer by hand works on email only. If you create a customer whose email already exists as a primary email or as an additional contact on one of your customers, ServiceVisit opens that existing customer instead of creating a duplicate. A phone number alone is not matched this way, because two people can share a number.

Which address receives messages

ServiceVisit uses the customer's primary email when it must choose a single address. Estimates and recurring invoices are emailed to the primary email, and a proposal is sent to the primary email. If the customer has no primary email, those cannot be sent until you add one. Additional contacts are there so that bookings are recognised, and so that you can reach the right person yourself; they are not copied on messages automatically.

To change who receives these messages, make the right contact primary (see the related guide).

Verification and the contact it belongs to

A confirmation code proves only the address or number it was sent to. If a customer confirms a second email while booking, the contact holding that email is marked verified, and the primary email is not. Next to each additional contact on the Edit Customer page you will see "verified" beside an email or phone that has been confirmed.

When ServiceVisit checks whether an email address is verified, it looks at all your customer records, primary and additional contacts together. One confirmation anywhere on your book counts for that address.

Before you start

To view a customer's contacts you need access to customer records; to add, remove or promote them you need permission to edit customers.
Keep primary details current. They are what documents are sent to.

Tips

If you often get two customers for one household, add the second email or number to the first customer as an additional contact. The next booking will find the original.
A shared family number can belong to two customers. Because phone alone does not merge manually created customers, you will not have records combined by accident.
If a contact From booking is the person you really want to reach, open Edit Customer and select Make primary on it.

If something goes wrong

If a booking created a second customer, the email and phone did not exactly match anything you hold. Add the new details to the original customer as an additional contact so the next one links.
If a message was not sent, check that the customer has a primary email. Email shown as bounced or reported as not theirs on the customer's page needs correcting before they can hear from you again.
If one booking touched two customers, review both records and tidy their contacts by hand.

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