In this article you get to know how contacts are created in doo, under which conditions bookings and attendees get assigned and which options are available for synchronizing this data in doo.

1. How are contacts in doo formed ? 
2. Contact identifiers
3. Assign bookings and attendees to doo contacts 
4. Activate synchronization of booking or contact data

1. How are contacts in doo formed ?

For creating new data records in the doo contact center, you have two options.

1.1. Automatic contact generation through booking

A new data record is automatically created for each new booker and each attendee, that inserts his e-mail address in the booking process and the specific booking or the attendee gets linked to the data record. If you'd like to have not only bookers data integrated in the contact center, but also attendees data, you have to request the e-mail address as obligatory field on attendee level for the event. 

In this way you automatically create an overall event contact database in doo over time, which you can export any time, in order to e.g take them over in your personal contact data base. 

1.2. Create and import contacts yourself 

You also have the possibility to create single contacts yourself or - as a pro and enterprise customer - to import your existing contact data into the doo contact center, in order to e.g invite them personally through a doo e-mail message (all information about adding contacts you can find here). If a personal invitation is followed by a booking, it is automatically assigned to the doo contact. By request you can set, that the data that was entered in the booking will be actualized with the already existing data (see point 4.). Thats how you can e.g export the actualized data from doo after the event and back play them in your personal data base. 

In addition to collecting new data from previously unknown contacts, you can also use the doo attendee management to update and enrich existing customer data based on the booking data.

2. Contact identifiers 

In order to approach the subject of data synchronization, it is important to understand how contacts are identified in doo.

2.1. E-mail address 

For new incoming bookings, which have not yet been assigned to any doo contact, the e-mail address is used to check whether there is already a doo contact for the respective subscriber or booker to whom the new booking can be assigned, or whether a new contact is created (see point 3.1.).

2.2. doo cotact-ID

Each new doo contact is automatically assigned to a doo contact ID, which serves as an identifier ("unique identifier") within doo and is listed in all data exports (contact, booking and attendee list). This ID can be used e.g to compare data from existing contacts  with the booking or attendee list.

2.3. Extern customer-ID

If you import contacts in doo yourself in oder to e.g send them a personal invitation campaign, you have the possibility to adjust an own extern customer ID in doo for the respective contact which can be e.g the customer number from your CRM. For bookings, that were already assigned to a doo contact through an e-mail message or personalized access code, the extern customer-ID from the contact will be automatically taken on and displayed in the attendee or booking list which can make it easier for you to restore your database.

Here you can find more information about the contact identifiers and contact import. 

3. Assign bookings and attendees to doo contacts 

In order to get a clean evaluation of your doo contacts and if necessary to use the synchronization function of doo in the next step (see point 4.), a correct assignment of bookings and attendees to the respective contact is necessary.

3.1. Assignment through e-mail address 

Bookings and attendees are by default assigned to the doo contacts through the e-mail address that was entered by the booker: 

At the conclusion of the booking, it is checked whether there is already a doo contact for the e-mail address of the respective attendee or booker: If there's exact one doo contact with the e-mail address, the booking or the attendee will be automatically assigned. If there's more than one doo contact with the e-mail-address or no contact yet, an automatic assignment is not possible and therefore a new contact will be created. 

If you want to use the doo e-mail manager or personalized access codes for your invitation, you can pre fill contact data including the e-mail address in the booking process, through which the assignment is already given. If the pre filled e-mail address will be taken over to the booking, the corresponding booking or attendee will be directly assigned to the contact which received the e-mail message or the access code. 

If new and yet unknown data will be collected by a booking that was previously assigned to a contact but which are not yet available for the contact, they are automatically transferred to the corresponding data fields of the associated contact. 

How to adjust that not only new data is collected, but also existing data will be overwritten in the contact center, can be found in point 4.

All information about pre filling contact data you can find here.

3.2. Special case: pre filled e-mail address will be changed

A special case for the assignment of bookings and attendees to contacts, that you should consider when choosing your settings, is the change of pre filled e-mail addresses by the booker: As the e-mail addresses in the booking process serve as an identifier for doo contacts, the assignment to the originally invited contact will be cancelled when entering a different address and the booking or attendee will be assigned to another existing or new contact by the e-mail address. 

If you want in this case to prevent a new assignment, you can set this in the third step of the event creation. There you can adjust, if the assignment to the pre filled contact should stay, in case a booker changed his e-mail-address. 

This function is activated by default. If you want, that bookings or attendees will be assigned to a new contact when entering another e-mail address, leave it on. But if you want that the assignment to the original contact will remain, when the e-mail address will be edited by the booker, in order to e.g prevent the creation of duplicates, than activate this function. 

3.3. Later correction of the assignment 

Currently there is no possibility in doo to correct the assignment of bookings or attendees later on - however, a similar function is planned for the end of 2019. Also the reunit of two contacts with the respectively assigned bookings and attendees is currently not possible. 

If, due to your settings, e.g.  a new contact has been created for a "known" booker because he entered an unknown e-mail address, this booking can not be subsequently assigned to the existing contact. In this case you have the possibility to keep both contacts and possibly to transfer the booking or attendee manual at a later time, as far as this function is available, or you delete one of the contacts after the event is over, through which the booking history gets lost. 

4. Activate synchronization of booking or contact data 

You want that in the booking inserted actual data will be automatically updated in the assigned contact ? Therefore go to the organization settings , that can be found through the gear symbol in the upper right corner.  For activating the synchronization you have to be a Team Admin of your organization. Under the option "data management" you can adjust, if attendee and booking data will be automatically synchronized with the doo contact or if the existing contact data should be kept when deviant data will be entered. 

In the first case ("On") existing data of existing contacts will be overwritten with new data if a new booking was made. In the second case ("Off") existing data of the contact center won't be changed, if different data are entered in the booking process. You will find that data in your event specific attendee or booking overview. In both cases previously empty data fields will be completes with the in the booking entered new data.  

4.1. Advantages of activating the synchronization 

The synchronization is useful, if you want your data to be updated and actualized automatically through new entered booking data. For this setting you don't need to compare the collected data from your event specific attendee and booking list with the existing contact data, but you can regularly export your actual doo contacts from all of your events and back play them in your data base. 

4.2. Limits of activating the synchronization

If you chose to use the synchronization function, you should note that doo does not save any contact history. If the data fields of a contact were actualized through a booking, the previous existing data is not available any more. 

Especially in case of a wrong assignment the risk, that the data of a wrong contact will be accidently changed and overwritten is given and the previous data will get lost.