Implementing Multi-Channel Guest Attributes for Unified Digital Identity across Web and SMS

How-To-Articles
1

Implementing Multi-Channel Guest Attributes for Unified Digital Identity across Web and SMS

What This Guide Covers

  • Architecting a unified digital identity framework using Genesys Cloud Guest Attributes that persists context across asynchronous Web Messaging and SMS interactions.
  • Configuring Journey mapping and identity stitching to track a customer who starts a conversation on the web and moves to a mobile channel.
  • The end result is a seamless omnichannel experience where the agent retains full conversation history and customer context regardless of which channel the customer is currently using.

Prerequisites, Roles & Licensing

  • Licensing: Genesys Cloud CX 2 or 3 (Digital).
  • Permissions: Messaging > Integration > Edit, Journey > Customer > View/Edit, Architect > Flow > Edit.
  • Infrastructure: Active Web Messaging deployment and a provisioned SMS number in Genesys Cloud.

The Implementation Deep-Dive

1. Understanding the Identity Disconnect

In traditional digital deployments, a customer chatting on your website is identified by a temporary cookie/session ID. If they abandon the chat and later send an SMS from their phone, Genesys Cloud treats them as a completely new “Guest.”

Architectural Reasoning:
To solve this, we must implement Identity Stitching using the Genesys Cloud Journey API and persistent Guest Attributes. The goal is to merge the anonymous web session ID with the known SMS phone number into a single “Customer Profile” (External Contact).

2. Capturing and Storing Guest Attributes on Web Messaging

The first step is to capture identifying information during the Web Messaging session.

Implementation Steps:

  1. Web Deployment: Modify your Web Messaging snippet to include the Database.set command to inject custom attributes (e.g., email, phone_number, account_id) if the user is logged into your website.
  2. Architect Flow: In your Inbound Message Flow, use the Get Participant Data action to retrieve these attributes.
  3. The Stitching Action: Use a Data Action targeting the POST /api/v2/externalcontacts/contacts endpoint. If the phone_number attribute exists, search for an existing external contact. If found, link the current web interaction (interactionId) to that contact.

The Trap:
Trusting unverified web inputs. If you allow anonymous users to type in a phone number on a web form, and you automatically link that to an External Contact, a malicious user could hijack someone else’s interaction history. Always use Authenticated Web Messaging (via OpenID Connect) if you are automatically merging identities.

3. Cross-Channel Context via the Journey Timeline

Once the External Contact is linked, the true power of unified identity comes into play.

Implementation Steps:

  1. The SMS Flow: When an SMS arrives, Genesys Cloud automatically maps the ANI (phone number) to the External Contact.
  2. Context Retrieval: In your SMS Inbound Flow, use a Data Action to query the GET /api/v2/journey/externalcontacts/{contactId}/sessions endpoint.
  3. Routing Logic: If the API reveals that the customer had an active Web Messaging session in the last 2 hours, do not route the SMS to a random agent. Use Last Agent Routing to send the SMS directly to the agent who handled the web chat.

Architectural Reasoning:
By retrieving the Journey timeline in the routing flow, you can implement context-aware routing. For example, if the last web interaction was tagged with “Password Reset Failed,” your SMS flow can bypass the main menu and immediately ask, “Are you texting about your password issue?”

Validation, Edge Cases & Troubleshooting

Edge Case 1: The “Shared Device” Problem

  • The Failure Condition: A husband and wife share a home computer. The husband chats via Web Messaging, and later the wife texts from her personal cell phone. The system merges the wife’s SMS with the husband’s web history.
  • The Root Cause: Relying solely on a shared IP or a persistent local storage token without forcing re-authentication.
  • The Solution: Implement strict Session Timeouts (e.g., 30 minutes of inactivity) and explicitly clear the _genesys.journey.state local storage variable when a user explicitly logs out of your web portal.

Edge Case 2: Duplicate External Contacts

  • The Failure Condition: Over time, the same customer ends up with three different External Contact records-one for Web, one for SMS, and one for Voice.
  • The Root Cause: The initial identity stitching logic failed to find the existing contact because the phone number format was different (e.g., 1234567890 vs +11234567890).
  • The Solution: Implement strict E.164 Normalization on all phone numbers before saving them to Guest Attributes or querying the External Contacts API.

Official References