Hi everyone! I am currently helping a client migrate their digital support stack from Zendesk to Genesys Cloud. In Zendesk, we used to rely on simple keyword matching for our chat bots, which was straightforward, but now we are diving into the powerful Architect flows in GC and it is quite a learning curve for me.
I am trying to set up a Predictive Outbound Campaign to re-engage customers who had unresolved tickets in Zendesk. The goal is to map the old Zendesk Ticket ID to the Genesys Cloud Interaction ID so we can pull up their history during the call. I have successfully imported the contact list via the Contacts API, but when I attempt to create the Campaign using the POST /api/v2/outbound/campaigns endpoint, I receive a 400 Bad Request error.
The error response body states: "message": "Invalid contact list mapping. Field 'zendesk_ticket_id' is not recognized in the target contact profile schema."
In Zendesk, we just added a custom field for the ticket ID and it worked everywhere. In Genesys Cloud, I assumed I could map this in the Campaign settings or the Contact List definition, but I cannot find where to define this custom field mapping for the outbound dialer specifically. I am using the Genesys Cloud REST API v2 and my tenant is in the US-1 region.
Could someone guide me on how to properly extend the contact profile schema to include this external ID so the campaign creation succeeds? I want to ensure the data flows correctly from the old Zendesk system to our new GC environment. Any practical advice or documentation links would be amazing! Thanks so much!
From an AppFoundry partner perspective, encountering a 400 Bad Request when creating predictive campaigns often stems from how external data keys are mapped within the contact list schema. The Genesys Cloud Outbound API is strict about data types and field requirements.
When mapping the Zendesk Ticket ID, ensure that the field in your CSV or API payload is defined as a string, not an integer. Genesys Cloud treats external IDs as strings to preserve leading zeros and prevent scientific notation issues. If the source Zendesk ID is numeric, you must cast it to a string before ingestion.
Here is a sample structure for the contact list creation API call (/api/v2/outbound/contactlists) that highlights the correct mapping:
{
"name": "Zendesk_Reengagement_List",
"contactListType": "CSV",
"columns": [
{
"name": "zendesk_ticket_id",
"type": "STRING",
"required": false,
"description": "Original Zendesk Ticket ID"
},
{
"name": "phone_number",
"type": "PHONE",
"required": true
}
]
}
Additionally, verify that the zendesk_ticket_id is not being used as the primary contact key unless explicitly configured as such in your campaign settings. By default, Genesys Cloud uses the phone number or email as the unique identifier. If you are trying to use the Ticket ID for deduplication or historical tracking, you should reference it via the customAttributes field in the campaign configuration rather than the primary contact key.
Check the API response body for the specific validation error message. It usually points directly to the malformed field. If the issue persists, review the raw CSV data for hidden characters or encoding issues that might not be visible in a standard text editor.