Find Contact Action in GoCSM Workflows

Written By Sara Irfan

Last updated About 13 hours ago

Overview

The Find Contact action is a required step in most GoCSM workflows that use app-based triggers.

When a trigger event occurs, such as a failed payment or user inactivity, the event originates from an integrated application rather than directly from your CRM. Because of this, the workflow must first identify which contact in your system the event belongs to.

The Find Contact action performs this identification by matching information from the trigger event with an existing contact in your CRM.

Once the correct contact is found, the workflow can continue and apply actions such as sending messages, updating tags, or notifying your team.

Why the Find Contact Step Is Important

Triggers such as:

  • User Not Logged In Since

  • Payment Failed

  • Upcoming Plan Renewal

are generated from external data sources connected to GoCSM.

These triggers include identifiers such as a user email address, but the workflow still needs to match that identifier to a specific contact record inside your CRM.

The Find Contact action performs this mapping.

Without this step, the workflow would not know which contact should receive messages, updates, or notifications.

How the Find Contact Step Works

The Find Contact action searches your CRM using one or more fields provided by the trigger event.

The most common setup uses the Email field.

Example configuration:

Field: Email

Value: {{trigger_event.email}}

When the workflow runs:

  1. The trigger fires from the integrated application

  2. The workflow receives the event data (such as the user's email)

  3. The Find Contact step searches your CRM for a contact with that email

  4. Once the match is found, the workflow continues using that contact record

This ensures all actions in the workflow are applied to the correct customer.

How to Configure the Find Contact Step

To add and configure the Find Contact step:

  1. Add an Action after your workflow trigger

  2. Select Find Contact

  3. Choose the field used to identify the contact (Email)

  4. Insert the trigger variable that contains the user's email

  5. Save the action

In most GoCSM workflows, the configuration will look similar to the template workflows provided in the GoCSM V3 Workflows folder.

These templates can be used as a reference when creating your own automations.

Best Practices

To ensure workflows run correctly:

  • Always place the Find Contact step immediately after the trigger

  • Match using the Email field

  • Review the GoCSM template workflows for reference configurations

  • Test the workflow to confirm the contact is being identified correctly

Properly configuring this step ensures your automations can correctly interact with your contacts and customer accounts.

When You Should Use Find Contact

You should include the Find Contact step whenever your workflow uses triggers that originate from external integrations or system events.

Common examples include:

  • Login activity events

  • Billing events

  • Subscription renewals

  • Payment updates

Using this step ensures the workflow correctly connects event data with the appropriate contact record in your CRM.