Contact data on a canvas Finn
On a Finn with a call flow canvas, contact data from your audience CSV reaches the call through the welcome message. Step instruction prompts don't take placeholders.
| Where | Contact data | Syntax |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome message | Yes. Filled from the audience row that matches the contact's phone number. | {{first_name}} |
| Conversation step prompts (Instruction prompt, Steer back) | No | None |
| Tool parameters | No. The AI fills parameters from the conversation. | None |
There's no {{contact.*}} or {{state.*}} syntax, and tool results aren't stored as variables. See tools overview.
Welcome message
Put the CSV column name in double curly braces:
Hi {{first_name}}, this is Maya from Smile Dental.
When the call starts, the contact's phone number is looked up in the deployment's audience CSV and the matching row fills the placeholders. The rules for matching column names, and what's said when a value is missing, are on variables.
Because the welcome message is the first thing said, everything after it can build on it. A first step that says "Confirm you're speaking with the person you greeted by name" works without a placeholder in the step.
Step prompts
Don't put curly braces in a step's Instruction prompt or Steer back. On a phone call:
- Text in single braces, like
{first_name}, is removed. The Finn sees an empty gap where the name was. - Text in double braces, like
{{first_name}}, is not filled. The Finn sees{first_name}as literal text.
Write step prompts so they work for every contact. Have the Finn ask for or confirm what it needs, instead of reading it from the CSV.
Values learned during the call
Anything the caller says stays in the conversation, and the Finn can use it in later steps: a name it confirmed, a date the caller picked, an answer to an earlier question. You can't reference these values by name. Describe them in words in the later step, for example "Book the slot the caller chose earlier."
To get values out of a call for reporting, use post-call analysis fields. See post-call analysis.
Related
- Variables: placeholder syntax and missing values
- Welcome message
- Workflow nodes