1. Overview
  2. Engage
  3. People and CRM

People and CRM

People (/dxp/engage/people)

Use People to:

  • Search and open contacts in a masonry grid.
  • Create or edit contacts and companies from slide-in panels.
  • See email activity on a contact after your mailbox is connected (threads matched by sender address or company domain).
  • Turn an inbound customer email into a draft order, send a Stripe Checkout payment link, and link the order back to the thread.

Open Companies at /dxp/engage/people/companies for B2B account records. Company detail can show email threads matched by domain; Convert to order is available on contact threads only.

Connect your mailbox

Email activity is powered by IMAP (app password from your mail provider — not your main login password).

  1. Open Engage → People. An info banner appears until a mailbox is connected.
  2. Choose Connect mailbox (or Manage mailbox when already connected).
  3. Enter IMAP host, port (usually 993 with TLS), username, and an app password.
  4. Use Test connection before Connect on first setup.
  5. After connect, the platform syncs recent mail (about the last 30 days) and links threads to contacts and companies.

Sync without reconnecting

When already connected you can refresh mail without re-entering credentials:

  • Sync now on the People banner, or
  • Manage mailbox → Sync now, or
  • Reconnect & sync with the app password field left blank (uses stored credentials).

If sync fails, the banner shows a short error; fix IMAP settings or provider limits and sync again.

Email activity on a contact

Open a contact from the grid. The detail panel includes Email activity:

  • Subject, date, sender, and a snippet of the message body.
  • Convert to order appears only on inbound threads — messages whose From address is not your connected mailbox. Outbound mail you sent does not offer convert (avoids duplicating orders from your own replies).

Threads with an order already linked show Order linked instead of the button.

Convert to order (inbound mail)

Use this when a customer asks for a quote or order by email and you want a payable order plus a payment link emailed to them.

  1. On an inbound thread, click Convert to order.
  2. Review the Draft order panel:
    • Customer email (from the contact; edit if needed).
    • Memo (defaults from the thread subject).
    • Line items parsed from the message (quantity, unit price in minor units, currency). Low-confidence product matches show warnings — edit lines before confirming.
    • Total updates from the lines you keep.
  3. Click Confirm & send pay link.

The desk then:

  1. Creates an awaiting payment commerce order (crm_email channel).
  2. Opens a Stripe Checkout session for that order.
  3. Sends a payment email to the customer with the checkout link.
  4. Links the order id to the email thread for audit.

Success and error messages appear in the draft panel status line. Reopen the contact to see Order linked on that thread.

Wholesale pricing on matched lines

Operators can store a contact custom field wholesale_discount_pct (0–100). When present, the compose step applies that percentage to catalog-matched unit prices. Staff can still override unit prices in the draft table before confirm.

What the parser expects

Matching is rule-based (not AI). It works best when the message or subject includes clear quantities and product names (for example “bill me for 5 Large Black Widgets”). Ambiguous text produces warnings and empty lines — add or fix lines manually in the draft panel.

Requirements (operators)

For the full convert → pay link flow, the Space needs:

CapabilityWhy
CRM addon effectivePeople and CRM APIs
Commerce / StripePayment link and Checkout
Engine mail (SMTP)Payment-link email to the customer
Catalog products with pricesLine matching and totals
CRM_MAILBOX_SECRET (server)Encrypting stored IMAP passwords
ES_PUBLIC_BASE_URL (or correct public host)Checkout success/cancel URLs returned to the customer

Staff must be signed in with access to Engage → People.

Practical habits

  • Dedupe early — merge or archive duplicates when you spot them; downstream journeys assume one canonical person key.
  • Tag consistently — free-form tags are only useful if the team shares a small vocabulary.
  • Note discipline — use notes for facts and decisions; put long-form content in linked pages or attachments when appropriate.
  • Sync after busy inboxes — use Sync now when you expect new customer replies; activity does not update in real time until the next sync.
  • Confirm before sending — always review parsed lines and customer email; the parser is a draft assistant, not a silent order placer.