When updating qualification data manually from the Help Desk, or automatically using Basics or Workflows, you can create a "Qualification Company" that the contact is attached to.
A Qualification Company is different from a company that would be created via the Intercom JavaScript snippet or the REST API. We'll refer to this type of company as a "Standard Company" in this article.
If you're qualifying leads, it's helpful to create a Qualification Company to attach the lead to. It's also possible to add them to an existing Qualification Company. Below are some important things to remember when creating or updating company qualification data in Intercom.
For your new and existing users, we do not recommend attaching them to a Qualification Company, but rather attaching them to a Standard Company via the JavaScript snippet or via the REST API.
Creating a Qualification Company via the Help Desk
By default, you’ll see the following qualification data attributes under Qualification in the right sidebar on the Help Desk:
Company name
Company size
Company website
Company industry
Learn how to define the right qualification data for your business.
If a "Company name" is not present, this means the contact is not attached to an existing company in Intercom. Adding a new "Company name" here will create a new Qualification Company in Intercom, and automatically attach the lead (or user) to the Qualification Company 👇
A Qualification Company will also be created for a contact if you collect any Company attributes, like "Company name", using Automation Basics or Workflows (if the contact is not already attached to a company). 👇
Once the Qualification Company is created, you'll find it in the lead's profile, as the contact has been attached to this company.
Now, looking at the Qualification Company profile in Intercom, the main difference in a Qualification Company and a Standard Company is the "Company id".
When a Qualification Company is created, Intercom will automatically generate a "Company id", that will look something like this 👇
659c7fd262a7af1c86c2e186-qualification-company
Since this "Company id" is generated by Intercom, this makes the Qualification Company difficult to add users to via the REST API or JavaScript snippet. This is because you need to know the "Company id" and send it to Intercom with the user, to attach them to a company using these methods. A "Company id" cannot be changed after the company has been created.
When a Standard Company is created via the JavaScript snippet (below) or via the REST API, Intercom requires the "Company id" to be generated from your end (not by Intercom). This makes the "Company id" much easier to keep track of when identifying users to Intercom, and attaching them to a company 👇
window.intercomSettings = {
app_id: "abc123",
name: "Alex User",
email: "alexuser@email.com",
user_id: "6789",
company: {
id: "54321", // "Company id" is created from your end here
name: "Cinco"
}
}
Here's an example of a Standard Company in Intercom with "Company id" created via the JavaScript snippet 👇
If a company does not already exist in Intercom with this "Company id", a new Standard Company will be created using this "Company id" and the user will be attached.
Updating company attributes in the qualification data
If the contact is not attached to an existing company, updating any company attributes in the qualification data will create a Qualification Company.
For example, adding a value for "Company website" would create a Qualification Company without a "Company name", with the contact attached.
If a contact is already attached to a company, updating a company attribute in the qualification data would update the value on the company object. For example, updating a "Company name" would change the name of the company for all contacts that are attached to it.
Add a contact to an existing company via qualification data
It's possible to add a contact to an existing Qualification Company or Standard Company via the qualification data "Company name" attribute.
No indication will be shown in the UI to denote if the company is a Qualification Company ("Company id" generated by Intercom), or a standard Company ("Company id" generated from your end) 👇
This is one way that users can accidentally get attached to Qualification Companies, and leads can get attached to Standard Companies, so be mindful when adding a contact to an existing company.
Best practices
Try to keep your Qualification Companies limited to just leads that you are qualifying, and avoid adding any users to them.
Likewise, try to not add leads to your existing Standard Companies, keep these companies reserved for users.
While it is possible to add a user to a Qualification Company using the qualification data, or using the <numeric id>-qualification-company for "Company id" in the JavaScript snippet, we do not recommend this practice.
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