Review Contact Context Before Replying
Before you hit send, it pays to know who's on the other end. The Contact Information pane on the right of the inbox keeps the CRM record beside every conversation: the contact's name, phone, email, and lead stage at a glance, a jump to the full contact detail page, and — when a chat comes from an unknown sender — the option to create a brand-new lead right here.
Entry pointInbox → select a conversation → Contact Information (right pane)
What the Panel Shows
For a contact already in the CRM, the panel shows:
| Field | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Name | Contact's name. |
| Phone Number | Primary phone, country code included. |
| Alternate Phone Number | Backup number, or Not available. |
| Primary email. | |
| Alternate Email | Backup email, or Not available. |
| Lead | The linked lead with its current stage badge (e.g. New, Qualified, Disqualified). |
| Owner | The teammate or AI agent assigned to the conversation. See Assign Owners and AI Agents. |
Scroll inside the panel to see the assigned Chat agent card underneath the Owner — that's the AI bot currently set up to reply to this conversation, if any.
Use the Panel Before Replying
Open a conversation and check the right panel before you send anything — it takes five seconds and prevents wrong-recipient mistakes.
- Open the conversation.
- Check Name and Phone Number / Email match what you'd expect.
- Check the Lead stage — New and Qualified call for different tone than Disqualified or Customer.
- Check Owner — if it's a teammate, message them before you take the conversation over.
- Type your reply in the composer.
Create a Lead from a New Conversation
When a message arrives from a brand-new number that doesn't match any contact in the CRM, Brixi creates a placeholder conversation. The right panel won't have a full record — instead, it shows action buttons to Create a Lead or Link to an existing one.
To create a new lead from the conversation:
- Open the new conversation. In the right panel, look for the Create a Lead (or Create) button — typically near the top of the Contact Information block when name / phone are missing.
- Click Create a Lead. Brixi pre-fills the new contact form with whatever it captured from the message (the phone number for WhatsApp / SMS, the email address for Email).
- Fill the rest of the contact's details — see Add a Contact for the full field reference (Name, Type, Source, Owner, etc.).
- Save.
The contact is created in the CRM, the conversation is linked to it, and the right panel switches to the normal Contact Information view with name / phone / email / lead populated.
If an admin enables lead generation on the WhatsApp number, an unknown sender becomes a lead automatically — no manual Create a Lead needed. See WhatsApp Message Sync to the CRM.
When a new lead arrives via WhatsApp, set Source to WhatsApp (or the marketing source that drove them — Facebook Ad, Instagram, etc.) so your campaign attribution is accurate.
Link an Existing Lead
If the new conversation is actually the same person as an existing contact (they just messaged from a number you didn't have), use Link instead of Create:
- In the right panel, click Link (next to Create a Lead).
- Search the existing contact by name, phone, or email.
- Pick the contact. Brixi attaches the conversation to that contact's record and adds the new number / email as an alternate.
Linking keeps all the history in one place — no duplicates to clean up later.
Enrich a Social Profile
For some Facebook and Instagram conversations, Brixi can pull extra profile context (display name, profile photo, public info) from the social platform. When enrichment is available, the right panel shows an Enrich profile button — click it to fill in missing fields before you route or reply.
Enrichment is only available for eligible Facebook / Instagram conversations and only when the connected social channel has enrichment permissions.
Open the Full Contact Record
For anything deeper than name / phone / email — editing address, custom fields, tags, activities, tasks, deals — jump to the full contact detail page:
- In the right panel, click the contact's name (or the link-out arrow next to it).
- The contact detail page opens in a new tab — make changes there, then come back to the inbox.
The contact detail page is the source of truth for the CRM record — the inbox panel is a quick read-only summary.
Common Issues
| Issue | What to check |
|---|---|
| Phone or email shows Not available | The contact has no backup channel — open the contact and add the missing field. |
| Lead stage looks wrong | The lead may be archived / disqualified / merged — open the contact and check. |
| Create a Lead isn't shown | The contact already exists — use Link if it's a duplicate identity, or open the existing contact and reply normally. |
| Enrich profile isn't shown | Enrichment is only available for some Facebook / Instagram conversations. |
If Create a Lead or Link never shows up for unknown senders, ask your admin whether your role can create contacts — and whether automatic lead generation is enabled on the channel, which would explain leads appearing without you doing anything.
Contact Brixi support when the panel shows the wrong contact for a conversation, or a lead you created refuses to link to the thread. Include the contact, the channel the message came in on, and a screenshot of the right panel.