Find Contact Workflow Action in Sparkforge

The Find Contact action looks up a contact based on search criteria like email, phone, or a custom ID, and routes the workflow down a Contact Found or Contact Not Found branch.

When to use it

Use Find Contact when a workflow is started by a trigger that doesn't already have a contact attached. The most common case is an Inbound Webhook trigger. The webhook payload may include an email or external customer ID but no Sparkforge contact ID — Find Contact converts that identifier into a real contact so the rest of the workflow can run on it.

Why it's useful

• Workflow efficiency — automates lookups that would otherwise need manual cross-reference.
• Flexible matching — searches by standard fields, custom fields, or external IDs.
• Designed for contactless triggers — bridges webhook and integration data into your CRM.
• External reference matching — match on identifiers like a Stripe Customer ID stored in a custom field.
• Branching — separate paths for Contact Found vs. Contact Not Found.

Supported match fields

• Standard fields — Email, Phone, First/Last Name, etc. Pick from the field selector.
• Custom fields — any custom field you've defined (e.g., Customer ID, Subscription Tier). The field must exist and be populated.
• External references — map webhook or third-party data (e.g., Stripe Customer ID) into a custom field, then match on it.

Matching logic and branching

• AND logic across fields — every field you specify must match for a contact to be returned.
• Branching — the action exposes Contact Found and Contact Not Found outputs.
• Multiple matches — if more than one contact could match, tighten with more specific fields. Pair with Contact Deduplication Preferences and Merge Duplicates to avoid duplicates.

Configure the action

1. Open the workflow builder under Automation.
2. Click the + icon and select Find Contact.
3. Name the action, e.g. Find Contact by Email.
4. Pick standard fields (First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone, etc.).
5. Optionally add custom fields. If they don't exist yet, create them first.
6. Pair the action with a contactless trigger like Inbound Webhook.
7. Build the Contact Found branch (Update Contact Field, Send Email, etc.) and the Contact Not Found branch (Create Contact, alert staff, etc.).
8. Save and publish.

Common patterns

• Stripe webhook to CRM: incoming payment webhook → match by Stripe Customer ID → update Last Payment Date on found contact, or create a new one if missing.
• Lead enrichment: external form posts to Inbound Webhook → match by email → update lead source if found, create new contact if not.
• SMS keyword reactivation: phone number triggers a webhook → find contact by phone → run reactivation sequence on Contact Found, ignore on Not Found.