Sometimes you need to take particular actions for different groups of customers. Handling these exceptions can be difficult as your company grows. Without an automated system working on your behalf, it's easy to make mistakes.

With Missive, companies can create groups within their contact books. These are very useful tools for segmentation. But even more helpful is the ability to create workflows using these groups or individual contacts as conditions to trigger automatic actions.

Imagine you have a group of highly-select customers that require special attention and faster service. Instead of always having to be alert for when they contact you, with Missive, you can designate a group for them and then let it alert you when someone from this select cluster makes contact.

The previous is an example of our powerful contact-based rules. We're going to explore three scenarios (instructions included) on how you too can leverage this feature.

Key Takeaways

• Group your contacts, then automate around them: Create contact groups like "VIP," "German customers," or "Spammers" and use Missive's rules engine to trigger actions automatically whenever someone from that group reaches out.
• Works across every channel: Contact-based rules apply to email, SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Live Chat—not just email. Set up the rule once and it covers all your channels.
• Combine contact conditions with anything else: Contact group and company conditions can be combined with keyword matching, time-based triggers, AI analysis, and other conditions for precise automation.
• Add contacts to groups on the fly: You can add a sender to a contact group directly from the email viewer without leaving your inbox—no need to go to settings every time.

But first, let's learn how to create contact groups.

1. Click on your name
2. Go to Contacts

1. If you don't have one already, create a Contact Book.

1. Create a contact
2. Create and add a group

1. Repeat for other contacts

PROTIPYou can add contacts to a group directly from the email viewer. Click on the email address > Add to Contacts > Add Group

Scenario 1

Your top 20% of customers bring 80% of the revenue. You signed a strict Service Level Agreement and they expect the best treatment.

Group name: VIP customers

Actions: Notify Sales Team when they email + label as VIP + display 15 minute SLA post

Scenario 2

You're dipping your toes into the German market and you've hired Hans to help. He's bilingual, so he can answer emails in English and German. You need to have them translated automatically since you don't speak the language.

Group name: German customers

Actions: Assign messages to Hans + translate them to English using a webhook

Scenario 3

Your business (Company Inc) is consulting to the sales and legal teams at Acme Inc. Both teams email you to john@company.com. You need the lawyers' emails to be directed to your own legal team and forward a copy to another outsourced firm.

Group name: Acme Inc (Legal team) customers

Actions: Move messages to the Legal Team Inbox + forward them to the outsourced firm.

Bonus

Trash spam or undesired emails in the future by adding them to the contact group Spammers.

Group name: Spammers

Actions: Trash emails

Beyond Groups: Other Contact-Based Conditions

The scenarios above all use contact groups, but Missive's rules engine supports several other contact-based conditions. You can also build rules that check whether a sender or recipient is in a specific contact company (useful for B2B routing—e.g., route all emails from anyone at Acme Corp to your account manager), in a specific contact book, or simply whether they exist in your organization's contacts at all. That last one is particularly handy for treating known contacts differently from first-time senders—for example, skipping an auto-reply for people you've already been in touch with.

You can also use the "Create contact(s)" rule action to automatically add new senders to a contact book when a rule fires. This is useful for building your contact database from incoming leads or support requests without any manual data entry.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do contact-based rules work for SMS and WhatsApp, or just email?

They work across all of Missive's supported channels: email, SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Live Chat. The same contact group condition you set up for an email rule can be used in an SMS or WhatsApp rule. The only exception is custom channels, which don't support the rules engine yet.

Can a contact belong to multiple groups at the same time?

Yes. Groups work like tags—a single contact can be in "VIP," "German customers," and "Enterprise" simultaneously. If multiple rules match (one for each group), they'll all fire unless one of them includes a "Stop processing more rules" action.

Can I import contacts from a CSV file instead of adding them one by one?

Yes—right-click on a contact book and select "Import contacts (CSV)." Missive supports CSV files in Google and Outlook formats. If your contact book is synced with Google or Office 365, import the CSV through that provider's interface instead (Google Contacts or Outlook) and it'll sync to Missive automatically.

Can I combine a contact group condition with other conditions in the same rule?

Absolutely. You can combine "From is in contact group" with keyword conditions, time-based conditions (like business hours or unreplied-after timers), conversation state, AI analysis, and more. For example, you could create a rule that fires only when a VIP customer sends a message that's been unreplied for 30 minutes—combining a contact group condition with a time-based SLA condition.