Contact Verification
How Tiquo checks customer email addresses and phone numbers so the details in your CRM can be reached
Tiquo checks the email addresses and phone numbers that reach your CRM, whether a customer types them into a booking flow, staff add them in the dashboard, or they arrive through the API or an import. The checks run when details are entered, again when Tiquo sends a message, and across your existing records in the Data cleaning review. There is nothing to set up.
Phone numbers
International format
Phone fields in booking flows, forms, enquiries, membership sign-up, and the customer portal have a country picker. Tiquo saves each number in international (E.164) format, with its country code, so it can be called or texted from anywhere and matched to the same customer at every venue.
Tiquo understands the ways people usually write their number, including spaces, brackets, dashes, a leading 00 in place of +, and a trunk zero written as (0).
Numbering rules
Tiquo checks each number against the numbering plan of its country, so the number must be the right length and fall in a range that country uses for phone numbers.
- A number that's too short to be complete is reported as incomplete.
- A number that doesn't fit its country's plan is reported as invalid, because it can't be called or texted.
Carrier lookup
A number can have the right format and still not belong to anyone. Tiquo checks with the phone carriers that each number exists, so a made-up number that happens to fit the numbering plan is caught as well as a mistyped one.
Fake and placeholder numbers
Tiquo recognises numbers that people type to get past a required field:
- digits that repeat, such as
07777 777777 - digits in sequence, such as
0123456789 - North American
555numbers, which are kept for films and TV - the test ranges regulators reserve for fiction, such as Ofcom's
07700 900xxxin the UK and555-0100to555-0199in North America
Public forms and enquiries that use a regulator-reserved test number are treated as spam and discarded, and public bookings that use one are refused.
When Tiquo sends a text
Tiquo checks the number again before every text message:
- SMS campaigns skip recipients whose number isn't a valid international number.
- Automations don't text a customer who has no valid international number.
- Receipts sent by text are checked before sending. If the mobile network reports that the number can't receive texts, such as a landline, Tiquo doesn't retry.
Email addresses
Complete addresses
Email addresses must be complete, with a name, an @, and a domain with an ending such as .com. Tiquo checks this in booking flows, forms, enquiries, the customer portal, sign-in, marketing sign-up, guest invitations, membership payments, the API, and imports.
Addresses are saved in lowercase with surrounding spaces removed, so the same person is recognised however they typed their address.
Domain and mailbox checks
A complete address can still go nowhere. Tiquo checks that:
- the address's domain exists and is set up to receive email
- the mailbox itself exists on that domain, so an address with a mistyped or made-up name before the
@is caught even when the domain is real
When you import customers, Tiquo splits a cell that holds several addresses, removes stray characters stuck to the end of an address, and reports any row whose address still isn't complete.
Misspelt addresses
Tiquo spots common typing mistakes and suggests the corrected address:
- misspelt provider names, such as
gamil.com,hotmial.com,outlok.com, oryahooo.com - mistyped endings, such as
.con,.cmo,.co, or.couk - a missing dot, such as
gmailcom - spaces around the
@or between parts of the address
Corrections are suggested for Gmail, Googlemail, Hotmail, Outlook, Yahoo, iCloud, BT Internet, Proton Mail, SBCGlobal, BellSouth, and Comcast. A provider-like name on an ending that provider doesn't use, such as umail.ucc.ie, is left alone, because it belongs to someone's own domain.
Placeholder addresses
Tiquo recognises addresses that aren't a real inbox, including:
- placeholder domains such as
example.com,test.com,noemail.com, andfake.com - placeholder names such as
test@,noemail@,noreply@, anddonotreply@ - endings reserved for testing, such as
.test,.invalid,.example,.localhost, and.local - names made of one repeated character, such as
aaa@
Temporary and throwaway inboxes
Tiquo recognises addresses from disposable inbox services, such as Mailinator, YOPmail, Guerrilla Mail, and 10 Minute Mail. These inboxes stop working shortly after they're made, so a customer can't be reached at them later.
- Tiquo doesn't send sign-in or verification codes to a throwaway inbox.
- Public forms and enquiries from a throwaway inbox are held as suspected spam. They create no customer and send no notifications until someone on your team selects Not spam in the Spam list on the Enquiries page.
- Guests on a public booking can't be invited at a throwaway inbox.
- Throwaway domains are never suggested as a company. See Company Intelligence.
Proof of ownership
When a customer signs in to the customer portal, a booking flow, or your website, Tiquo emails them a one-time code. Entering the code proves they own the address.
A customer adding a second email address to their profile must enter the six-digit code sent to it. The address is only added once it's confirmed. See Customer Profiles.
Bounced email
Tiquo watches the delivery of the email it sends:
- If a sign-in code bounces, the customer is told so they can check the address they entered.
- If a marketing email hard bounces, or the customer marks it as spam, the customer is opted out of marketing.
- If a reply to an enquiry bounces or is marked as spam, Tiquo stops sending enquiry replies to that address.
Adding or editing a customer
When staff save a customer in the dashboard, Tiquo checks every email address and phone number on the form. If a detail looks fake, mistyped, or incomplete, Tiquo asks Are you sure you want to save? and explains what it found for each detail:
| What Tiquo found | Explanation shown |
|---|---|
| Repeated digits | The digits repeat, which real phone numbers don't. |
| Sequential digits | The digits run in sequence, which is a typical placeholder. |
| A 555 number | 555 numbers are reserved for films and TV, not real customers. |
| A short number | This number looks incomplete. It's too short to be a full phone number. |
| An invalid number | This isn't a valid phone number, so it can't be called or texted. |
| A placeholder address | This looks like a placeholder rather than a real inbox. |
| A throwaway inbox | This is a temporary inbox that stops working shortly after it's made. |
| A misspelt address | This looks misspelt. Did you mean the suggested address? |
| An incomplete address | This email address looks incomplete, so nothing can be delivered to it. |
For a misspelt address, select Fix email to use the suggested address. Select Back to change the details yourself, or Save anyway if you know the details are right.
The form also won't save the same phone number twice on one customer.
Data cleaning
Tiquo also checks the customers already in your CRM, including ones created before these checks existed or brought in by an import or integration. Its suggestions appear in the Data cleaning tab on the Customers page.
Tiquo scans your customers in the background when someone who can edit customers opens the Customers page, at most once every six hours. The Data cleaning tab appears with a count once there are suggestions to review.
The contact details suggestions are:
| Suggestion | What approving it does |
|---|---|
| Fake phone numbers | Deletes each number. |
| Invalid phone numbers | Deletes each number. |
| Missing country codes | Adds the country code to each number, worked out from the customer's address and the countries your locations are in. |
| Text in phone numbers | Keeps only the number, and splits a field that holds several numbers. |
| Fake email addresses | Deletes each placeholder or throwaway address. |
| Misspelt email addresses | Corrects each address, or removes it when the correct address is already on the profile. |
| Invalid email addresses | Deletes each address. |
The review also suggests fixes for names, company names, test profiles, and unusual numbers of cards.
Nothing changes until you approve it. For each suggestion you can approve the fix or select Ignore, and ignored suggestions don't come back. Bulk clean applies every open suggestion of one type at once, after showing you what will change. Scan again starts a new scan.
When the same email address or phone number is on two profiles, the review points you to the Duplicates tab. See Deduplicating and merging profiles.
API
Create Customer and Update Customer check every address in emails and number in phones. A malformed entry rejects the request with 400 Bad Request and an error that names the first invalid value, such as Invalid email address: "jane@example".
The marketing subscribe endpoint needs a phone number in international format, or a phoneCountry to read it in.