Where to find it
Go to Settings, then AI & Automation, then Contact Fields. The screen has two tabs: Contact fields and Metrics. This page is about the first one. You can also reach it from a contact. Open any contact, find the Properties card, and click Manage fields.Three kinds of field
Every row in the table carries one of three badges. The badge decides what you are allowed to do with it.System
Built in. Email, phone, name, timezone, consent, tags, created date and the
rest. You can fill the value on a contact, but the field itself cannot be
renamed, retyped or deleted.
Integration
Comes from a connected store, reviews app or loyalty app. Managed by that
integration, so it is read-only here. The row links straight to
Integrations.
Custom
Fields you create. Rename them, change the value type, delete them. These
are the only editable rows.
An integration field only appears while that integration is connected.
Connect Shopify and the Shopify fields show up under a Shopify group.
Disconnect it and they leave the catalog again. That is deliberate: listing a
field nothing can fill would give you a filter that always returns nobody.
How the catalog is grouped
Fields are grouped in this order:- Contact details identity, address, consent and attribution
- Email & SMS activity opens, clicks and other messaging history
- Tags
- One group per connected integration, named after the integration, in alphabetical order
- Custom fields
Reading the table
Above the table there is a counter showing the total plus a breakdown by kind, a search box that matches on name and key, filter pills for All / System / Integration / Custom, and a Source dropdown when you have more than one source.
Fill rate
Fill rate is a real measurement, not an estimate. It is the percentage of contacts in the workspace that have a value in that field, recalculated when the page loads. A dash instead of a number means no contact has ever had a value there. That is the honest signal that a field is offered but empty, and it is worth checking before you build a segment on it.Used in
Hover Used in to see exactly which segments, automations and templates reference the field, each one a link. This is the list you work through before deleting a field. Deleted automations do not count. They are on a retention clock and are not reachable, so they never block you.Creating a field
1
Click New field
Top right of the Contact fields tab.
2
Type a field name
Use plain language, for example “Favourite category”. Senderz shows the
derived field key underneath as you type, in this case
favourite_category. The key is lower case with underscores, at least two
characters and at most 64.3
Choose a value type
See the table below. Pick carefully: changing it later is possible but it
has to be checked against every value you already stored.
4
Add options, for Select and Multi-select
Type each option and press Enter or comma. At least one is required.
The value types
Because the type is enforced on write, a Date field really does hold dates and
a Number field really does hold numbers. That is what lets the segment builder
offer “before / after / in the last N days” on one and “greater than / between”
on the other.
Editing a field
Custom rows have an edit button. You can change:- Display label freely. It updates everywhere the field is shown.
- Value type, with a check first.
- Options, for Select and Multi-select.
Changing a value type
When you change the type, Senderz re-checks the values you already stored, sampling up to 500 contacts, and tells you how many would not survive the change. It shows you the offending values before you commit. If you confirm anyway, those values are not converted. They stay as they are and may stop matching filters that use the field. Confirm only when you have looked at the samples.Deleting a field
Custom rows have a delete button. You are asked to type the field key to confirm, because deleting a field also removes every contact’s value for it and cannot be undone. The same rule applies to bulk delete. Select several custom fields, choose Delete, and the confirmation tells you how many are in use and will be kept. Integration and system fields have no delete button at all.Where a field is usable
In segments
In segments
Every field that can be filtered on turns up in the segment builder’s field
picker, grouped the same way it is here. The operators you get depend on
the value type:
See Segments.
In email and SMS content
In email and SMS content
Every field has a merge tag. Fields stored directly on the contact record
use their own name, for example
{{firstName}} or {{email}}. Everything
else, including every field you create, uses the custom. prefix, for
example {{custom.favourite_category}}.You do not have to type them. Use the personalization menu in the email
editor or the variable picker in the SMS composer, both of which read this
catalog. Set a fallback so a contact with no value still gets a sensible
message.See Templates.On the import wizard
On the import wizard
The column dropdown on the mapping step is generated from this catalog, so
what you see in Settings and what you see when importing are always the same
list.Computed fields appear but are disabled, with a note saying so. Every column
also offers Don’t import this column, which is honoured as a real
instruction: an ignored column is not auto-detected behind your back.See Importing contacts.
On a contact
On a contact
The Properties card on a contact profile edits values inline. Add
property opens a picker of everything that can be written. Computed fields
show with a Computed badge and cannot be typed.See Contacts.
In automations
In automations
On export
On export
The export column picker groups the same catalog and shows how many contacts
actually have each field. Fields that are empty for every contact are tucked
behind Show N fields with no data, with the explanation that they would
export as blank columns. You can still pick them.
Computed and read-only fields
Some fields are marked Computed. Senderz works the value out for you, so nobody can type it, import it or set it from an automation. Thirteen commerce and engagement fields are the exception. They are calculated at the moment you export, from your real event history, so they are populated in an export file even though they read as empty on a contact: first active, last active, first email opened, last email opened, total messages opened, first message clicked, last message clicked, total messages clicked, first purchase, last purchase, total purchases, total spent and average order value.Aliases: why your file maps itself
Each built-in field carries a list of alternative names. “E-mail”, “Email address”, “Customer email” and the Hebrew equivalents all resolve to Email. Shopify’s own column headers, and the$-prefixed keys other platforms export, resolve too.
That is why an export from another platform usually arrives with most columns already mapped on the import wizard. Always review the mapping before starting the import, but you rarely have to build it from nothing.
Limits
There is no product cap on how many custom fields you can create. A very high safety ceiling exists so a runaway import cannot create fields without bound, but it is far above any real catalog and you should never meet it.
Related
Segments
Filtering on a field, and the operators each value type offers.
Contacts
Editing property values on a single contact.
Importing contacts
Mapping columns and creating a field inline.
Templates
Merge tags and fallbacks.