> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.brilo.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Remember callers between calls

> Turn on Contact Memory so your Brilo agent recognises saved contacts and greets returning customers by name instead of treating every caller as a stranger.

**Contact Memory** is a single switch in the **Configure** tab, and it changes the character of every
call from a returning customer. With it on, your agent recognises people you already hold in contacts
and opens with what it knows. With it off, every caller starts from nothing.

## Before you start

* An agent. See [Create your first agent](/agents/create-your-first-agent).
* One minute.
* Contacts in your workspace, otherwise there is nothing to remember. Callers your agent speaks to are
  saved as contacts as you go, so this fills up on its own.
* You will be working in your agent's **Configure** tab.

## Steps

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the Configure tab">
    Open your agent and go to **Configure**. **Contact Memory** sits under **Agent Information**,
    below **Answer Length**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Turn it on">
    Switch **Contact Memory** on and save.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Call from a number you already hold">
    Call your agent from a phone number that exists in your contacts. Your agent should greet you as
    somebody it knows rather than asking who you are. See
    [Test your agent yourself](/go-live/test-your-agent-yourself).
  </Step>
</Steps>

## You will know it worked when

You call from a saved number and your agent uses your name, or refers to something from a previous
call, without you telling it anything first.

## What your agent can see

With **Contact Memory** on, your agent gets the contact's details plus a summary of recent calls,
texts, and emails with that person. That is enough for it to:

* Greet a returning customer by name.
* Skip questions it already has the answer to, such as an address you gave last week.
* Refer back to the last conversation, for example an appointment already booked.
* Pick up a job that was left unfinished on a previous call.

With it off, every caller is treated as new, every time, even if they rang an hour ago.

## When to leave it off

* **Shared phone lines.** A number used by a whole household or office will match the wrong person,
  and your agent will confidently greet the wrong name.
* **Callers you must not identify out loud.** If anyone else could be in the room, saying a name and
  referring to a past call is a disclosure. Think carefully in healthcare and legal settings.
* **High volume anonymous enquiries.** If almost nobody calls twice, the setting costs you nothing but
  it earns you nothing either.

## What else you can do here

* Put the caller's name into the greeting itself, once memory is on. See
  [Set your greeting](/agents/set-your-greeting).
* Have your agent collect and confirm the details you care about during the call, so the contact record
  fills itself in. See [Write what your agent says](/agents/write-what-your-agent-says).
* Have your agent write back to your CRM after the call. See
  [Update your CRM](/actions/update-your-crm).

## If it did not work

**Your agent does not recognise you.** Check the number you called from matches the number saved on
the contact, including the country code. A mobile saved without a country code will not match.

**It greets you with the wrong name.** Two contacts share that phone number, or a shared line matched
somebody else in the household. Merge or correct the contacts.

**It knows the name but nothing else.** There is no call history with that contact yet. The summary
builds from previous calls, texts, and emails, so a brand new contact has a name and little more.

**Callers ring from withheld numbers.** There is nothing to match on, so those calls are always
treated as new. That is expected.

## FAQ

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Can my Brilo agent remember previous calls with the same customer?">
    Yes, with **Contact Memory** on in the **Configure** tab. Your agent gets the contact's details
    plus a summary of recent calls, texts, and emails, so it can greet a returning customer by name and
    pick up where the last conversation ended.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How does my agent know who is calling?">
    It matches the caller's phone number against your contacts. If the number is saved, your agent
    recognises the person. If the number is withheld or not saved, the call is treated as new.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Why is my agent using the wrong name?">
    Usually a shared line, or two contacts holding the same number. Check your contacts for duplicates.
    For lines used by a household or a whole office, turning **Contact Memory** off is the safer choice.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Does Contact Memory work on outbound calls and campaigns?">
    Yes. Campaign calls go to contacts by definition, so your agent has the details and the history for
    the person it is calling.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Is it safe to use Contact Memory in a clinic?">
    Be careful. Saying a name and referring to a past appointment out loud is a disclosure if anyone
    else can hear the call. Many clinics leave it off for that reason and confirm identity in the
    conversation instead.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Do I need to import contacts before this works?">
    No. Callers are saved as contacts as your agent speaks to them, so recognition improves on its own
    from the second call onwards. Importing an existing list just means it works from the first call.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Related

* [Set your greeting](/agents/set-your-greeting) to use the caller's name in the opening line
* [Pull the details out of every call](/reports/extract-call-information) to capture caller details
* [Update your CRM](/actions/update-your-crm) to write what happened back to your own system
* [What your agent can learn](/knowledge/what-your-agent-can-learn) for facts rather than people