Contact Resolution System: Present the Best Reachable Option Without a Data Dump
One clear primary contact per channel, with evidence and alternatives when needed.
Last reviewed: 2026-09-06
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Inputs
- Candidate identity confidence
- Provider observations
- Verification state and observed date
- Bounce/wrong-person history where available
- Consent and contactability policy
1. Resolve identity before resolving contact
Contact observations are only useful when they belong to the right person. Keep ambiguous identity matches out of the primary-contact slot.
2. Score observations by channel
Evaluate work email, personal email, mobile, other phone, and social/profile URLs separately. Freshness, provider verification, corroboration, and historical outcomes should influence confidence.
3. Select one primary per channel
Show the strongest work email, strongest personal email where policy permits, strongest phone, and canonical profile link. Collapse lower-confidence values under alternatives.
4. Preserve provider provenance
Keep the provider/source, observed date, verification state, and relevant outcome history so the recruiter can understand why one value was preferred.
5. Learn from outcomes without overgeneralizing
A bounce or wrong-person event should reduce confidence in that observation/provider context, while preserving the distinction between one bad value and universal provider quality.
What to measure
- Primary-contact verification rate
- Bounce/wrong-person rate
- Provider incremental usable-contact yield
- Alternatives shown per candidate
- Recruiter corrections
Failure modes to avoid
- Dumping 15 emails into the profile
- Picking the first provider response as primary
- Ignoring observed date
- Using public evidence as automatic contact permission