How to enrich phone numbers for existing contacts in Plays and Sequences

When you have contacts already in your Plays or Sequences who need phone number enrichment, you cannot directly enrich them within the existing play. Play modifications for enrichment only apply to future contacts and do not retroactively update previously processed contacts. Additionally, bulk phone enrichment during upload can silently fail for some contacts even when the enrichment toggle is enabled, though individual enrichment typically works for these same contacts.

This limitation commonly affects:

• Contacts who weren't initially prospected (such as new hires added without phone enrichment)

• Contacts in specialized sequences where they were added individually rather than through prospecting nodes

• Existing contacts in plays that were modified to include phone enrichment after they were already processed

Workaround Process

To enrich phone numbers for existing contacts, follow these steps:

1. Export and Re-import with Phone Enrichment

Export your target audience as a CSV from Unify or from your current play to the People tab. During the upload process, enable the 'enrich phone numbers' toggle. You can create an audience or segment to filter specific contacts (such as website visitors from the last 60 days) for targeted enrichment.

Note: If you need to enrich contacts from multiple sequences at once, use 'OR' logic when adding sequence activity filters in the audience creator. This allows you to include all contacts from multiple sequences in a single export and re-upload process.

2. Create a Call-Focused Play

Build a new play containing only call tasks in the sequence. This play should be specifically designed for your newly enriched contacts and focus on phone-based outreach.

3. Enable Re-enrollment

Navigate to Organization Settings > Sequences > Rulesets and enable the 'Allow re-enrollment into Sequences' toggle. Set the days to '0' to allow immediate re-sequencing of previously contacted people, including those who have already been emailed.

4. Launch the New Play

Execute your call-focused play with the newly enriched contact data. Your contacts will now have phone numbers available for call tasks.

When to Use This Process

This workaround is particularly useful for:

• Obtaining phone numbers for existing contacts that were initially added without phone enrichment

• Processing contacts that were added before phone enrichment was included in a play

• Specialized sequences where contacts are added individually and phone enrichment is needed for call tasks

• Integration with calling systems and CRM synchronization that requires phone data

This process allows you to efficiently manage phone number enrichment for existing contacts while conserving credits by targeting specific audiences that need phone data for call-based outreach.