EMAIL vs EMAILLOOKUP: how VICIdial matches incoming email to a lead

When a new message lands in a mailbox VICIdial is watching, it has to decide what to do with it. Does it create a brand-new record, or does it try to find a contact you already have? That choice is made by one field on the email account: the In-Group Call Handle Method. The two you will reach for first are EMAIL and EMAILLOOKUP.

The difference shapes your whole list. One mode treats every email as a new contact; the other tries to tie messages back to people you already know. Picking the wrong one quietly fills your Lead list with duplicates or, the other way, fails to connect a customer to their history.

EMAIL: every message is a new lead

With EMAIL, every incoming message is inserted into the list table as a new Lead. No matching, no lookup. This is simple and predictable, and it suits a fresh inbox where each email really is a new inquiry, like a web contact form that only ever produces first-time senders.

The downside is repetition. If the same customer emails twice, you get two records, and an Agent working the second one has no view of the first. For a steady support inbox that adds up fast.

EMAILLOOKUP: match an existing contact

EMAILLOOKUP searches the entire list table for the sender's address in the email column. If it finds a match, that lead's list ID is used for the record that goes into the email table, so the message attaches to the contact you already have. The agent picks up someone with history instead of a blank record.

If no match is found, a new record is created in the default list anyway, so you never lose the email. EMAILLOOKUP is usually the right default for an ongoing inbox where the same people come back.

How the choice plays out

flowchart TD
  A["New email arrives"] --> B{"Handle Method"}
  B -->|EMAIL| C["Insert as new lead"]
  B -->|EMAILLOOKUP| D{"Address in email column"}
  D -->|match found| E["Use existing lead list ID"]
  D -->|no match| F["Create new lead in default list"]
  C --> G["Queue to in-group"]
  E --> G
  F --> G
  G --> H["Agent handles and dispositions"]

A quick rule of thumb: use EMAIL for a pure intake inbox where every sender is new, and EMAILLOOKUP for any inbox tied to an existing customer base or Campaign. The lookup version keeps your data tidy and gives whoever handles the message, whether a regular agent or a Closer, the context to respond well.

Either way, once the message is matched and queued to an Ingroup, the rest of the flow is the same as a call: it pops on the agent's screen, locks the record, and waits for a Disposition.

If you want the search scoped to one campaign or list, read about the EMAILLOOKUPRC and EMAILLOOKUPRL variants. For where this field sits among the rest of the email account settings and how groups feed agents, start with the inbound email and chat guide. And if you would rather run all of this on a managed box without wiring parsers and list logic yourself, our pricing page has the plans.