---
id: KB-CC-019
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/contacts-and-channels/when-the-contact-has-no-email
idioma: en
categoria: contactos-canales
audiencia: usuario
nivel: basico
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-CC-002, KB-CC-014]
citadoPor: [KB-CC-004]
---

# When the contact has no email

_Some people work from a phone alone, and it is not a rare exception: in some trades it is the majority._

**Responde a:** the supplier has no email · requesting documents by whatsapp · I only have a phone number · working with sole traders without email

The self-employed haulier, the installer working alone, the farmer, the small village supplier. They generally have an email address, but they do not look at it: their working tool is a phone, and there what works is a message. Treating them as if they had an inbox open all day guarantees no reply.

## Which channel works with whom

| Situation | What works best | What to expect |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Works in an office | Email | A reply within hours or by the next day |
| Works on the road or on site | A message to their phone | A fast reply or none |
| Has email but never checks it | A message flagging it, email with the detail | They answer the message, not the email |
| You must be sure they read it | Message plus a short call | The least popular option and the most effective |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> What almost nobody accounts for when moving to the phone: **what goes to a phone is read standing up, one-handed**. A message with three paragraphs, two links and a «please find attached» does not get read: it gets postponed. What works there is one sentence saying what is needed and one link, nothing else. The same request that fills half a screen by email has to fit in two lines on a phone — and that rewrite is the difference between getting the document today and chasing it for three weeks.

## How to set it up without overcomplicating

1. **Note on the card where they actually receive things** — Not the channel they gave you: the one they reply from.
2. **One request per message** — On a phone, two requests together is one lost request.
3. **Make it possible to take a photo and send it** — It is all they will do, and it is enough if the photo is legible.
4. **And file whatever they send where it belongs** — Arriving by phone does not mean living on someone's phone.

> [!WARNING]
> One case worth planning for before it happens: **the number you were given may be personal**. When that person leaves the company, they take the number, the history and the whole thread — and nothing of what was agreed remains with you if it all happened there. So whatever is agreed by message gets copied into the file the same day, even if the conversation carries on wherever suits them.

## When there is genuinely no phone and no email

**En corto**

- It happens, and it is usually solved by someone acting as a bridge: an agent, a relative, the cooperative.
- That intermediary is recorded as such, not as if they were the contact.
- And whatever they hand over is traced the same: who contributed it and when.

> [!NOTE]
> Writing to someone through a new channel has its own rules — consent, hours, and their right to ask you to stop. That is covered separately, and applies to phones as much as to email.

**Can I request documents over messaging?**

Yes, and it often works better. What matters is where they end up filed.

**What if they send a blurry photo?**

Ask for a retake there and then: tomorrow they are no longer in front of the paper.

**Is calling worth it?**

For the important ones, yes. A one-minute call saves four reminders.

## Ejemplos

**A company chases a self-employed haulier by email for three weeks.**

- Sends one line to their phone with a link and files what arrives in the record

→ The document lands that afternoon and sits where it belongs, not on someone's phone.

**A contact has no email and is left out.**

- Uses whichever channel they do have

→ The notice arrives anyway.

**They are messaged and there is no record.**

- Records the send in the file

→ The attempt is documented.

**Somebody at their company does have email.**

- Asks for an alternative contact

→ The request gets in where it can.

**They only answer the phone.**

- Calls and records what was said

→ The file moves with a record.

**It is assumed you cannot work with them without email.**

- Adapts the channel rather than dropping them

→ The supplier stays in the circuit.