Who Customer.io is
Customer.io is a customer engagement platform founded in 2012. The company behind it, Peaberry Software, Inc., gives its address in Oregon, in the United States, and describes itself as globally distributed and remote-first. Its automations start when someone does something or joins a segment, and it also sends broadcasts to many people at once and one-to-one transactional messages, by email, push, SMS, WhatsApp, in-app message or webhook.
Each person has a profile with their attributes, events and subscription preferences, fed by Customer.io's own SDKs for iOS, Android, React Native and Flutter, the toolkit our mobile apps are built with, and by its server APIs. It offers a US and an EU region, is ISO 27001 certified and has a SOC 2 Type 2 report on security and availability. It is made to message people based on what they do, which is why it is one of the customer engagement connectors of our analytics and monitoring module.
What it does in your platform
Analytics & monitoring
Runs lifecycle journeys for customers who opted in: onboarding nudges, reactivation and feature adoption, by push, email, SMS and in-app message, started by the same events the analytics tools receive. Receipts, one-time codes and security alerts stay with the notifications module.
How the connection works
In the apps, Customer.io's Flutter SDK, the customer_io package it maintains itself, starts only after the customer agrees. On the server, the platform sends events through Customer.io's Pipelines API and deletion requests through its Track API, with keys that never leave the server.
A customer opts in
In the app, the customer agrees to tips and product news and picks email, push or SMS. The platform records the choice, starts the SDK and passes it to Customer.io as subscription preferences.
Customer.io knows them by ID
The customer is identified by the platform's random ID. Customer.io receives only the email address, phone number and push token it needs to reach them, plus the attributes on the tracking plan. Card numbers, account numbers, document images and passwords never go to it, and exact balances only if the plan allows them.
Events arrive
The app sends the screen views and taps on the tracking plan. Money events, such as a KYC decision or a settled payment, come from the platform's server, so they match the ledger.
A journey begins
Three days after the account is approved with no money added, an automation sends a push with a tip on adding money, then an email if nothing changes, inside the time windows and message limits your team sets.
The goal is reached
When the server reports the first top-up, the customer leaves the automation and Customer.io records a conversion against its goal, so your team can see which journeys work.
Choices travel back
An unsubscribe in Customer.io comes back to the platform as a signed reporting webhook. If the customer withdraws consent, the platform stops sending and deletes their profile in Customer.io; if they ask to be forgotten, it also suppresses their ID so it cannot come back.
Next to other providers
Customer.io works from the same tracking plan as Mixpanel, Amplitude and Google Analytics for Firebase: the analytics tools show your team where customers stall, and Customer.io follows up with a journey. It sits next to the notifications module, not in its place: receipts, one-time codes and security alerts go out there, so unsubscribing from journeys never stops a message a customer needs.
Consent choices, the tracking plan and the customer IDs live in the platform, so moving to another engagement tool later changes a connector, not your apps' screens or your records. The journeys themselves are built in Customer.io, so they would be set up again in the new tool.
When Customer.io fits best
A strong fit when
- You want journeys that follow what customers do in the app, such as onboarding, reactivation and feature adoption.
- Your team wants to build and change journeys in a visual workflow builder, without an app release.
- You want push, email, SMS and in-app messages in one journey, with customer data stored in the EU.
Also worth a look
- Mixpanel or Amplitude alone, when your team wants to measure behaviour rather than message customers about it.
- An engagement tool your team already uses: its account becomes a connector too.
How we get you live
The contract
We help you get your Customer.io account and contract in place, with its data processing addendum. For SMS, Customer.io sends through a provider account you connect, such as Twilio, Vonage, Infobip or Bird, and we connect that too.
The data
We open the account in Customer.io's EU region, whose data centre is in Belgium, and point the apps and the platform at its EU endpoints. The region is chosen when the account is created and is not normally moved, so we settle it first. With your team we agree the tracking plan, including the topics customers can opt into, and the SDK's automatic device and app lifecycle data stays off unless the plan lists it.
The keys
The Pipelines and Track API keys and the reporting webhooks' signing key go into your platform's secrets, and a webhook without a valid signature is rejected. The apps carry only the keys the SDK starts with, which can send data to Customer.io but not read it.
A full test run
Each journey runs first in a separate test workspace, with its own keys, your team's phones and a test inbox, and is then copied to your live workspace before your first real customer.
