Customer Identification

Overview

Customer identification is a critical first step in the Flock referral system. By identifying your users, you enable:

Personalized referral experiences
Accurate tracking of referral activities
Proper attribution of rewards
Access to user-specific campaign data

This guide explains how to implement customer identification across different platforms using Flock SDKs.

Always call the identify() method after a user logs in or when your app starts with an authenticated user. This should be done before triggering any checkpoints or showing placements.

Implementation

Use the identify method to link a user’s identity with Flock:

Flock.shared.identify(
    externalUserId: "<USER_ID_IN_YOUR_APP>",
    email: "user@example.com",
    name: "Alice Smith",
    customProperties: [
      "tier": .string("Pro"),
      "subscription": .string("annual")
    ]
)

CoroutineScope(Dispatchers.Main).launch {
    FlockSDK.identify(
        externalUserId = "<USER_ID_IN_YOUR_APP>",
        email = "user@example.com",
        name = "Alice Smith",
        customProperties = mapOf(
            "tier" to "pro",
            "subscription" to "annual"
        )
    )
}

import { useFlockSDK } from '@wflock/react-native-sdk';

const handleLoginSuccess = async (user) => {
  const { identify } = useFlockSDK();
  await identify({
    externalUserId: user.id,
    email: user.email,
    name: user.name,
    // Optional custom properties
    customProperties: {
      tier: 'premium',
      subscriptionType: 'annual'
    }
  });
};

await window.FlockSDK.shared.identify({
  externalUserId: 'user_123',
  email: 'user@example.com',
  name: 'User Name',
  // Optional custom properties
  customProperties: {
    tier: 'pro',
    subscriptionType: 'monthly'
  }
});

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`externalUserId`	String	Yes	Your unique identifier for the user in your system
`email`	String	Yes	User’s email address
`name`	String	Yes	User’s full name
`customProperties`	Object	No	Additional user attributes for segmentation

About `externalUserId`

The externalUserId is the primary identifier that links your user in your system to their profile in Flock:

It should be unique and stable for each user
Typically, this is the same ID you use in your database

Custom Properties

Custom properties allow you to segment users and personalize referral experiences:

Use them to track user attributes like subscription tier, user type, or purchase history
These properties can be used for targeting specific user segments in campaigns
Format varies slightly by platform (see examples above)

Custom properties should be simple key-value pairs. Complex nested objects are not supported.

Best Practices

Call Early: Identify users as early as possible in your app’s lifecycle
Consistent IDs: Use the same externalUserId across all platforms for the same user
Update on Changes: Re-identify users when their information changes
Privacy First: Only send necessary user information
Error Handling: Implement proper error handling around identification calls

Next Steps

After successfully identifying your users, you can:

Trigger checkpoints to show referral experiences
Display placements at strategic moments
Trigger rewards for completed referrals

For additional help, contact support@withflock.com.

Get Started

Customers Management

Checkpoints

SDKs

Additional Integration

Advanced

Customer Identification

Overview

Implementation

Parameters

About `externalUserId`

Custom Properties

Best Practices

Next Steps

​Overview

​Implementation

​Parameters

​About externalUserId

​Custom Properties

​Best Practices

​Next Steps

Overview

Implementation

Parameters

About `externalUserId`

Custom Properties

Best Practices

Next Steps