# Connect Bento

You'll save visitors' answers to Bento and use their subscriber fields and tags to choose what they see on your website.

Available on the Grow, Scale, and Pro plans.

Connecting Bento lets you save what visitors tell you to their subscriber records. You can also use the fields and tags you already have to choose what those subscribers see on your website.

## Connect Bento

You'll need access to your RightMessage project's settings and Bento's credentials for the site you want to connect. Each RightMessage project connects to one email platform or CRM, so check what uses an existing connection before replacing it.

1. In Bento's API credentials area, get the publishable key, secret key, and site key for the intended site.
2. In RightMessage, open your project's settings and select **Integration**.
3. Under **Email platforms & CRMs**, select **Bento**.
4. Fill in **Publishable Key**, **Secret Key**, and **Site Key**. The site key is the site UUID, not a subscriber UUID.
5. Click **Connect** and review the connection's health in **Overview**.

![Bento connection form in RightMessage with the Publishable Key, Secret Key and Site Key fields and Connect button highlighted](https://rightmessage.com/help/screens/integrations-bento-connect.light.webp)

Keep the secret key out of screenshots and links. You can update the credentials later with **Save Changes**. You don't need beta access to connect.

The health check reads the site's tag catalog. You'll check a subscriber and a saved answer below.

## Choose what to sync

Use custom fields to save choice answers and segment groups to Bento. RightMessage can read an identified subscriber's custom fields and tags, but tag-based choice sync isn't available because Bento can delay tag changes.

[Map answers to contact fields and tags](https://rightmessage.com/help/synchronizing-contact-data-with-your-email-platform-or-crm) walks you through choosing a destination for each question. For Bento:

- Choose a defined custom field. There isn't a separate native-field list for first name or phone, so use custom fields for those answers too.
- Fields appear as strings. Mapped field conditions use **contains**, so choose distinct values that won't accidentally match one another.
- Field and tag lists are cached for five minutes. If you've just added a destination in Bento, allow the list to refresh before replacing your mappings.

RightMessage sends mapped field updates through Bento's `$rmUpdate` event and its subscriber import queue. The queues can finish at different times, so a new value may not appear immediately. If a saved mapping no longer matches a Bento field, RightMessage skips that field instead of creating one named after its internal ID.

To create subscribers, choose **Create/Update contact** or **Add to tag** under an Email question's **Contact action**. If you choose a tag action, select its destination. You don't need a list or hosted form. The connected **Site Key** determines which Bento site receives the subscriber.

Identification and consent settings still apply. Connecting Bento or collecting an anonymous answer doesn't subscribe every visitor. Publish the question, form, flow, or targeting changes you want live.

Tag additions and removals also use the subscriber import queue. Don't make a same-page recommendation depend on reading a tag you've just written. Configured outgoing event actions can send event properties, but this integration doesn't import Bento event or purchase history.

## Recognize subscribers from email links

Install the [RightMessage snippet](https://rightmessage.com/help/everything-you-need-to-know-about-your-rightmessage-tracking-script) on the pages you'll test. Then add `bento_uuid` to a link to one of your own pages. It needs the subscriber UUID, not the **Site Key**.

Here's a link to our example business, [WorkForge](https://workforge.rightmessage.com):

```text
https://workforge.rightmessage.com/pricing.html?bento_uuid=SUBSCRIBER_UUID
```

Replace `SUBSCRIBER_UUID` with your test subscriber's actual UUID. It isn't a Bento merge tag. For emails to your audience, insert the subscriber value through Bento's editor and check a delivered message. Use `&bento_uuid=` if the URL already has query parameters, and put it before any `#` fragment.

If your form tool can pass only an email, use the generic `email` parameter with the submitted, URL-encoded address. RightMessage can look up that email in Bento when it has no remembered subscriber ID. An explicit `bento_uuid` takes precedence. Use a fresh browser session when testing email lookup for a different subscriber. The subscriber must already exist in the connected Bento site.

A RightMessage Email question or form can also identify someone when its identification and contact-action settings allow it. External forms need an enabled capture method, such as **Email Watcher** or a Popup widget's **After a form is submitted** trigger. The snippet doesn't watch every form automatically. See [Identify visitors automatically](https://rightmessage.com/help/identifying-visitors-automatically), then test the submission and redirect you use.

### If you also use Bento's website script

When RightMessage learns an email and Bento's JavaScript client is present, RightMessage calls Bento's `identify` method with that email. It can also include the stored Bento visitor ID in requests.

Bento's script isn't required for RightMessage's API connection or identifying links. Installing both scripts doesn't identify an anonymous visitor. They still need a subscriber link, email lookup, or configured form submission. Another device needs to identify them too.

## Check the connection

1. Give an existing test subscriber a distinctive Bento field value.
2. Open that subscriber's identifying link in a fresh browser session on a page with RightMessage installed.
3. Check the subscriber and field value in RightMessage's on-site debugger. Confirm the UUID belongs to the expected email.
4. Exit the debugger, submit a mapped answer on your live site, and check the same subscriber's field in Bento. Allow for the queue delay rather than relying on an immediate tag read.
5. In another fresh session, submit a new test signup. Check that it creates the subscriber in the correct Bento site and that later answers reach that record.

The debugger blocks external writes, so use it to inspect identity and test the actual update outside debugger mode.

When you can recognize the intended subscriber, read their Bento data, and save an answer to their field, the connection is working. For help with any of those checks, follow [Verify an integration change](https://rightmessage.com/help/verify-an-integration-change).