# Identify Customer

When a customer signs up or logs into your website, you should call the `identify` method first. This will create or update the customer record in CrowdPower. You will also want to call this method whenever something about the customer record changes — like if they are now a paying customer, or they updated their profile on your website.

```javascript
<script>
  window.cp('identify', {
    user_id: '<user_id>', // Unique user ID (required)
    email: '<email>', // Email address
    name: '<name>', // Full name (splits into first and last name)
  });
</script>
```

You may also include these additional properties...

```javascript
<script>
  window.cp('identify', {
    ...
    first_name: '<first_name>', // First name, prioritized over name
    last_name: '<last_name>', // Last name, prioritized over name
    signed_up_at: '<signed_up_at>', // Signup date as a unix timestamp
    custom_attributes: {
      '<key>': '<value>', // Optional custom attributes
    }
  });
</script>
```

{% hint style="info" %}
The preferred method for sending in custom attributes is to use snake\_case for keys, and UNIX timestamps (in seconds) for date values.

Custom attributes can be formatted in the [Traits](https://app.crowdpower.io/traits) section to be displayed to you as a string, boolean, or date.
{% endhint %}