The dedupe functionality enhances data stewardship by identifying possible duplicate records in the CRM.
Conveniently duplicate data can be deduped both at the point of record creation using the auto detect tool, and after records have been created, or imported, using the merge duplicates tool.
Record Creation
When you create a new Account, Lead, or Contact record, the system will auto-detect if it finds a potential existing duplicate record.
Clicking the link will bring you to a screen which displays all the possible existing matches on the left hand side:
You can click through the possible matches to view the existing data as well as view the number of activities that exist for that lead/contact. If you see that there is a duplicate, you can cancel the creation of the new record, otherwise, you can simply continue filling out the fields and click save to create a new one.
Merge Duplicates
From the list view of Account, Contacts, or Leads, you can select and merge duplicate records. When you merge them, it will also merge all related records (activities, opportunities etc).
Perform a search from the module list view to pull the records. Check off the records that you wish to merge, and click Merge-->Selected.
The next screen shows the records you selected at the top left. You can click through them to view some overall contact data, as well as see how many activities are associated with it. The activities are also mapped on a graph. Click on the record that you would like to use as the master record.
In this example, the 3rd record, Katie Johnson, is highlighted. In the details below, all of the data populated on this record is auto selected/highlighted. You have the ability to select to the data from one of the other records, or to enter a new value altogether. When you click save, all the records will be merged into 1 record, with the selected values saved, and all the related activities and records will be associated with the 1 record.
Customizing merge view
You may customize your merge possibilities and options by going Administration -> Designer -> Contacts(Which works the same to Leads)
Here you can choose the desired fields on your merge view by dragging the content from panel above to the designer panel.
FAQs
Q. How do I clean up all my duplicate records quickly?
A. There is no silver bullet for cleaning up duplicate records once they are in your DB. Prevention is better than cure in this case. Instead we recommend you adopt you empower your users by giving them access to the Merge Duplicates tool so that they can clean up duplicates when they are found.
Q. Should I just delete all the duplicates?
A. We recommend you always use the Merge Duplicate tool to deal with duplicate records. THis gives you the option to choose which field values re retained on the final record and ensures all associated records (historical activities, emails, notes, etc) are retained on the final merged record. If you simply delete duplicate records that you find then any associated activity records will be lost.
Comments