Find and Merge Duplicate Contacts

The ‘Find and Merge Duplicate Contacts’ feature in the contacts module of Retention CRM helps Associations, Chambers and Nonprofit Organizations identify and merge duplicate contact records within your CRM system. This helps in effective contact management by maintaining clean and accurate data, especially for organizations that rely on maintaining good member information.

General Functionality of the ‘Find and Merge Duplicate Contacts’ Feature

1. Manage Duplicate Detection Rules: Retention CRM allows you to define rules that determine how similar two contacts need to be to be considered duplicates. These rules can be based on various fields like name, address, email, or a combination.
2. Scan for Duplicates: Based on the chosen rule, Retention CRM scans your entire contact database or a specific group for potential duplicates.
3. Merge Duplicate Data: Once identified, you can review the details of each potential duplicate pair. You can choose which contact record to keep as the “primary” and then selectively merge information from the duplicate record into the primary one. This ensures you retain all relevant member data.

Using ‘Find and Merge Duplicate Contacts’ Feature in Association Management

Let’s imagine a nursing association with a large member base. Over time, duplicate member records might get created due to typos, data entry errors, or members updating their information from different devices.

Here’s how the “Find and Merge Duplicate Contacts” feature can be beneficial:

• Identify Duplicate Nurses: Using the “Name and Email” (Supervised) rule, the association can scan for contacts with similar names and matching or partially matching email addresses. This could catch duplicate entries created due to typos in names or slight variations in email addresses (e.g., [email address removed] vs. [email address removed]).
• Review and Merge Carefully: Since the “Name and Email” rule is supervised, a staff member can review each potential duplicate pair before merging. This ensures nurses with similar names but different email addresses (e.g., John Smith, a registered nurse, and Jane Smith, a nurse practitioner) aren’t accidentally merged.
• Maintain Data Accuracy: By merging duplicates, the association ensures they have a single, accurate record for each member. This improves data quality and leads to better communication and membership management.

Utilizing Other Options

• “Add Contact Rule”: The association can create a custom rule that includes additional fields relevant to nurses, such as license number or area of specialization, to identify duplicates more effectively.
• Household Rules: If the association tracks family members of nurses, they can define household-based duplicate detection rules using name or email.
• Organization Rules: If the association manages partner hospitals or clinics, they can utilize organization-specific duplicate detection rules based on name or email.
• Dedupe Exceptions: The association can define exceptions for specific scenarios where merging might not be ideal. For example, nurses with the same name but working at different hospitals might need separate records.

More Use Cases for Associations

Member On-boarding

During member on-boarding, especially when processing online applications, there’s a chance of duplicate entries due to typos or similar names. The “Find and Merge Duplicate Contacts” option can help identify these duplicates before they create issues in your database.

Merging Legacy Data

When transitioning from an older membership management system to Retention CRM, you might encounter duplicate records due to data migration processes. Utilizing “Find and Merge Duplicate Contacts” ensures a clean and accurate starting point for your data in the new system.

Improving Email Deliverability

Duplicate email addresses in your database can lead to delivery failures and hamper your communication efforts. Using “Find and Merge Duplicate Contacts” helps ensure you’re sending emails to unique and valid member addresses, improving overall email deliverability rates.

By leveraging the “Find and Merge Duplicate Contacts” feature and its various options, Associations, Chambers of Commerce and Nonprofit Organizations can significantly improve data quality, streamline member management, and ensure better communication with its members.