Merge duplicate contacts

Steps

1. Step 1 of 13

   Understand what a duplicate is

   The Duplicates card counts the contacts that may be the same person.

   A duplicate is the same person recorded two or more times among your contacts. Two contacts are possible duplicates when they have the same mobile (the same digits) or the same email, and Bridge flags them. In Contacts, the Duplicates card, the last of the six above the table, shows how many contacts have at least one possible duplicate and their share of the total. Choose the card to open the Duplicates view; the same view is in Saved views. The count takes the active filters into account, but not the search.

   • Same mobile or same email
   • Count and share of the total
   • Click the card: the Duplicates view

   Watch step 1 on the screen

2. Step 2 of 13

   Review the Duplicates view

   The Duplicates view gathers the possible duplicates, grouped by person.

   The Duplicates view lists only the contacts that have possible duplicates, grouped: the records of the same person appear together. After the Contact column comes Duplicate of, which says why the contact is in the view: Same mobile or Same email, followed by the other contact’s name, or by +N when it matches several. In this view, clicking a row opens the contact’s information straight on Resolve duplicates.

   • Duplicate of: Same mobile or Same email
   • The other contact, or +N for several
   • Click the row: Resolve duplicates

   Watch step 2 on the screen

3. Step 3 of 13

   See the alert on the contact

   The contact’s information warns you when it has pending duplicates.

   Clicking a contact in any view opens its information (Contact info), the same panel used in Chats. If the contact has pending duplicates, the alert Resolve the duplicates to start a chat appears above its data, saying how many possible duplicates it has and that they share mobile or email, with the Resolve duplicates button. Until you resolve them, Start chat stays disabled and, when you rest the pointer on it, shows the same reason.

   • Alert above the data
   • Start chat waits until you resolve them
   • Resolve duplicates button

   Watch step 3 on the screen

4. Step 4 of 13

   Open Duplicates from the contact

   The Duplicates access takes you to resolve them in the same panel.

   Under the contact’s data, next to Chats and Activity, is the Duplicates access. It appears whenever the contact has possible duplicates, also outside the Duplicates view, and says how many there are and that they share mobile or email, with the Not started tag. Choose the access, or Resolve duplicates in the alert, to open Resolve duplicates in the same panel. Back to Contact info returns to the contact’s data.

   • Appears in any view
   • Says how many possible duplicates
   • Opens Resolve duplicates

   Watch step 4 on the screen

5. Step 5 of 13

   Review the records side by side

   Resolve duplicates merges every record in a single step.

   Resolve duplicates shows every record of the person side by side and is resolved in a single step. Records that share a mobile or an email are the same person, so all of them merge into one contact: there is no option to say they are not the same person or to leave a record out. None is the main one beforehand: the main contact is the result. The title says how many records become one. The table has one column per record, first the contact you opened and a + between them, with its name, its CRM ID, its origin, how many chats it has and who it shares the mobile or the email with. At the end, after the = sign, is the Main contact, with the note How it looks after merging.

   • One column per record
   • All merge, no exceptions
   • Main contact: the result

   Watch step 5 on the screen

6. Step 6 of 13

   Choose the value that is kept

   In each field you choose the value the contact keeps.

   Each row of the table is a field: Name (first and last name as one value), Mobile, Email, Language, every contact attribute and, with administration permissions, Assigned to. If the records have the same value, the row shows it as text. If their values differ, each value is a button: tap the one you want to keep and it is marked with a check. Every field but email keeps One value: the open contact’s value comes marked, and the one that is not marked is not kept. On the right of each row, the Main contact shows the value that will stay.

   • Different values: tap the one you want
   • By default, the open contact’s
   • Same values: plain text

   Watch step 6 on the screen

7. Step 7 of 13

   Keep several emails

   Email keeps several values, with one principal.

   Email is the only field with Several values: every email of the records is kept and, in the Main contact, one is the Principal. Tap an email in its record’s column to take it out; the one you take out is not kept. To change the principal one, choose Make principal next to the other email, in the Main contact.

   • Every email is kept
   • Tap one to take it out
   • Make principal changes the principal

   Watch step 7 on the screen

8. Step 8 of 13

   Save what is not kept

   A note keeps the data that is not kept.

   The values you do not mark do not reach the contact. To keep them anyway, tick Save what isn’t kept in a note on the contact, which comes off. When you tick it, you see below the note as it will be saved, Note · Duplicate merge: each value that was not kept, with the CRM ID of the record it comes from. The note is saved on the contact when you merge and is recorded in its Activity.

   • Off by default
   • Each value with its CRM ID
   • Stays on the contact

   Watch step 8 on the screen

9. Step 9 of 13

   Confirm the merge

   The merge is confirmed once and cannot be undone.

   At the bottom, the Merge button with the number of records, for example Merge 2 records, merges the records; Cancel goes back to the contact’s information without merging anything. If the main contact has no mobile, the button is disabled, because the mobile is required. Before merging, Bridge asks you to confirm: the window says which records become one contact, in Bridge and in the CRM, which data is not kept and whether it goes to the note. The merge cannot be undone. Back to review returns to the table to change what you need; Merge confirms it.

   • Merge 2 records, at the bottom
   • Back to review or Merge
   • Cannot be undone

   Watch step 9 on the screen

10. Step 10 of 13

    Check the merged contact

    The result is a single contact, ready for the chat.

    After merging you are back on the contact’s information, which is now a single contact: it has the values you chose, the most advanced connection status of its records (Open before Never connected, and Never connected before Never contacted) and the most recent last activity among them. A notice confirms Duplicates resolved, with the contact’s name. As it no longer has duplicates, the alert and the Duplicates access are gone and the footer button is available: Go to chat if the contact has an open chat, or Start chat if it does not.

    • The values you chose
    • The most advanced status and last activity
    • Go to chat or Start chat, available

    Watch step 10 on the screen

11. Step 11 of 13

    See how the counts update

    The view and the counts update at once.

    The other records leave the list: where there were two or more contacts of the same person, only one remains. The Duplicates card and the view are recounted at once; in the example, Duplicates goes from 6 to 4 contacts, and All contacts counts one contact less for each record that left the list. The remaining groups stay in the view until you resolve them.

    • The other records leave the list
    • Duplicates is recounted
    • All contacts too

    Watch step 11 on the screen

12. Step 12 of 13

    Check the contact’s activity

    Activity shows the contact’s history since the merge.

    Activity, under the contact’s data, shows its history from newest to oldest. A contact born from a merge has two tabs. This contact is its own history, which starts with the merge: the merge card, for example 2 records merged into one, carries the Resolved tag, says where it was resolved from and which CRM ID the contact keeps, and shows how many records were merged, how many chats were joined and how many emails were kept; its link opens the history of the merged records. Above it are the records deleted by the merge, the note with what was not kept and everything that happens afterwards, such as edits.

    • This contact tab
    • Starts with the merge
    • Records deleted and note

    Watch step 12 on the screen

13. Step 13 of 13

    Review the history of each record

    Each merged record keeps its own history.

    The Duplicates tab shows one section per merged record: its avatar, its name, its CRM ID, its origin and its chats; the record whose CRM ID the contact kept carries the Keeps its CRM ID tag. Under it is the history that record had until the merge, from newest to oldest: at the top, Merged into and the contact’s name, at the date of the merge, because from there on its history continues in the contact; then, for example, when it was created, its edits and when the duplicate was found. Only the newest merge splits the history: an earlier merge stays inside the history of the record it belongs to. Next: start the chat with the contact or update its data, in Update a contact’s details.

    • Duplicates tab
    • One section per record
    • Keeps its CRM ID: the one kept

    Watch step 13 on the screen