topic Re: Contact Duplicate Issue in Tips, Tricks & Best Practices

Contact Duplicate Issue

AJ_Kakrot — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 14:35:43 GMT

Hello,

I need a help for my use case. I know in HubSpot email is a primary key and unique identifier however in our use case the leads we acquire their mobile number is unique identlfier. Is there a way to make phone number as unique key identifier? (i'm sure HubSpot is currently not allowing for it)

However, as a workaround solution is there any way or automation I can build for any incoming contacts where it can check if the phone number exists in the database that way the record can be merged? Some ideation on this requirement will be really helpful for me to make my usecase successful via HubSpot.

Thanks

Re: Contact Duplicate Issue

LouiseHare — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 14:48:29 GMT

Hi @AJ_Kakrot,

You could do this by creating a custom phone number property and adding the rule that the value must be unique.

Just be sure to replace the standard phone number property with this custom property whereever you are collecting it (i.e on the create form, on website forms, etc)

Hope this helps!

Louise Hare she/her

Freelance HubSpot Expert

If my reply helped to answer your question please mark it as a solution to make it

easier for others to find!

Re: Contact Duplicate Issue

deepikaverma — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 14:59:37 GMT

Hi @AJ_Kakrot

Thanks you for reaching out!!

It's correct that only the email address is used as a unique identifier in HS, not the phone number. Merging through WFs is also not possible. Here is the HS knowledge base article that elaborates on how to merge and what areas will be impacted by this.

https://knowledge.hubspot.com/records/merge-records

Thank you!!

Re: Contact Duplicate Issue

AJ_Kakrot — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 15:01:57 GMT

Hi @LouiseHare,

Thanks for your super quick response here. This is something I also thought about but HubSpot doesn't allow to apply validation rules for phone number field type.

Re: Contact Duplicate Issue

Jonas_De_Mets — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 11:29:41 GMT

@AJ_Kakrot we developed Koalify a plugin designed to help you identify duplicates and merge them automatically. You can set custom criteria to identify duplicates, such as First Name, Last Name, and Phone.

Once the criteria are set, you can automatically merge records that meet these conditions through a simple workflow. I've included two illustrations below to show how this works.

Hope this helps!

Re: Contact Duplicate Issue

AJ_Kakrot — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 14:35:25 GMT

@Jonas_De_Mets this looks promising to us. I'll certainly explore this plug-in and see if it can meet our requirements. In our use case many records get created with same phone number so want ensure there stays single record for single number. Is that doable with this plug-in?

Also. I'm afraid to see that this works only with Marketing Hub Enterprise ☹️

Re: Contact Duplicate Issue

RBozeman — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 21:28:37 GMT

Hi @AJ_Kakrot,

I believe to do this you would have to upgrade to Ops Hub or develop something in-house using the API.

Also just wanted to mention that Insycle can do this. Full disclosure, I work for them. But you can choose any field in your database as a unique identifier, then use any fields you want as potential matching fields, and create templates to identify and merge duplicates in multiple ways in order to catch more. You also have full control over how data is retained during the merge, down to a field-by-field level, so you always keep the data that you need.

Re: Contact Duplicate Issue

Jonas_De_Mets — Sat, 31 Aug 2024 09:44:35 GMT

Hi @AJ_Kakrot, it’s definitely possible to create a single record for all contacts sharing the same phone number.

Koalify is compatible with all Hubs, so Marketing Hub Enterprise is not required. We apologize for the error in our marketplace listing, but it has been corrected.

Looking forward to simplify your HubSpot deduplication!

Re: Contact Duplicate Issue

AJ_Kakrot — Sat, 31 Aug 2024 15:45:15 GMT

@Jonas_De_Mets thank you so much for the clarification. This is really helpful for us.