Best Practices working with Government Customers - Unique Identifier + Company Associations
SOLVE
Hi there!
My organization works with government entities at all levels (local, state, federal) and I am running into an administrative nightmare when it comes to managing duplicates and maintaining child/parent associations. This is especially true when importing lists of contacts/companies that we are pulling from trade shows where the URL or company name might not match to the record we have in HubSpot.
The way I am thinking about it today is that individual departments (like a Sheriffs Department) would be a child company to the municipaility or whatever it should roll up to.
Yeah, I think you’re definitely on the right track here! Using the website URL as a unique identifier instead of the domain will help, but ideally, I’d recommend taking it a step further.
Here’s what I’d suggest:
Create a Custom Unique Identifier:
Instead of relying solely on the domain or URL, create a custom property that acts as your unique identifier. This could include the website URL or something else that works best for your organization.
This way, you have full control over what’s being used as the "source of truth," and it will prevent any unintended merges or duplicates when importing data.
Avoid Merges by Faking the Domain:
Since HubSpot often uses the domain name as the default unique identifier, it might automatically merge records if different departments share the same domain (like in your City of Madison example). A good workaround is to "fake" the domain when you’re working with these departments.
For instance, you could adjust the domain to something like cityofmadison-fire.com and cityofmadison-police.com. Even though these aren’t real domains, they’ll prevent HubSpot from merging the records.
You can then create another custom property to store the actual domain if you need it for other purposes.
Use Custom Associations:
Once you’ve set up your custom unique identifiers and adjusted domains, you can use parent/child associations to roll up departments (like fire and police) to the overarching municipality, while keeping each department separate and organized.
By building out your own unique identifier system and being mindful of domain handling, you’ll avoid the common issues around unwanted merges and duplicates.
Yeah, I think you’re definitely on the right track here! Using the website URL as a unique identifier instead of the domain will help, but ideally, I’d recommend taking it a step further.
Here’s what I’d suggest:
Create a Custom Unique Identifier:
Instead of relying solely on the domain or URL, create a custom property that acts as your unique identifier. This could include the website URL or something else that works best for your organization.
This way, you have full control over what’s being used as the "source of truth," and it will prevent any unintended merges or duplicates when importing data.
Avoid Merges by Faking the Domain:
Since HubSpot often uses the domain name as the default unique identifier, it might automatically merge records if different departments share the same domain (like in your City of Madison example). A good workaround is to "fake" the domain when you’re working with these departments.
For instance, you could adjust the domain to something like cityofmadison-fire.com and cityofmadison-police.com. Even though these aren’t real domains, they’ll prevent HubSpot from merging the records.
You can then create another custom property to store the actual domain if you need it for other purposes.
Use Custom Associations:
Once you’ve set up your custom unique identifiers and adjusted domains, you can use parent/child associations to roll up departments (like fire and police) to the overarching municipality, while keeping each department separate and organized.
By building out your own unique identifier system and being mindful of domain handling, you’ll avoid the common issues around unwanted merges and duplicates.
