Contacts Changing Companies / Retain Info

[AAustinEWG]

Hello!

I am new to HubSpot. My company has an issue where they have created new contacts any time someone changes companies. They do this because they do not want to lose any of the historical information for that contact at their previous company. I have been tasked with doing a complete overhaul of our contacts (archiving/deleting contacts, cleaning duplicates, etc). I am wondering how the best way to handle these contacts is moving forward. Can I just leave the previous company as an association, but mark the new company as primary? Any advice here is welcome as it cannot be clean to have so many duplicates!

[himanshurauthan]

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Hi @AAustinEWG,

To manage contacts who switch companies and avoid creating duplicates, consider the following steps:

1. Associate the contact with both companies: Set the new company as the primary while keeping the previous company as a secondary association.
2. Leverage HubSpot’s deduplication tool: Merge duplicate contacts using identifiers such as email to prevent duplicates.
3. Utilize custom properties: Create properties like "Previous Company" to maintain historical data.
4. Archive or delete irrelevant contacts: Clean up your database by archiving or deleting contacts that are no longer needed.
5. Implement workflows: Set up automated workflows to avoid future duplicates.

This approach will help you preserve historical information while keeping your contact database clean and organized.

[KPoth]

@AAustinEWG - Kavo.ai can automatically update any outdated records with previous employee associations based on live LinkedIn data we can also update this in a property. We can also see where they currently work and add the new info into your CRM if they fit your ICP. This way your team can be sure to reach out to engage them at their new organization. Let me know if you'd like to learn more! 

[Jonas_De_Mets]

Hi @AAustinEWG,

There are different options but I prefer a similar setup as you suggested:

- merge the contacts to get a 360 view of your interactions with that person

- retain the associations with the old company, but not as primary (consider using a custom association label)

- ensure that the most relevant email address is set as primary and remove redundant email addresses if needed.

FYI we have develop Koalify to make deduplication easy in HubSpot.
So let me know if you need some help with your duplicates!

Hope this helps!

[AAustinEWG]

Hi @Jonas_De_Mets 

Thank you for your response! When you say "consider using a custom association label" what do you mean? Or what would you suggest?

Thank you!

[Jonas_De_Mets · Accepted solution]

Hi @AAustinEWG,

I would suggest creating an extra assocation label.

For example "Previous Company" & "Previous Employee".
As shown in the printscreen (bottom right).

Hope this helps!

[AAustinEWG]

@Jonas_De_Mets Very helpful - thank you!!