Duplicate Contact Properties result from Multiple Data Sources

[EPuszczewicz]

I have a question on how to best manage multiple submission methods that result in duplicate contact properties.  

We have several ways for a contact to submit information:

• Gravity Forms Submission
• Hubspot Lead Flows
• Woocommerce Orders
• Website Chat
• Hubspot email integration

This results in duplicate properies for  “Company” properties,  "Name" properties, address fields etc.   It makes it difficult use this data in workflows, alerts etc. 

Example: To assign a contact to a territory based on zip code requires you to use set up duplicate workflows for 4 different Zip Code Fields (or use the “or” condition).  

Is there best practices for handling these duplicate properties?   Best way to set up these multiple data submission methods to keep the data clean from the start?

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @EPuszczewicz,

It looks like you're using a Starter license and unfortunately I don't know of any options here, since Starter doesn't include automation (which is needed for automatically copying values between fields).

With access to workflows (available Professional or Enterprise), I would go about this by defining a hierarchy for these duplicate properties. (And when I say "defining a hierarchy", I mean just scribbling something on a piece of paper or putting some thoughts in a text document.)

Let's say you have multiple postal code properties, you would decide which one is the master (and should never be overwritten if it has a value), which one is second in line (and copied into the master field if the master field is empty, but never overwritten by the third in line) and so on. Once you have this hierarchy, you could set up workflows to copy values between these properties – under the conditions of hierarchy of course.

In all of your lists, workflows, reporting etc., you would now only refer to the master postal code property, the "source of truth".

Best regards!