CRM

Sassika
Contributor

Keeping primary contact details when merging

SOLVE

Is it possible to choose to keep the primary contact details when you are merging another contact record into the primary? Rather than just taking whatever was most recenlty created (as this could be incorrect).

 

We have instances where our clients have misspelt their email addresses so it is creating new records for them. When we try to merge these into the correct contacts, because the incorrect ones were created more recently, it overrides all of the primary contact details and replaces it with the incorrect/merged record details e.g. phone numbers, create dates etc.

 

I understand taking the most recently updated/created information but what if this information is incorrect?

 

 

2 Accepted solutions
MFrankJohnson
Solution
Thought Leader

Keeping primary contact details when merging

SOLVE

In cases where using the HubSpot merge feature isn't optimal, it may be best to ...

 

-1- DELETE the contact record with the 'bad email address' -- i.e., where recency of submission would overwrite otherwise good data.

 

-2- ADD the 'bad email address' to the correct contact record as a second email address. This will assocate the otherwise undesirable email address with the correct contact record without overwriting good data on the contact record.
- see image

HubSpot CRM | Add secondary email addressHubSpot CRM | Add secondary email address


Warning: Data associated with the deleted contact record having the 'bad email address' will be permanently lost after 90-days (or sooner in the case of a GDPR-compliant delete).

 

 

Note: Please search for recent posts as HubSpot evolves to be the #1 CRM platform of choice world-wide.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Be well,
Frank


www.mfrankjohnson.com

View solution in original post

MFrankJohnson
Solution
Thought Leader

Keeping primary contact details when merging

SOLVE

>>"So there is no way for us to keep the associated deals or information of the incorrect contact unless we manually enter it all into the correct contact?"


Correct. In a DELETION scenario, we (you) are responsible for re-establishing any needed associations previously part of the deleted ('incorrect') contact.


>>"Is it possible to choose to keep the primary contact details when you are merging another contact record into the primary?"


No. Selecting specific properties to retain is not functionality built into the HubSpot merge process.

- see Merge contacts - What happens to associated companies, deals, and tickets?


You might want to recommend your idea in the Ideas forum where others may vote on it.


Finally, you may find the following HubSpot integration useful when cleaning your data.

- see Insycle - Customer Data Management Integration [JULY 18, 2018]


Inscycle is a product that cleans, organizes, and updates data. Once connected to your HubSpot CRM, the Insycle integration can merge duplicate contacts and companies, import data, bulk capitalize names - and more.

 

Note: Please search for recent posts as HubSpot evolves to be the #1 CRM platform of choice world-wide.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Be well,
Frank


www.mfrankjohnson.com

View solution in original post

0 Upvotes
10 Replies 10
RBozeman
Participant

Keeping primary contact details when merging

SOLVE

Hi @Sassika,

 

Yes, the data retention features when merging still need to be fully fleshed out. I've seen this requested on the HubSpot ideas forum several times. 

 

Generally, HubSpot keeps the most recent value across the duplicate record, except for a handful of fields where they have specific rules for how those fields are handled.

 

Also wanted to mention that Insycle could help with this. Full disclosure, I work for Insycle.

 

With Insycle, you can use any field in your HubSpot CRM as a duplicate matching field. You can also set rules for choosing the resulting post-merge master record, or even choose how to retain data during the merge, in each and every field. You can set rules on the field-level.

 

Here is a recent article we published on data retention when merging that you might find helpful. If you have any questions about it let me know, happy to help. 

 

Ryan

0 Upvotes
CherylLK
Contributor

Keeping primary contact details when merging

SOLVE

When merging contacts we should be able to select what values we want to keep, for ALL fields. Defaulting to use the newest info causes lots of issues for us. One example is the became a lead date is now wrong and could be off by several years, they show as new but really they could be 10 years old.

Dedupely
Contributor

Keeping primary contact details when merging

SOLVE

I know this may be a year too late but Dedupely actually helps you choose the correct primary email.

 

You can set rules deciding how it should be selected, or you can just hand select it on each merge.

 

Take a look, we just launched the feature here.

 

Cheers!

0 Upvotes
Sassika
Contributor

Keeping primary contact details when merging

SOLVE

This only helps with deciding which email is kept - we need teh ability to choose that the primary email fields will be kept in the merge and not replaced with secondary contact information (because it might have been entered in more recently)

0 Upvotes
MFrankJohnson
Solution
Thought Leader

Keeping primary contact details when merging

SOLVE

In cases where using the HubSpot merge feature isn't optimal, it may be best to ...

 

-1- DELETE the contact record with the 'bad email address' -- i.e., where recency of submission would overwrite otherwise good data.

 

-2- ADD the 'bad email address' to the correct contact record as a second email address. This will assocate the otherwise undesirable email address with the correct contact record without overwriting good data on the contact record.
- see image

HubSpot CRM | Add secondary email addressHubSpot CRM | Add secondary email address


Warning: Data associated with the deleted contact record having the 'bad email address' will be permanently lost after 90-days (or sooner in the case of a GDPR-compliant delete).

 

 

Note: Please search for recent posts as HubSpot evolves to be the #1 CRM platform of choice world-wide.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Be well,
Frank


www.mfrankjohnson.com
cmorgan2
Participant

Keeping primary contact details when merging

SOLVE

What would happen to the associated deals in this situation? 

 

One assumes they would have to be bulk edited to be associated with the new contact.

 

This would also apply to other associated information like tracked emails, which company the contact is associated to, any enrolled workflows etc. which would also be lost if the contact was deleted - we would lose any intel we had gathered about the contact through the website traffic as well.

 

In my opinion it would be perfect if the primary contact info took precedence- especially since there are hs defined fields you cannot overwrite, even with API

 

"The Property 'hs_lifecyclestage_lead_date' has a read-only definition, and can't be mutated."

 

...

 

MFrankJohnson
Thought Leader

Keeping primary contact details when merging

SOLVE

>>"What would happen to the associated deals in this situation?"


All associations are lost for deleted contacts once the deletion becomes permanent. Any associations desired for the existing 'target' contact will need to be handled manually (as are all associations outside of HubSpot built-in auto-assocation functionality).


In other words, HubSpot only handles auto-assocation under very specific circumstances...


Examples
- at contact creation time when the contact.hs_email_domain either exists as a company.domain or if the 'Automatically create and associate companies with contacts' toggle is set to 'On'.


- at deal creation time when deal creation is triggered from within an existing contact record.

 

Note: Please search for recent posts as HubSpot evolves to be the #1 CRM platform of choice world-wide.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Be well,
Frank


www.mfrankjohnson.com
Sassika
Contributor

Keeping primary contact details when merging

SOLVE

So there is no way for us to keep the associated deals or information of the incorrect contact unless we manually enter it all into the correct contact?

 

It would be much easier if we could just select if we want a) the most recent information or b) the primary information to be kept when two or more contacts are merged

MFrankJohnson
Solution
Thought Leader

Keeping primary contact details when merging

SOLVE

>>"So there is no way for us to keep the associated deals or information of the incorrect contact unless we manually enter it all into the correct contact?"


Correct. In a DELETION scenario, we (you) are responsible for re-establishing any needed associations previously part of the deleted ('incorrect') contact.


>>"Is it possible to choose to keep the primary contact details when you are merging another contact record into the primary?"


No. Selecting specific properties to retain is not functionality built into the HubSpot merge process.

- see Merge contacts - What happens to associated companies, deals, and tickets?


You might want to recommend your idea in the Ideas forum where others may vote on it.


Finally, you may find the following HubSpot integration useful when cleaning your data.

- see Insycle - Customer Data Management Integration [JULY 18, 2018]


Inscycle is a product that cleans, organizes, and updates data. Once connected to your HubSpot CRM, the Insycle integration can merge duplicate contacts and companies, import data, bulk capitalize names - and more.

 

Note: Please search for recent posts as HubSpot evolves to be the #1 CRM platform of choice world-wide.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Be well,
Frank


www.mfrankjohnson.com
0 Upvotes
stldr
Participant

Keeping primary contact details when merging

SOLVE

Hi Sas,

 

I would like to add that the behaviour on the Hubspot Generic fields such as 'Became a customer date' and 'Became a subscriber date' also choose the most recently edited field on merge. This can often lead to an incorrect value after the merge.

 

The annoying part is you cannot edit these fields after and ensure they are correct.

 

Thanks,

Sam