Use custom unique identifier instead of email address
As it's impossible to have multiple contacts sharing an email address, it would make sense for another unique identifier to be used across the contact database.
For example, we have families who are individual customers with their own preferences and purchase history, yet share the same family email address. If we could dictate what property is used as the unique identifier (let's say we made a HubSpot ID field called HUBSXXXXX and assigned one of these codes to each contact) we'd be able to contact all of our customers through hubspot, and not just 70-80% of them soley because their email address isn't shared with someone else.
We also have a situation where our product can be purchased by an individual along with their family and many times they share an email address. Especially a husband and wife. We allow them to purchase the product even if the email has already been used but we are running into issues with HubSpot due to email being a unique identifier. Allowing customization to dictate what should be considered a unique contact record, instead of just email, is something we need. We are running into issues with our automation workflows and contact data being overriden.
Great idea. Also a lot of Companies don't have a domain name (in Croatia) that we can use for the unique ID (when de-duplicating) and associate that to multiple contacts. So there is a lot of time spending "workaround" like importing everything and then exporting to get Company ID, then matching that ID to new excel database and contacts and importing everything back into HubSpot. It would be great just to assign Unique ID and merge everything.
Not being able to create our own unique identifier causes an insane amount of extra work. When we take data from multiple locations that don't share websites or emails. To move it into the system is an insane amount of leg work to merge files in advance. Please update these settings.
This is not an idea, but the situation in which allowing only a single contact to exist within HubSpot with the same email address is an issue. Our client is a car dealer group. So they have Nissan, Renault, and Mitsubishi brands and dealerships. If. prospect is looking for a sedan, then they'll visit the Nissan site and fill out a form for a Nissan Sedan. Then they'll visit the Mistubishi website and select a Sedan from them. They may do it a third time with Renault. So, since it is the same person, looking for a Sedan from the 3 different brands, then only the information from the last form fill will exist in Hubspot and it will be very difficult for the salesperson of the first brand to know they have to follow up with the lead, as much as the second or third salesperson from the different brands. We are having problems figuring out how to solve this.
In modern times definitely need to be able to move away from email as primary identifier. That model probably worked fine many years ago for online shopping, but in today's world, things have gotten more complex and often external CRM's are being used to store data, which will contain the same email for multiple legitimate cases, therefore Husbpot ends up overwriting itself.
By a user simply choosing what the primary ID is, i.e. CRM unique id, this would allow an email to exist in several instances in Hubspot and the contact can be emailed based on different criteria as relevant.
Big upvote for change primary ID to user defined.
Our IT department won't change thier data structure, so their advice is to simply change to a different provider that works with their data.
In my usecase it would allow me to import customer data, purchase data, etc and have everything associate with the customer number that is already associated on all of those files.
Would literally be a game changer, honestly I would switch to any platform with that functionailty in a heartbeat.
This is a major need for us. Since the pandemic, we have been using HubSpot to update our employees. But, because turnover is a thing, every time I update the list from our HRIS, I get duplicate contacts that are a nightmare. It would be great if I could create a unique identifier such as Employee Id or Salesforce ID.
I work with a lot of small businesses where 2 or 3 people are using the same email address, but have unique phone numbers. On the BTC side, all of our customer records are based on phone number. email address is an optional field just for marketing purposes. In our case, using phone number as our key field makes far more sense than email address. It would be nice if we were warned when we use a duplicate email address, but it should not be exclusive.
Desperalty need the ability to have an alternative to email as the only unique ID. Several of my clients have this need and there is no easy way to do this without creating ways to trick the system. Non are a good option. Can you tell us if this is under consideration?
Was there an announcement? We desperately need this feature as a B2B busines dealing with contacts who have shared email addresses (support@, sales@,techinfo@, etc)
This is a huge hindrance for us in tracing incoming leads and lead gent racking in general. Seems to be offered by competitors, not sure why this isn't being implemented yet. Creates a lot of backend work for us.
This is definitely a needed feature. In our line of work (B2B) there are some clients that may have more than one companies and for their reasons they may be using the same contact email for every company. For us the best option would be to shift the unique identifier from the email to the VAT of the company, so as not to have the data overwritten when the same email fills out a new form.
Custom unique identifier properties are fantastic and are available for all objects except the contacts object. This is a must for contacts, especially for those who use other platforms or systems that have their own unique IDs, who want that data in HubSpot, and who want that unique ID to prevent/remove duplicates.
please make this a reality. we have some contacts that use a shared email account i.e. info@testcompany.com or contact@testcompany.com but each of our customers have their own unique sales license ID. it would be nice if that field could be setup as a unique identifier. please create the ability to make any contact field a unique identifier.
