Stop overwriting contacts once a form has already been submitted

[JWilliams92]

Does anyone know how to stop the overwriting once the form has already been submitted? We have several form submissions on one person's contact name but they need to be separated. 

[HubDoPete · Accepted solution]

Hi Jazmine

Interesting problem! The first idea I have for testing is to use some custom properties as an interim step and then use workflows to handle the new data.

1. Create a set of extra "form input" properties to accept the fields on the form.
2. Amend your form to use these input properties, except for the email address as the unique ID
3. Create a workflow to trigger on form input (or might be better to trigger on "input property is known".
4. Have the workflow look at the existing contact and apply your own rules to decide whether to copy the input properties into the real properties or to generate an exception task for a person to inspect and decide.

It's just an idea of doing this in HubSpot before taking the step of adding an extra app.

best

Pete

[HubDoPete · Accepted solution]

Hi Jazmine

Interesting problem! The first idea I have for testing is to use some custom properties as an interim step and then use workflows to handle the new data.

1. Create a set of extra "form input" properties to accept the fields on the form.
2. Amend your form to use these input properties, except for the email address as the unique ID
3. Create a workflow to trigger on form input (or might be better to trigger on "input property is known".
4. Have the workflow look at the existing contact and apply your own rules to decide whether to copy the input properties into the real properties or to generate an exception task for a person to inspect and decide.

It's just an idea of doing this in HubSpot before taking the step of adding an extra app.

best

Pete

[YLeBorgne]

Hello @JWilliams92 , 

Any time a contact submits a form, it is going to update the properties already registered in HubSpot.

Which information do you need to separate? (if several people use the same email address, unfortunately it is not possible to create different contacts because on HubSpot 1 contact = 1 email address)

Let me know, 

Yohann

[JWilliams92]

Thank you, Yohann! We have several different contacts ( different companies, emails, phone numbers, names) from the form submission who are being saved under one contact and not as separate, individual contacts. Is there a way to " refresh" the form so all the submissions get saved as an individual contact?

[YLeBorgne · Accepted solution]

Hello @JWilliams92 , 

Can you share a screenshot of your form please?

Once the form has been submitted, unfortunately you will have to create individual contacts manually.

Maybe this issue is due to the form being submitted from the same laptop / phone? If so, I would recommend to check the "Always create contact for new email address" option in the form's options.

Let me know,

Yohann

[kvlschaefer]

Hi @JWilliams92,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community! 

I moved your reply to a new post to ensure it has visibility among our community members.

I wanted to share this related thread where @karstenkoehler offers advice on how to handle overwriting contacts.

I also wanted to invite our subject matter experts to this conversation.

Hi @Mike_Eastwood, @Ben_M, @HubDoPete - Do you have any advice for @JWilliams92?

Thank you! 

Best,

Kristen