Is there a way to have records match by phone if the original is missing country code?

[SParvin]

As a USA-only business, our original records do not have country code but we have a telephony source integrated that includes country code and cannot be changed.

The integration results in duplicate records that would normally match the original but the additional +1 causes a new record to be generated.

To make it worse, the new formatted phone number can't be modified through workflows (no option to remove formatting and using the "cut" function doesn't work on that attribute)

How can I get these records to be associated without manually de-duping each record, 1:1 ????

[RBozeman]

Hi @SParvin,

You can only deduplicate by email address for contacts and company names for companies. So, dealing with duplicates created by integration can be a tough problem to solve, especially when you can't duplicate using the fields that you need to. 

The best option I can see is to use some development resources to strip the integration of those additions before they go to your HubSpot database, keeping the duplicates from being created. That can get a little difficult with country codes, extensions, etc. 

However, I believe Insycle may be able to help. Full disclosure, I work for Insycle, which offers some advanced features for deduplication, including using phone numbers as a unique identifier when identifying duplicates. In addition to that, Insycle allows you to format phone numbers in bulk build templates for dealing with country codes, extensions, etc. 

For instance, using Insycle allows you to:

• Identify duplicates using any combination of fields in your database as a unique identifier for matching duplicates (including phone numbers)
• Format phone numbers in bulk
• Inject or remove country codes, extensions, formatting elements, etc. 
• Overlook differences in phone number formatting for identifying duplicates
• Preview changes before they go live
• Automate your deduplication templates (or even integrate them with workflows) so that deduplication happens automatically and immediately after data hits your database. 

Not sure if that would be a good fit, but hope it was helpful. 

Best,

Ryan

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @SParvin,

In general, HubSpot doesn't deduplicate outside of the Email address and the Contact ID. In other words, it's currently not possible to tell HubSpot to apply additional rules for deduplication or to deduplicate by another field. (The exception being through custom code/development which in this case would come close to developing your own app.)

There are two ways to approach this. The first would be through your calling integration and making changes there so that the country code is applied consistently. If data arrive correctly in HubSpot, the issue does not need to be solved in HuBSpot.

If this is not possible, and this would be the second approach, you'd have to look into third-party solutions for data quality management and deduplication that integrate with HubSpot. One of them is Insycle: https://www.insycle.com/hubspot/

Insycle lets you apply your own cleansing and deduplication rules.

Hope this helps!