Finding Potential Duplicate Contacts in ActivistCentral

ActivistCentral can scan your Contact directory for records that may represent the same person.

The duplicate finder looks for matching email addresses or phone numbers and gives you an opportunity to review the results.

ActivistCentral does not automatically merge Contact records or their history.

Start a duplicate scan

Go to Contacts and select Find Duplicates.

ActivistCentral will remind you that potential duplicates are identified using matching email addresses or phone numbers.

Select Scan for duplicates to begin.

What ActivistCentral looks for

The duplicate finder looks for Contacts that share identifying information such as:

• Email addresses
• Phone numbers

A match means the records may be duplicates. It does not necessarily mean they represent the same person.

For example, family members may share a household email address, and coworkers may share an office email or phone number.

That's why ActivistCentral treats the results as potential duplicates rather than automatically changing your data.

Review potential duplicates carefully

Review each matching record before making any changes.

Compare the available Contact information to determine whether the records actually represent the same person.

Useful information to review may include:

• Name
• Email address
• Phone number
• Address
• Tags
• Custom Fields
• Connections
• Interaction history
• Membership information

The goal is to understand why the records matched before deciding whether anything needs to be changed.

ActivistCentral does not automatically merge Contacts

Find Duplicates is a detection tool, not an automatic Contact merge tool.

ActivistCentral does not automatically combine duplicate Contact records or merge their history.

This is intentional. Two Contacts sharing an email address or phone number can be completely legitimate, and automatically combining them could associate information with the wrong person.

If a potential duplicate requires cleanup, review the records carefully before editing or deleting information.

Shared contact information isn't always a duplicate

Organizations often encounter legitimate shared contact information.

Examples include:

• Family members using the same household email
• Coworkers using a shared office email
• People sharing a household phone number
• Organizational or departmental contact information used by more than one person

Seeing two Contacts in the duplicate results therefore isn't necessarily a data problem.

The duplicate finder is designed to bring those records to your attention so you can make that determination.

Duplicate detection during CSV imports

ActivistCentral also performs duplicate detection when importing Contacts from a CSV file.

During an import, ActivistCentral uses normalized email addresses and phone numbers to identify existing Contacts and determine whether an imported row may correspond to someone already in your database.

The CSV importer includes additional safeguards for ambiguous matches and lets you preview the results before committing an import.

For more information about that workflow, see Importing Contacts into ActivistCentral.

A good data-cleanup routine

Running Find Duplicates periodically can be useful after large imports or when your organization has been adding Contacts from several different sources.

When reviewing the results:

1. Don't assume every match is a duplicate.
2. Compare the Contact records and their related information.
3. Pay particular attention to shared household or office contact information.
4. Only edit or delete information after you're confident the records represent the same person.

Duplicate detection is there to help you find records worth reviewing while leaving the final decision in your hands.