In order to make sure we continue to have the most accurate informaiton about our stakeholders, we need to eliminate any duplicate records that we may find. This will allow you to pick which pieces of information get merged into the new master record and will also carry over any related records (such as Orders, Registrations, and Contracts) to the master record as well.
The following steps have been broken out into 2 parts, Classic and Lightning, as some users may still be using the Salesforce Classic.
Important things to consider before merging Contacts
Make sure that you are 100% sure that the contacts are the same as merging can not be reversed. You may want to open each contact up in a new window and look for things like:
- First and Last Name
- Email address shared in one of the 4 fields (Work, Personal, Alternative, Email)
- Home Address
- Work Affiliation and Title
Search for Duplicates (Classic)
There are actually 2 ways of handling duplicates in Salesforce Classic. We will include both options however option 2 is the one we suggest.
Option 1:
- Find the duplicate contact and edit their record.
- Under “Contact Information” edit the “Organization Name (Household)” and look for the household account that belongs to the master contact. Select it and click Save.
- Now scroll down on the contact record and click on the Household account under Contact Information – Organization Name. This will bring you to the Household record
- Scroll down and you will now see both contacts listed under Affilated Contacts
Option 2 (Recommended)
- Click on the + symbol at the end of the menu
- Look for and click on Contact Merge
- Enter the name of the contact, you may use a wildcard * asterisk symbol to help with your search. If you still have trouble, but you know which records you want to merge, you can edit both record’s Names temporarily with a keyword like “MergeMe” and use that to help find them.
Search for Duplicates (Lightning)
Option 1
- Click on the Menu Dial icon in the top left corner of the menu.
- In the popup, type “Contact” in the search box
- Click on Contact Merge
- In Step 1, enter in the name of the contact you want to merge. Keep in mind that the more specific you are with the name, the less likely it may find any duplicates. Try using part of the name and include an * asterisk next to the name which will serve as a wildcard. If you still have trouble, but you know which records you want to merge, you can edit both record’s Names temporarily with a keyword like “MergeMe” and use that to help find them.
Option 2
- In Lightning, when you visit a Contact record you should see a warning message at the top of the record saying “We found # potential duplicates”.
- Click on View Duplicates to see the results.
Merge Contacts (Classic)
Merging Contacts with Option 1 from above:
- Now that the contacts all live within the same Household account, under Affiliated Contacts, click the checkbox next to each and click Merge.
- Choose the Master Record that will remain and move down the list of fields to select which values to keep. The more detailed and up to date the better.
- Chatter Posts will NOT carry over to the Master record. This is one additional step to check on and we suggest choosing the record with the most Chatter discussions as the master record. Look for actual conversations in the Chatter feed vs field updates and changes that are done during online registration.
- When you are finished selecting which fields to keep, click Merge and agree to the warning message that shows. After the merge is complete, you will be redirected to the master record.
- When you finished, you may need to modify the name of the Household account, as it will on occasion duplicate the name of the household. For instance Travis Johnston Houeshold may become Travis Johnston Travis Johnston Household.
Merging Contacts with Option 2 from above:
- Once you found the Contacts you want to merge using the steps outlined above, click the checkbox next to each and click Next
- Choose the Master Record that will remain and move down the list of fields to select which values to keep. The more detailed and up to date the better.
Chatter Posts will NOT carry over to the Master record. This is one additional step to check on and we suggest choosing the record with the most Chatter discussions as the master record. Look for actual conversations in the Chatter feed vs field updates and changes that are done during online registration.
- When you are finished selecting which fields to keep, click Merge and agree to the warning message that shows. After the merge is complete, you will be redirected to the master record.
Merge Contacts (Lightning)
Merging Contacts with Option 1 from above
- Once you found the Contacts you want to merge using the steps outlined above, click the checkbox next to each and click Next
- Choose the Master Record that will remain and move down the list of fields to select which values to keep. The more detailed and up to date the better.
Chatter Posts will NOT carry over to the Master record. This is one additional step to check on and we suggest choosing the record with the most Chatter discussions as the master record. Look for actual conversations in the Chatter feed vs field updates and changes that are done during online registration.
- When you are finished selecting which fields to keep, click Merge and agree to the warning message that shows. After the merge is complete, you will be redirected to the master record.
Merging Contacts with Option 2 from above
- Click the checkbox next to each of the potential duplicates you wish to merge
- Choose which record you would like to “Use as Master”. Remember that the one that includes a Legacy ID should be considered the Master record.
- Check each of the fields you wish to keep in the master and which you would like to be brought over from the old records.
- Click Next
- On the Confirm Merge page click Merge
- The page will refresh and you will be redirected to the master record. You may need to repeat these steps more than once if there were more than 3 duplicates.
