Deduplication process explained
There are two data merging processes in Acteol: the automatic deduplication process and the manual deduplication process.
Automatic deduplication process
A monthly automated process runs in the background, to merge any two contacts with a similarity score greater than 75% will be merged automatically. during this process, no manual action is required for these merges
Manual deduplication process
Manual deduplication process via the deduplication feature
The deduplication section helps you identify and merge duplicate contacts in your database to maintain clean, accurate, and reliable data. This helps to manually merge the customers' records, outside of the automated merging process, which happens on monthly basis.
🤓Tip: When contacts are merged, no historical data will be lost. All transactions, marketing communications, visits, and past vouchers will be consolidated into the master contact.
Manual deduplication process via merging feature
There is an instant merge process, to help you merge two contacts directly from the customer contact profile. This is to help you with more direct management of the customers data and merging customers records when needed. You can view more on how to merge contacts.
The manual deduplication process
Data merging similarity score definitions
Score 1: Red
Low confidence score.
Contacts are unlikely to be the same person.
Score 2: Orange
Medium confidence score.
Contacts could be the same person.
Score 3: Green
High confidence score.
Likely to be the same person, but not merged automatically.
Understanding contact types for merging
Master Contact
Usually, the master contact is the contact with more complete or richer data.
The master contact serves as the primary record to remain after the merge.
Exceptions
Users can manually choose the master contact.
For example, a loyal customer may be kept as master even if they have less profile data.
What happens when contacts are merged manually
When two contacts are merged:
No historical data is lost. The system retains the most recent information for each field.
The following data is fully consolidated into the master contact:
Transactions.
Marketing communications.
Visits.
Past vouchers.
📌Note: If the second contact has a more recent modification date than the master contact, the second email address will replace the master’s email address.
Proceeding with the merge
Open the Single Customer View module, then click Deduplication.
Review the list of contacts with duplication scores:
By the relevant contact details for contact 1 and contact 2, click the edit
icon to open and review the full contact profile:
Compare fields such as name, email, phone number, and activity history.
After reviewing, if you found that the contacts are not for the same person, click Do Not Merge.
If they are duplicates, click Keep as Master by the contact you want to retain as the primary record, then click Confirm.
🤓Tip: Once the two contacts are merged successfully, you'll have a green pop-up indicating that the merge is complete.
📌Note: The merged contacts will have in their contact history records:
Information about when the merge occurred.
Who performed the merge.
Details of the affected updates.