Contactually suggests sets of two or more contacts that may be duplicates, based on name, email, or other contact information. Review and accept these suggestions to combine them into one contact, with all contact details and interactions together. You can also reject suggestions that you think are incorrect; we won’t show you these again.
When you merge duplicate contacts, there will be one contact preserved (shown at the top of the set); this is usually the first contact that you added to Contactually. The other contact(s) (shown in the tree below) are combined with it. To view contact details during confirmation, click on the header, which will open the Contact Sidebar, as seen below:
In most cases, Contactually retains all information when combining contacts. You’ll have the complete interaction history; all phone numbers, email addresses, and physical addresses; all notes, etc. However, there are two exceptions:
- If the default contact information is different on each contact (for example, a different default email), the default on the preserved contact will be the new default
- The first name, last name, company, and job title from the preserved contact takes precedence. If any of the fields were blank on the preserved contact, the contact being merged can supply them
If any contact being combined is archived, the final contact will also be archived.
Viewing Suggested Duplicates
If you have pending Duplicate Contact suggestions, you’ll see those flagged in two places: On your Dashboard (right-hand side):
On your Contacts page (Duplicate view, in the left-hand filters):
Contactually checks for new suggestions once every 24 hours. We will also check after key contact creation events (such as importing a contact list).
Manually Merging Contacts
In some cases, you might want to combine contacts that aren't already identified as duplicates. You can combine these by locating the contacts on the Contacts page, selecting the checkbox to the left of the contact name, and selecting “Merge” from the batch actions bar at the bottom of the screen.
When you merge self-identified duplicate contacts, it may not be clear which contact is preserved. Typically, the contact created first in Contactually preserved. You may add a “Created On” column to your view to see this information, by clicking on the column icon shown below (at the top of your contacts list):
