Tip #8: Merge Duplicate Records

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We hope that you are finding our CRM Tips and Tricks useful. Let us know if you are looking for tips on specific topics by commenting below.

This week, we are back again with another tip on the clean CRM series.

Tip #8: Merge Duplicate Records

Going by our earlier tips, you are now aware of the proactive ways in which you can avoid duplicate records in Zoho CRM. In spite of following them, some of you might still doubt that your system carries some duplicate records. If you are wondering how to find and fix duplicates, you can use De-duplication tools to clear them up. Let's see when and how to use these De-duplication tools in Zoho CRM.

Find and Merge Duplicate Records
Sometimes, you might be aware that specific records carry duplicate entries in your Zoho CRM account. In such cases, when you know which records have duplicates, you can simply go to the Detail page of this record, and use Find and Merge Duplicate to fetch its duplicates.

For example, you know that a lead called "Brian Dolan" has been duplicated and you want to find and merge them all into one record. In this case simply go to the Leads module and click Brian Dolan. In the Detail page of Brian Dolan, click the More icon and select Find and Merge Duplicates.

Follow the required steps and merge the multiple records into one Master Record.

De-duplicate Records (Auto-merge Duplicates)
This tool comes handy when you simply doubt that your CRM account carries duplicates, however you don't know which ones. You can let Zoho CRM run an overall check on each module using the De-duplicate tool. Let's look at an example.

Simply go to the Leads module, click on the More icon and select De-duplicate. Select fields based on which you wish to run a duplication check. For example, you can select Company Name and Email address. Zoho CRM will search for all the records in the Leads module in which the Email and Company fields' values are same. CRM will automatically find and merge the exact matches. In case of conflicts in field values, you must manually resolve the conflicts and merge records.

For example, as you can see in the image, the email thomas.clark@gmail.com has three exact matches. The system will auto-merge these three records.

However, there are two records for david.wilson@gmail.com with two different phone numbers. In such cases, you will have to resolve the conflict by choosing which phone number should be retained. Once you resolve the conflict, the two records will be merged as one.

Voila! Your system is now free of duplicates.

Click here to know more about the De-duplication tools in Zoho CRM. Try them for yourself and let us know what you think by commenting below.