How Duplicate Merge Combines Data

The duplicate merge feature only presents a contacts name information, global address information, global phone information, and global electronic information. The remainder of the contact information, including folder-specific addresses, phone numbers, and electronic information is merged behind the scenes. For information on the merge logic used for this other data, see How Multi-Contact Duplicate Merge Combines Data.

Duplicate Merge Logic

Scenario	Result
Name Information
Name information is selected from both the good and duplicate contacts.	The corresponding fields on the winning contact will be updated with the values selected from both the good and duplicate contacts.
The Goes By or Company AKA fields are blank.	The fields will be populated with the value from the First Name or Company field, respectively.
An associated company value is not being retained.	A Former Employee relationship will be created between the good contact and that company contact. Also, an Employment Change activity is sent to users’ alert lists.
A different company is selected as the good contact’s associated company.	A Former Employee relationship will be created between the good contact and old company contact. Also, an Employment Change activity is sent to users’ alert lists.
Phones and Addresses
A phone or address has a value that is selected on the good contact.	The phone or address remains with the good contact.
A phone or address has a value that is not selected on the good contact.	The phone or address does not remain with the good contact.
The good contact already has a corresponding phone or address with the same location type as the duplicated contact.	The phone or address is added to the good contact using the next available location type. If the phone or address is shared from an associated company, the association remains with the good contact.
For a person contact, the person is associated to a company, but the phone or address from the duplicate contact that is being merged with the good contact is not a shared phone or address.	The system attempts to find a matching phone or address on the associated company contact and hook up the phone or address from the company contact.
The duplicate contact has a phone or address that is not selected.	The phone or address is not retained by the good contact.
You keep only one of two designated mailing addresses.	The address that is kept retains its global mailing address designation.
You keep two designated mailing addresses.	The address owned by the good contact retains its global mailing address designation.
You do not keep a designated mailing address.	The system does not attempt to automatically set a global mailing address.
Additional Fields
Both the duplicate and the good contacts have values in their additional fields. Some of the values conflict and some match.	Where there are conflicts, InterAction keeps the information from the contact where you choose to keep additional field values. If the additional field allows multiple values, they are merged. Information that is not retained is written to a Retained Data Activity.
Contact Flags
Both contacts are in the same folder that supports flagging and have different colored flags applied (for example, the good contact has the blue flag, while the duplicate has the orange flag).	The flag color for the good contact is retained (continuing the example, the resulting contact would have the blue flag applied).
Both contacts are in the same folder that supports flagging, but one is flagged and the other is not.	The flag status for the good contact is retained. Therefore, if the good contact is flagged (with any color) and the duplicate is not, the resulting contact is flagged. If the duplicate contact is flagged and the good contact is not, the resulting contact is not flagged in the folder.
One of the contacts is in a folder that supports flagging and has a flag applied. The other contact is not in this folder.	The resulting contact is linked into the folder and the flag status of the contact in the folder is retained. It does not matter which contact is the good contact and which is the duplicate in this case.
Other Information
Both contacts have different information in their Notes fields.	The information for both contacts is retained on the merged contact.