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Managing and Deduplicating Records in HubSpot

A Comprehensive Guide to Identifying, Preventing, and Merging Duplicates

Maintaining a clean and organized database in HubSpot is essential for effective customer relationship management. This article serves as a comprehensive guide to identifying, preventing, and merging duplicate records within HubSpot, enabling users to resolve these issues proactively.

Identifying Duplicate Records

  • Limitations: Keep in mind that HubSpot's duplicate detection tool can only display a maximum of 2,000 duplicates. If there are more than this threshold, the total count will not be visible.
  • Customization Options: The tool allows for limited customization regarding the rules used to exclude certain records, such as ones labeled "TBC" or "TBD."

Solutions for Companies Without Unique Domains

  • Challenges: Small businesses or records that lack unique company domains may face increased instances of duplicate entries.
  • Recommendations: To address this, consider utilizing third-party tools like Koalify or Insycle. These solutions offer advanced deduplication capabilities, allowing you to specify criteria beyond just domain names.

Preventing Duplicate Records

  • Best Practices for Data Entry: To avoid duplicates, ensure that each new entry is checked against existing records using unique identifiers such as Email and Phone Number. Making the company domain name a required field may also help mitigate duplicate records.
  • Team Training: It's crucial to educate your sales team on the importance of these checks and adhering to best practices during data entry. Awareness can prevent many duplicates from being created.

Merging Duplicate Records

  • Using Operations Hub: The Operations Hub feature provides bulk merging functionalities. For users seeking more customized options, tools like Insycle can establish merging rules based on various fields to streamline the process.

Importing Data with Potential Duplicates

  • Unique Identifiers: When importing data, ensure every record has a unique identifier. Missing identifiers—such as a company domain—can lead to the creation of duplicate entries.
  • Batch Importing Strategy: Start by importing company records first to successfully establish unique identifiers, then proceed to import contacts. This ensures that all records are associated correctly.

Association Limitations in HubSpot

  • Label Restrictions: Be aware that each contact can only have one association label per relationship with another object (e.g., a Company). This limitation can complicate scenarios involving multiple associations and may require careful planning.

Custom Solutions for Deduplication

  • Utilizing the API: If your needs require more specialized solutions, consider leveraging HubSpot’s API for custom deduplication strategies.
  • Pre-Import Data Organization: You can also use tools like Excel’s VLOOKUP function to effectively manage duplicates prior to importing data into HubSpot.

Conclusion

Effective management of duplicates in HubSpot hinges on a combination of strategic data entry practices and the use of external tools. By fostering awareness among your teams and utilizing automation where possible, you can help maintain a healthy and organized database, leading to improved customer relationship management.