Duplicate customer records can happen for any number of reasons, but they can cause confusion and problems, so it is best to manage duplicate records so you have a clean customer database. A clean database means you'll have better details for marketing and much more efficient searches at box office. When duplicate customer records are merged, the order history from all records will be retained and merged into the one retained customer record.
This tutorial will show you how to merge duplicate customer records into one.
Caution: Please be aware that merging customer records is a permanent process and cannot be reversed.
Finding duplicate customer records
The first step of the process is to find the customer records that you want to merge.
Navigate to Customers > Merge customers.
You can also search for duplicate records using several fields:
- email address
- first name
- last name
- organization name
- contact name
- phone number
- mobile
- address line 1
- postcode
To search:
1. Select the data field, e.g., 'Search by last name'.
2. Enter the criteria to search for, e.g., customers with the surname 'Smith'.
3. Click on Search.
Now you will see a list of customer records based on your search criteria.
4. To expand the list and see details of the records, press the expand arrow next to the condensed list of records.
Select the customer records to merge
Before merging, you must first remove any records in the search results that you do not want to merge.
1. Select the tick box next to the records to remove and the click the button to Remove [X] customers from merge list. In this example, there are two records we want to remove because they are a different customer to the one we are merging.
2. Now you need to choose what record to retain and merge the other records into.
- Recommended: Use the customer record with a Member login associated with it as the retained record.
- If no records have a membership, then use the record with the most recent date under the Last order
Note: If you are trying to merge customer records and more than one of them has a membership or Benefit product, there are a few more steps to follow. Please read our article on merging customers with memberships and benefit products for guidance.
3. Select the customer records to merge by ticking the box on the left hand side of the records.
4. Select which of the customer records you want to merge the records into (e.g., the record that you want to keep) by clicking into the circle button on the line for the record you want to merge into, under the Merge to column.
Merging the customer records
Before finalising the merge, you can edit the customer information in both records and move it across to the record you are keeping, to ensure that the retained record has as much data as possible.
1. Press the pencil icon next to the circle button on the record you are merging into.
The editing page is divided into two sides:
- On the left: the record you are keeping (merging into)
- On the right: the record(s) that will be merged into the retained record (on the left).
2. To update any of the fields from the old record (right) into the new (left), just click on the green arrows. In this example, we're want to use the 'Address line 1' and 'Postcode' from the old record and keep it in the record we are keeping.
3. Once all the fields have been updated as you need, click on the Update Customer button.
Caution: This process is not reversible!
You will be returned to the Merge Customers screen.
4. You can now click on the Merge Customers (X) button to merge the records.
Once complete, you will get a pop-up in the left hand corner of your screen saying Successfully merged customers and be returned to the Merge Customer search screen.
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