Intercom Merge Duplicates Overview

Duplicate data in Intercom poses serious problems for companies of any size.

Duplicate records inhibit your support teams from effectively segmenting and personalizing communications. They lack vital context, miss important information, and analysis and reporting are skewed. Ultimately, this means a worse experience for your customers.

Insycle helps you to merge duplicate leads, contacts, accounts, opportunities, and custom objects—flexibly and powerfully with the Merge Duplicates module.

Use Cases

Sample Use Case: Bulk Merge Duplicate People, Companies

Supported Intercom Record Types

Insycle supports the following Intercom record types for the Merge Duplicates module:

Users
Leads
Companies

You can select the record type that you would like to import at the top of the module screen.

How It Works

Insycle analyzes your database and identifies duplicates with flexible matching rules, using any field in your database, to help you identify and merge more duplicates.

Once Insycle identifies the duplicate records, you set rules for determining the master record that other duplicates will be merged into—such as the first record created, the record with the most email opens, or any other attribute that would be relevant. You can also set merging logic on a field-by-field basis.

You can merge duplicates in bulk, and Insycle provides a complete report of what was identified as a duplicate, what was merged, and what the outcome was in your master record.

Deduplicate Across Leads and Users

Deduplicating Intercom leads and users together is easy with Insycle.

First, you filter your data down to the leads that you would like to deduplicate, using rules. Then, you tell Insycle to link the records. To include both leads and users, all you have to do is check a checkbox.

To begin, follow the standard deduplication procedures. In Step 1, select "Include Leads."

To learn more, see Deduplicate Across Intercom Users and Leads.

Identify Duplicates with the Insycle Intercom Inbox App

The Insycle Inbox app, once installed, adds a widget to your Intercom inbox to quickly check for duplicates in an open conversation.

You simply open the conversation, find the "Insycle Data Management" widget on the righthand side of the screen, and click the "Check Duplicates" button.

Then, Insycle will compare the contact in your currently opened conversation against other contacts in your database, and give you the option to merge.

To learn more, see Deduplicate in Intercom Inbox with the Insycle App.

Intercom Merge Logic

When merging Lead<>User, Insycle uses the underlying Intercom merge API.

When merging Lead<>Lead or User<>User, Insycle performs a synthetic merge:

Open conversations: Duplicate contacts will be detached from open conversations, and the master contact will be attached to those conversations.
Closed conversations: Copy all closed conversations from duplicate contacts and create a note per conversation in the master contact (Notes are searchable in Intercom).
Tags: Assigned from duplicates to master.
Companies: Assigned from duplicates to master.
Notes: Copied from the duplicates and created in the master.
Events: Copied from the duplicates and created in the master.
Fields: Use Master Selection By Field to determine what data is retained in the master record on a field-by-field basis. By default, retained from the master. When a value is empty in the master it picks a non-empty value from the most recently updated duplicate.

When merging Companies, Insycle performs a synthetic merge:

Leads: Assigned from duplicates to master.
Users: Assigned from duplicates to master.
Tags: Assigned from duplicates to master.
Fields: Use Master Selection By Field to determine what data is retained in the master record on a field-by-field basis. By default, retained from the master. When a value is empty in the master it picks a non-empty value from the most recently updated duplicate.

In addition to the default merge logic, you have two options for customizing your merging logic.

First, you can select your master record at the record-level, using rules. For example, "Keep all data from the earliest created record in the duplicate group."

You can also set rules for field-by-field master selection. For example, you could choose to keep your "First Name" and "Last Name" fields from the earliest created record in the duplicate group, while keeping the "Owner" from the most recently updated record.

In the event that you do not set field-by-field merge logic for a specific field—when a field value is empty in the master record, Insycle picks a non-empty value from the most recently updated duplicate automatically. When in doubt about conflicting field values, include those fields in the CSV report by adding them to the Master Selection section and their values would show on the audit trail.

Customized Merge Logic

For situations where you need more granular customization for picking duplicate records to include - or exclude - from the deduplication process, or for picking the master record, and there are no common rules you can apply for all or some of the records, you can customize bulk deduplication using exclusions and pre-defined masters.

Separately, it is also possible to customize the merge logic behavior. For example, to instruct Insycle to copy values from field A to field B as part of the merge, or combine multiple fields into one. Customized merge logic requires an Enterprise plan. Please reach out via chat to discuss your specific requirements.

Automation

You can schedule your Merge Duplicates templates for Mailchimp to run on an automated, set schedule.

To schedule them, click the Review button at the bottom of the module page. Then, you go through a three-step process to run the operation. In the third step, you can choose the "Automate" tab, and schedule your template.

You can also schedule deduplication automation using Recipes, which are a collection of templates run together. You can view all scheduled automations on the “Automations” page on your dashboard.

Learn More:

Preview Changes Before They Go Live

With Insycle's Merge Duplicates module, you can preview the changes that you are making to your data before those changes are pushed to your live database. That way, you can check to ensure your deduplication template is working as expected.

Frequently Asked Questions

I already have a list of duplicates, can Insycle bulk merge them?

Yes. You can use a customized list of duplicates, as detailed in this help article, and use Insycle to deduplicate the list in bulk. Include ID numbers from your connected CRM in your CSV.

Can Insycle deduplicate across leads and users?

Yes, Insycle can deduplicate across leads and users at the same time. Please check out this article to learn more: Deduplicate Across Intercom Users and Leads.

Why can I only process 50 duplicate groups at a time?

Insycle can process thousands of duplicate groups in one operation but shows 50 records on the module screen as a preview.

How do I ensure that I am not merging non-duplicate records together?

Currently, there are two ways to make sure that the records that you are merging are indeed duplicate records.

First, always run your deduplication templates in Preview Mode before running them in Update Mode. This produces a CSV that shows you how your records would have been merged. Then you can ensure that your Merge Duplicates template is working as expected and not merging non-duplicate records together.

Additionally, you can reduce risk when merging duplicates by narrowing your filter in step 1. Use Exact Match instead of Similar Match. Make sure that you are using true uniquely identifying fields—first name, last name, email, and phone number are popular choices. The more tightly defined your filter is, the less likely you are to merge non-duplicate records.

Does Insycle offer an Intercom Inbox app?

Yes, Insycle does offer an intercom inbox app. To learn more, check this article: Deduplicate in Intercom Inbox with the Insycle App.

How many duplicates can I merge into one master record?

You can merge as many duplicates as you would like into one single master record. This setting is available in Step 3 of the Merge Duplicates module.

This setting is here to ensure that if you set too broad of a filter, you do not accidentally merge many non-duplicate records together on accident. You can change the setting as needed to match the size of your duplicate groups. If you are going to set this number at a high level, it is a good idea to run in Preview Mode first to make sure your deduplication template is operating as you intend.

Does the amount of identified and merged records have any limits in the paid subscription?

All plans include unlimited usage, unlimited users, and unlimited operations, see the pricing page. Only during the free trial is the number of records updated, cleansed, or merged capped at 500 records.

Can I select which data is retained in my master record on a field-by-field basis?

Yes, Insycle allows you to select which fields are retained in the master record based on pre-determined rules. To learn more please see this help article.

I need to exclude some records from deduplication. Can I do that?

Yes. You can exclude records from deduplication by including a "Deduplication Exclude" field in your CSV, as detailed in this help article.

Insycle is having trouble determining a master record. What could be causing this issue?

First, check Step 4 to ensure that you have "Priority Match" selected and not "Absolute Match."

With Priority Match, the rules are processed in order and your master record only has to match one rule. In Absolute Match, your master record would have to meet all of the criteria in the "Records" tab in Step 4.

The vast majority of the time it is best to be in Priority Match.

My team needs to review and approve the master, can I accommodate that with Insycle?

Yes. You can manually approve master records and mark them in a CSV, then use Insycle to bulk deduplicate down to those master records. Consult with this help article to learn more.

Alternatively, you can run the Merge Duplicates module in preview mode, then deliver the preview CSV that Insycle generates. This CSV shows exactly how the merge would take place but does not update your live data.

Additionally, you can choose the master manually by selecting the "Manual" tab in Step 4.

Do my matching fields have to match each other exactly?

No, Insycle does allow you to use similar matching to identify duplicates. Please read more about that in this help article.

How can I find duplicates when one field is empty?

Insycle requires the values to match in the "Step 1: Find Duplicates" step, and if the value for the matching fields listed in Step 1 are blank, Insycle will not include those records in the deduplication.

The workaround to having an empty matching value is to remove that condition/field from Step 1 and add it in Step 4. Then, the field will be included in the report generated for you to review and identify when duplicates weren't merged due to a missing field.

For example, let's say in Step 1 you have the matching fields: First Name, Last Name, Phone Number. Sometimes, the Phone Number field may be empty.

Remove the Phone Number Field, and add the "Phone Number Exists" as the last rule in Step 4. Now, Insycle will only use First Name and Last Name to identify the duplicates, but the Phone Number field will be included in the report for those contacts. Then you can use a customized approach to deduplication to merge records that are missing the phone number effectively.

Additional Resources

Related Blog Articles

Related Help Articles

Additional Resources

Insycle's Intercom Deduplication Overview