How to De-Dupe Contacts

Maintaining an organized and accurate contact database is crucial for the effectiveness of your operations. VanillaSoft’s De-Dupe feature helps you manage and eliminate duplicate contact entries, which is especially useful when different contacts share the same phone number but have different names. This ensures your database is clean and precise.

Key Features of the De-Dupe Tool

  • Unique Fields Identification: Each contact must have a unique field that the De-Dupe tool can use to identify duplicates.

  • Batch Limit: You can de-dupe up to 5,000 contacts at a time. For larger databases, you'll need to repeat the process until all duplicates are handled.

Steps to Remove Duplicate Contacts

  1. Access the Project: From the admin homepage, open the project that contains the contacts you wish to de-dupe.

  2. Open De-Duping Tools: Open the Contacts & Reports menu and select De-Duping.

  3. Set De-Duping Criteria: If you want to de-dupe contacts added within a specific timeframe, check the "Only de-dupe Contacts Added:" checkbox at the top of the page. Leave it blank to include all contacts within the project.

  4. Choose Fields for De-Duping: Select the fields you want to use for identifying duplicates.

  5. Display Additional Fields (Optional): Choose additional fields to display in the list of duplicates for better visibility, though these will not be used for de-duping.

  6. View Duplicates: Click View Duplicates to see a list of duplicate contacts.

  7. Select and Manage Duplicates: Manually select the contacts you wish to delete or close, or use the Quick Select drop-down to automate selection.
    • Note: Quick Select will leave at least one contact per duplicate set unchecked.

  8. Finalize Changes: Once all selections are made, click either Close Selected or Delete Selected to finalize the modifications to your contact list.

Additional Tips

  • Continual Process: If you encounter more than 5,000 duplicates, repeat the de-duping process until your database is fully streamlined.

  • Importing Contacts: To avoid duplicates during the import process, refer to the 'Skip Duplicate Contacts Upon Import' article for guidance on setting up your import configurations to skip or update duplicates.

By regularly using the De-Dupe feature, you ensure that your VanillaSoft database remains organized and efficient, helping to prevent issues that arise from duplicate contact information. This proactive approach supports more effective communication strategies and improves overall data management within your team.

Was this article helpful?

Related articles