Merge Duplicate Contacts
- Oz Akman
- Anthony Pepe
Merge Duplicate Contacts Overview
Individual Contact ID's
When a contact is created in the Softrip application, each contact is assigned their own individual contact ID. This allows users to store all reservation history, and contact history such as account revisions and special requests against a single contact. When creating a new reservation, the Softrip application will force users to validate if a contact already exists first prior to creating a new contact to help support not duplicating the data.
The below video is an example of what a user will see when creating a reservation and the process they will go through when validating existing contacts.
Benefit
By assigning a single Contact ID per passenger and/or travel agent, users are able to view and store all of the historical information that is tied to that contact. In many ways, this helps users provide better customer service to their passengers and travel agents.
Example
A call center employee receives a call from passenger x. Passenger x is requesting a price quote for a 10 day trip to Italy. The call center employee asks the passenger for their last name and upon entering, finds the contact in the Softrip application. Upon looking at the account, the user sees that this is not the first time the passenger has taken a 10 day trip to Italy with the company. They also notice that the passenger has a gluten allergy tied to their account. The user can build rapport with the customer by saying, "I see that you have traveled with us before! How did you enjoy your experience during your last tour?" As the user is creating the reservation, they can automatically add that the passenger has a gluten allergy and proactively mention the special request.
Benefits
By assigning a single Contact ID per passenger and/or travel agent, users are able to view and store all of the historical information that is tied to that contact. Being able to view the revision history of a contact allows users and a company overall to reward contacts/customers for their hard work.
Example
Travel agent X has brought in a lot of revenue to the company over the past 6 months. In fact, travel agent X is one of the top performing travel agents under an agency. To commend the travel agent for their peformance, the company decides that they want to provide the travel agent with 18% commission for the next 2 months.
Overview- Merge Contact Screen
Although the Softrip application will automatically create a new contact ID for new contacts, there are times that duplicate contacts may be created. In order to support th above benefits, the Softrip application offers users access to the "merge duplicate contacts" screen. The merge duplicate contact screen allows users to search for and identify potential duplicate contacts that may exist in the application and merge the information into one contact ID. Users can access the merge duplicate contacts screen under the marketing menu.
Searching for Duplicate Contacts
When working within the merge duplicate contacts screen, users will have the option to either "enter new duplicates" or "work on existing duplicate list."
Enter new duplicates
The "enter new duplicates" search option allows users to manually enter details such as a contact ID, first name, last name, and email. This is a manual process and the screen will return 2 or more contacts that match the specific data entered into the field.
For example, if users entered the last name of "test" into the screen, then any contact with the last name of test will return.
Users will use this option if they have specific contact details in mind that they want to target in their search. For example, users may want to search for a common last name manually to verify the contacts entered into the record and confirm if there are duplicates.
Work on existing duplicate list
If users select the work on existing duplicate list option, the Softrip application will return a list of potential duplicates once checking against the following fields:
Name
Email Address
Address
Contact ID
Passport number
Users are not required to enter any details into the Contact ID/Name field. By selecting "search," the application will respond with data based on checking the above categories.
Merging Duplicate Contacts
Accessing the screen to merge duplicate contacts is different depending on the method the user attempted to use when initially conducted the search.
Example from "Enter new duplicates"
If using the "enter new duplicates option," users will first need to select the contacts that they may want to merge, and then select "merge selected contacts" at the bottom of the screen.
Example from "Work on existing duplicate list"
If using the "work on existing duplicate list" option, users only have to select the contact ID and they will be brought to the screen that allows users to merge multiple contact information into one contact ID.
Note: The results screen displays a column that calls out potential dupes. Users will have an opportunity on the merge duplicates screen to manually search for additional duplicates.
Working in the Merge Menu
The merge menu will present a list of contact fields, and radio buttons. Users are required to select the contact details that are highlighted in red. If the application recognizes that there are certain contact fields that are empty under the specific contacts, then the radio button will automatically select the field that has data.
In the below example, fields such as the first and middle name and mailing address are required fields to be selected. These fields will not be auto-selected for users, forcing users to make a selection.
In the below example, there is no email address entered for contact 1067, however, there is an email address for contact 1059. The email address under contact 1059 will be automatically selected.
Note: If users do not make a selection under the required fields, the application will not allow users to merge the contacts.
Icons
The merge menu screen displays a variety of icons which support different functionality. The below lists the different icons and their corresponding functions.
Select the above icon when the contacts are ready to be merged.
The arrows above allow users to toggle back and forth between existing lists. These options will only appear when users conduct a search under the "work on existing duplicate list" option.
Note: If a user toggles between list, any update conducted on an existing contact that is not saved or merged will not be stored when toggling to a new list.
An "x" will appear next to each contact ID. Selecting the "x" will mark that specific contact as "not a duplicate" against the contact it is being compared against.
Example: Contact 1146 is being compared against contact 1127. Upon review, users determine taht 1146 is not a duplicate against 1127. Users can select the "x" to prevent contact 1146 from appearing as a duplicate again. This option is relevant when using the "work on existing duplicate" option.
Users can manually add additional contacts to compare against the contacts that currently exist on the duplicate contact list.
Note: This is not a responsive text field. If users already know the contact ID they want to compare against, they can manually enter the contact ID Into the field. If they do not know the contact ID they want to compare against, they will be required to open the search grid.
If users select this option, all selected data will merge under the oldest existing Contact ID. If users do not select this checkbox, then both contacts will be removed and a new contact will be created.
Example: Users want to compare contact ID 1081 and 1085. After selecting the relevant radio buttons, they decide to keep the oldest Contact ID. Once they decide to merge the contacts, all contact details will exist under Contact ID 1081 and Contact ID 1085 will no longer exist.
Merging Contacts
The below outlines the full process of merging contacts and creating a new Contact ID or merging contacts into the first (lowest numbered) contact ID.
Merging Contacts into a new Contact ID and working off of an existing list.
Merging Contacts into a new Contact ID from a manual search option.
