Merging duplicate contacts
Updated August 24, 2026
The same customer can end up as two records. They message you from a WhatsApp phone number, then answer a survey with an email address — or a CSV brings in a row that matched no existing record. Merging folds one record into the other, so their details, segments, locations, conversations, survey responses and activity all live on a single contact.
Before you start
- Merging needs full Contacts access. With restricted access the Merge action is not shown — see Users and permissions.
- Both contacts must belong to your account.
- The merge deletes one of the two records permanently. There is no undo, so decide which record you are keeping before you start.
Where to find it
Contacts → select a row to open the contact drawer → the Merge icon at the top. You can also reach it from the footer of the Edit contact form.
Whichever contact you open is the one that survives, so start from the record you want to keep.
Merge two contacts
- Open the contact you want to keep, and select Merge. Primary contact (To be kept) is locked to the contact you opened.
- Search in Contact to merge (To be deleted) — type at least two characters.
- Pick the duplicate from the results.
- Select Merge contacts.
The search returns at most 10 matches and never offers the primary contact itself. If the duplicate does not appear, type more of the phone number or email address rather than scrolling.
What survives the merge
| On the merged contact | Rule |
|---|---|
| First name, last name, phone number, email, Facebook profile, Instagram profile, External ID | The primary contact’s value wins wherever it is filled in. The secondary’s value is only used to fill a field the primary left empty |
| Segment | Both sets are combined, with duplicates removed |
| Locations | Both sets are combined, with duplicates removed |
| Unsubscribed | If either contact was unsubscribed, the merged contact is unsubscribed |
| Activity timeline | Both timelines are combined. Two Contact created entries collapse into the earliest one |
| Conversations and Inbox links | Re-pointed to the primary contact |
| Survey responses | Re-pointed to the primary contact |
| The secondary contact | Deleted permanently |
Warning The primary’s non-empty values always win, so a merge cannot replace a wrong value on the primary with a right one from the duplicate. Clear the wrong value on the primary first, or fix it after the merge — see Managing contacts.
Consent is deliberately conservative: an unsubscribed duplicate makes the merged contact unsubscribed, even if the record you kept was subscribed. After merging anyone who might have opted out, check Unsubscribed on the Information tab. Campaigns, automations and survey sends all skip unsubscribed contacts.
Find duplicates
Pluspoint does not maintain a “possible duplicates” list, and creating a contact by hand does not check for an existing one. Duplicates are found in two ways:
- Search. Search by phone number or email address rather than by name — two records for the same person usually differ in spelling but share one contact detail.
- CSV import. The validation step of an import matches every row against your existing contacts and shows Contacts to update. That makes an import a practical way to reconcile an external list against Pluspoint. See Importing contacts.
To create fewer duplicates in the first place, give each contact an External ID from your own system. Set it when you import them, or when you create them through the public API. An import treats a row as an existing contact when its external ID matches, so later loads update the same record instead of adding another. See the API documentation.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| No Merge icon in the drawer or the edit form | You have restricted Contacts access | Ask an administrator for full access — see Users and permissions |
| The search in Contact to merge (To be deleted) returns nothing | Fewer than two characters have been typed, or the search term does not match a name, phone number, email address or external ID | Search on the phone number or email address instead of the name |
| The contact you want is not in the list | The list returns at most 10 matches, and never the primary contact | Type more characters to narrow the results |
| You merged into the wrong record | The contact you open is always the primary, and the merge cannot be reversed | Recreate the lost detail on the surviving contact by editing it |
| The merged contact is unsubscribed | The duplicate was unsubscribed, and the flag is combined | Open Edit, clear Unsubscribe and select Save changes — only where the customer has actually consented |
| A value from the duplicate did not carry over | The primary already had a value in that field | Clear the field on the primary, or edit it directly after the merge |
| Couldn’t merge contacts | The merge failed | Reload the page and try again; both contacts must still exist and belong to your account |