Clean up duplicates in Zoho CRM

The same customer is in Zoho CRM three times: once from the web form, once from a trade show list, once typed in by hand with a different spelling. Sales calls go to the wrong record, and nobody trusts the numbers. In this recipe the agent finds the likely duplicates and lays them out side by side, so you can merge them in Zoho CRM with confidence.

What you need

• Zoho CRM set up in XataWorks. Bring your Zoho apps into XataWorks covers it.

1. Find the duplicates

With Zoho CRM open beside the chat:

Go through the leads that came in this month and find likely duplicates among our leads and contacts: the same email, the same phone, or the same name at the same company. For each, tell me why you think it’s a duplicate.

The agent checks each record against the rest by email, phone and name with company, and keeps only real matches, with the reason for each.

2. Get a worklist

Put the pairs in a spreadsheet: both records’ names, emails, phones and owners, which one looks more complete, and why you matched them.

The spreadsheet opens beside the chat. Work down it, and merge each pair in Zoho CRM, where you choose which values to keep.

3. Mark what you decided

For pairs that turn out not to be duplicates, ask the agent to note it on the records (“Not a duplicate of Priya Shah at Northwind: different person”), so nobody checks them again. Each note is confirmed by you.

Where this recipe stops

• The agent never merges. Merging is done in Zoho CRM, where you can see which values you keep.
• Likely, not certain. Matches come from email, phone and name with company. Two people who share an office phone may look alike; check before you merge.
• A batch at a time. The agent checks records in pages of up to 200. A database of thousands is best cleaned a month or a source at a time.

Read more

• Spreadsheets: the worklist.
• Tidy a contact list and import it into Zoho CRM: keeping duplicates out in the first place.