How deduplication works

It's not possible to mess up your data using the Create Import Filter process (previously "Create DataSource") as that doesn't modify any contact records, it just creates an Import Filter for contact records that matched values you uploaded and matched up, however it is possible to mess up your data using the Upload Contacts process.

Take the following example CSV file:

email, company, firstname, lastname

ben.crum@colony101.co.uk, Colony101 UK Ltd, Ben, Crum

kayleigh.sparks@colony101.co.uk, Colony101 UK Ltd, Kayleigh, Sparks

And the following contact records in an Etelligent installation (Showing relevant Contact Fields only):

contact_ID, email, companyName, firstName, lastName

501, ben.crum@colony101.co.uk, Colony101 UK Ltd, Ben, Crum

761, ian.pollard@colony101.co.uk, Colony101 UK Ltd, Ian, Pollard

1032, kayleigh.sparks@colony101.co.uk, Colony101 UK Ltd, Kayleigh, Sparks

If you match all the columns in the CSV file up to their appropriate Contact Fields in Etelligent, set the Deduplication Field to "company" and leave the Update Action as "Update and Insert", this happens:

1) Etelligent groups together the rows in the CSV file by the values in the "company" field (so the value "Colony101 UK Ltd" in our case) and discards all but the row nearest the bottom of the file in each grouping. This leads to Ben's row being discarded and only Kayleigh's being left.

2) Next, for each remaining record in the CSV file, Etelligent identifies all the contact records in the installation that have the same "company" value and uses the matched up columns to update them in Etelligent. So all three of the contact records shown above - Ben's, Ian's and Kayleigh's as they all have a value of "Colony101 UK Ltd" - will be updated with Kayleigh's details.

This is how the three contact records previously shown would appear in the Etelligent installation:

contact_ID, email, companyName, firstName, lastName

501, kayleigh.sparks@colony101.co.uk, Colony101 UK Ltd, Kayleigh, Sparks

761, kayleigh.sparks@colony101.co.uk, Colony101 UK Ltd, Kayleigh, Sparks

1032, kayleigh.sparks@colony101.co.uk, Colony101 UK Ltd, Kayleigh, Sparks

As you can see, Ian's and Ben's contact records now contain Kayleigh's values.

Unfortunately, if this happens, the normal fix is to restore your entire Etelligent database to the state it was in at the very early hours of that day, contact records, Emails, Web Pages, Sends and all.

Related Topics

Tutorials | Knowledge Base | Contacts Database | Unsubscribed Duplicates | Issues Uploading Excel Spreadsheets and CSV Files