Resolve and merge duplicate profiles

Customer Profiles collects, unifies, and manages end user information from multiple sources. This might result in multiple profiles being created in Customer Profiles for the same end user.

To create a single customer view, Customer Profiles uses merge rules that resolve conflicts and unify attributes into a single primary profile.

Merge rules

Customer Profiles identifies one of the profiles as primary and merges relevant data from the duplicate profiles into it.

The following rules apply for the merge process:

1. Identify the primary profile by Date created: The profile with the earliest creation date is the primary profile.

2. Fill in missing attributes in the primary profile: If the primary profile has empty attributes, Customer Profiles fills them by using data from the other profiles that are being merged.

3. Resolve conflicting attributes: Some standard and custom attributes support only one value. Example: First name, last name, address, country, date of birth, and external ID.

   So, if multiple profiles have different values for the same attribute, the following rules apply:

   • The profiles are of different types: If the profiles are of different types (Lead and Customer), Customer Profiles uses data from the Customer profile in the Primary profile. This applies regardless of which profile was modified more recently.
   • The profiles are of the same type: If the profiles are of the same type (Lead or Customer), Customer Profiles uses the data from the most recently modified profile in the primary profile.
   • Exceptions: The primary profile's creation attributes are unchanged. Example: Date created, Source, and Created by.

4. Combine attributes that support multiple values: Attributes such as phone number, tags, and email support multiple values. When profiles are merged, Customer Profiles adds values for each attribute from all profiles to the primary profile.

   This includes the following:

   • All contact information. Example: Phone numbers, Email addresses, and RCS ID
   • Activity feed
   • Tags

5. Conversations are saved only for primary profile: Customer Profiles saves only the conversations that are linked to the primary profile.

6. Update Date modified: Customer Profiles updates the Date modified attribute of the primary profile to the merge date.

Merge example

Profile A and Profile B have a common identifier, the email address.

The following table shows how the merge rules combine these profiles into a single primary profile:

How to merge profiles

You can merge profiles by using one of the following ways:

• Automatic merge (through API call)

  • The system triggers this automatically when it identifies profiles as duplicates.
  • Customer Profiles combines profiles according to the merge rules.
  • This process requires no human intervention.

• Semi-automatic merge (when importing profiles)

  • When importing data, Customer Profiles identifies potential duplicates.
  • You can decide whether to merge or discard conflicting profiles.
  • If you decide to merge, Customer Profiles combines the profiles according to the merge rules.

• Manual merge (from the Infobip web interface)

  • You can merge only two profiles.
  • Manually select the profiles in Customer Profiles on the Infobip web interface.
  • Manually select the attribute values that you want to merge.

Merge profiles manually

If there are duplicate profiles in Customer Profiles, you can merge them manually. Do the following:

1. Go to the Persons page.
2. Use filters to list the profiles that you want to merge.
3. Do one of the following:
   • Select a profile and then search for the duplicate one in the right-hand panel.
   • Select the profiles that you want to merge.

     You can merge only two profiles.

4. Select Merge.
5. In the right-hand panel, decide the information to keep in the merged profile.
   • For single-value attributes, only conflicting attributes are displayed.
   • You must select at least one contact information attribute.
   • If an attribute exists only in one of the profiles, it is automatically added to the merged profile.
6. To view these attributes, select Show more.
7. Select Merge.