How to use the 'Merge Contact' workflow action in Futuria CRM

Table of contents

1. Workflow action – Merge Contact
2. Key benefits of the 'Merge Contact' workflow action
3. Action details
4. How to use the 'Merge Contact' workflow action
5. Merge behaviour
6. Contact merge limitations
7. Frequently Asked Questions

Workflow action – Merge Contact

The 'Merge Contact' workflow action gives you an automated way to deduplicate contacts directly inside Futuria CRM workflows. It helps reduce clutter in the CRM, protects contact history and ensures that follow-up actions run on the correct record.

This article explains what the feature is for, when to use it, how to configure it and how to check merge activity in the execution logs.

Key benefits of the 'Merge Contact' workflow action

• Automated deduplication: detects and merges duplicate contacts as they move through a workflow, reducing manual clean-up from the Contacts page.
• Flexible matching options: lets you identify duplicates by email, phone number or both, depending on how strict you want the matching to be.
• Cleaner CRM data: helps reduce duplicate records that can affect reporting, communication history and workflow accuracy.
• Protected workflow continuity: allows the workflow to continue on the surviving contact record after a merge.
• Better operational visibility: makes it easier to review merge behaviour using the workflow execution logs.

Action details

How to use the 'Merge Contact' workflow action

Follow these steps to add the action to a workflow and configure it for consistent, predictable results.

1. Log in to your account.
2. Go to Automation > Workflows.

1. Create a new workflow or open an existing one.

1. Click the + Add new trigger button to add a trigger related to the Merge Contact action (for example, Contact Created, Form Submitted, Contact Changed).

1. Add the Merge Contact action.
2. Under Matching criteria, choose one of the available options:
   • Email
   • Phone number
   • Email and Phone number
3. Save the action.

1. Publish and Save the workflow.

Merge behaviour

When the action runs, it follows this logic:

1. The system looks for an existing contact that matches the contact entering the workflow, based on the selected matching criteria.
2. If a duplicate is found, the more recent contact is always merged into the older one. The older record is kept as the primary one, ensuring that no historical data is lost.
3. If the contact entering the workflow is the older record, the duplicate is merged into it. If the contact entering is the more recent record, it is merged into the older duplicate.
4. If no duplicate is found, the action completes without changes and the contact moves to the next step of the workflow.

Contact merge limitations

1. Goals may not work as expected if they were tied to the old contact's ID before the merge.
2. Wait-for-reply steps can be affected if the email/SMS was sent before the merge, since the workflow may still be waiting in the context of the original contact/message.
3. Waiting on email events may not resume as expected: the awaited event may still be associated with the old contact/message context.
4. Waiting based on trackable links (trigger links) may fail, since tracking links are generated with the original contact and message ID before the message is sent.
5. If the surviving contact is already in the same workflow, the execution being merged will end.
6. If the surviving contact had previously been in the workflow and the 'Allow re-entry' option is turned off, the execution being merged will end.

Frequently Asked Questions