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How does CloudTalk Merge Contacts?
How does CloudTalk Merge Contacts?
Notes on how CloudTalk integrates new contacts with existing ones
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Written by Shelby Glynn
Updated yesterday

Contact merging is what happens when we take contact records from different sources (such as Freshworks, ActiveCampaign, etc) and put them together with our contacts already existing in CloudTalk.

How It Works

A merged contact may be a contact which appeared in multiple lists. Merged contacts result in a single contact, which has:

  • a union of all listed phone numbers and emails

  • only the newest value of other attributes

For example, let's say we have a John Jones on our CloudTalk contacts list:

Contact Name

Contact Phone #s

Contact Email

John Jones

+1-319-555-5677, +1-319-555-4929

On another integration from which we are importing contacts, we have this same person, stored as John J:

Contact Name

Contact Phone #s

Contact Email

John J

+1-712-555-3956

After merging, the resulting contact may look something like this:

Contact Name

Contact Phone #s

Contact Email

John J

+1-319-555-5677, +1-319-555-4929, +1-712-555-3956

Notice the newest form of the contact name, John J, was adopted. Email and phone numbers were aggregated.

Merging in Integrations

CloudTalk will merge two or more contacts into one if any of the following conditions are met:

  • The newly imported contact has the same external ID (e.g. Pipedrive Contact ID) as the existing contact in CT

  • The newly imported contact has the same email as the existing contact in CloudTalk

  • The newly imported contact has the same phone number as the existing contact in CloudTalk

Additionally, conditions are evaluated in the order listed above. So, say there are two contacts in CloudTalk - one has the same email as our newly imported contact, John J, but the other shares the same phone number. Which pre-existing contact will John J merge with?

Since email comes before phone number in our order of priorities, this means John J will be merged into the contact which shares the same email.

Merging in CSV Import

In the case of a CSV import, CloudTalk will merge contacts when any of the following conditions are met:

  • The newly imported contact has the same email as the existing contact in CloudTalk

  • The newly imported contact has the same phone number as the existing contact in CloudTalk

As with integrations, conditions are evaluated in the order listed above. So, say there are two contacts in CloudTalk - one has the same email as our newly imported contact, Jane J, but the other shares the same phone number. Which pre-existing contact will Jane J merge with?

Since email comes before phone number in our order of priorities, this means Jane J will be merged into the contact which shares the same email.

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