Why Do I Have Duplicate Contacts? (Web and Mobile UI)

Realizing you have duplicate contacts in your MyRepChat account is a common occurrence.  However, it is easily avoided and rectified.  Here are some how to's and tips to avoid/correct this issue.

1.  If connected to a CRM to bring over contacts for communications, do NOT make those contacts by scratch in MRC as well.  Doing both will cause duplicates to appear.  If a contact you wish to communicate with is not in your CRM, that is when you would want to create them manually.

2.  If you have duplicate contacts, click on the Duplicates bubble on the Dashboard and delete the ones you don't want. Keep the contact that has a CRM logo next to the contact name - that is the record that is connected to the CRM and able to send notes to the CRM. 

3.  Your contact list in MyRepChat will only be as clean as your CRM/the contact records you bring over from that CRM. 

• Make sure each contact has a number not shared with another contact, that is also how duplicate contacts can occur. 
• The person physically in possession of the phone you are texting/calling is the only person who will actually receive that communication, however, if you see more than one contact come up under Messages for that communication, that means there is more than one contact tied to that number in some way. 
• Watch your contact fields in your CRM/MRC contacts--first name in first name field, last name in last name field, cell number in mobile phone field, etc.  And if you use a CRM that has a client ID column of some sort, make sure you eliminate/hide that field when bringing over clients to MRC.  That will often create an error message because our platform doesn't have a contact field for any type of client id/account number.

4.  If importing a CSV to MRC make sure that file (.csv of an Excel file) has minimal columns--first name, last name, mobile number, for example, and no commas. 

• The fewer and more accurate the columns, the easier, faster, and more accurate your import will be. 
• You can always go under that contact in MRC after the fact and edit/add contact information to it.

5.  When importing from CRM or from phone contacts, make sure you only bring over the contacts you actually want in your MRC account. 

• Creating an accurate CSV file, and only selecting the contacts from your phone you want uploaded to your MRC contacts will help eliminate contacts that are missing information, contacts with multiple numbers and other unneeded contact information, duplicates, fields unrecognized in MRC, and personal contacts not business related.

6.  Make sure you are only connected to one CRM. 

• If you happen to have connections to more than one and connect more than one to MRC, any contacts in both will appear as duplicate contacts in MRC.  Best practice is to only connect one CRM with MRC.
• If you believe you accidentally connected to your CRM twice, email us at [e-mail] and we can remove the duplicated integration. 

7.  Review and edit regularly. 

• As you add new contacts in your CRM, search them under Contacts in MRC right away to have them pulled over.  That way any communications are saved over as notes under that contact in your CRM right away. 
• And when creating contacts from scratch in MRC, search them first to make sure you don't inadvertently create a duplicate.