One Person, Several Email Addresses

Most CRMs check for duplicates on one email address. When the same person shows up with a personal email, a new work email or an address stored in a custom field like "Email 2", the CRM creates a new contact. In Dedupely, you find these duplicates by matching on the person instead of the email: name plus phone or company. Then you choose which email survives each merge with Merge Rules.

Why does one person become several contacts?

How to match without the email

Leave email out of the match, and match on the person:

Add Email and your custom email fields to Visible Fields, so you can compare the addresses during review. See Catching Hidden Duplicates.

What about emails in two separate fields?

If old addresses sit in a custom field like "Email 2", a search on Email and Email 2 only matches records that have the same two addresses, even if they're swapped between the fields. Cross-field matching (on by default) handles the swap. Records with an empty "Email 2" drop out of that search, and records that share only one address don't match.

To catch a person who shares only one address, match on the person instead, as above. If your CRM stores several emails in one field, sharing any one of them is enough for a match. Dedupely Intelligence compares every email field a contact has, so it also finds people who share only one address.

Which email survives the merge?

Email fields in a CRM can't be appended, so one value wins in each email field. Decide which one before you merge:

• Keep the work email: set the Primary Record to the record your team works on (Last Updated Record), or use a field-level rule on Email.
• Check the Merge Preview in View Match Details to see which email survives.
• Keep a record of the other addresses: Merge History keeps the original values of every merged record, and you can download it as a CSV.

Some CRMs keep the other email on their own. Pipedrive combines all unique emails and phone numbers when records merge.

Example setup

A team migrated from another CRM, and old addresses landed in a custom "Email 2" field. Contacts keep coming back as new records when people fill in forms with those addresses.

1. Search 1: First Name (Similar Words, Match nicknames) · Last Name (Exact) · Phone Number (Similar). Visible Fields: Email, Email 2, Company.
2. Search 2: First Name (Similar Words, Match nicknames) · Last Name (Exact) · Company (Similar Words, Ignored terms). Same Visible Fields.
3. Merge Rules: Primary Record set to Last Updated Record.
4. Review: Auto Match on both searches, reviewed weekly. Unclear matches go to Manual Review.

Common mistakes

• Matching on email. It's exactly what differs. Match on the person.
• Matching on name alone. Many people share a name. Add phone or company.
• Losing the address your team uses. Check the Merge Preview, and set the Primary Record to the record your team works on.
• Auto Merge on name-based searches. Review them first with Auto Match.

FAQs about contacts with several emails

• Why didn't my CRM catch these duplicates? Most CRMs check one email field. A different address, or one stored in a custom field, isn't checked.
• Can Dedupely keep both emails in one email field? No. Email fields in a CRM can't be appended. One value wins, and Merge History keeps the other.
• Which fields should I match on instead? First name, last name and phone or company, with Match nicknames on.
• Can I see both emails while reviewing? Yes. Add your email fields to Visible Fields.