Data! This is what we all capture in Salesforce. Your data is one of the most important aspects of your Salesforce implementation. We want to ensure this data is accurate, that it is true, and correctly serves it’s purpose. When data is incorrect or incomplete, this can cause headaches for both your internal users and clients. 

A good system should consider usability, visibility to data, and tackle deduplication at the point of record creation. For example; before a record is created, check to see if that record already exists, and if so, update it.  

Why Should We Dedupe?

Duplicate records can impact system credibility if users can’t find the updates that they’ve made, because they are looking at a duplicate of the record they previously updated. Duplicates can lead to multiple incomplete records with multiple data quality issues.

Having duplicate records in your system can be indicators of process problems, both user and automated processes. This could be a result of user training or because there is something which makes his hard for users to identify the original records when creating new or updating records. Dupes are also key indicators of system problems. These problems can lie in many places such as Automated Processes, Triggers, Integrations, and Data Loading. Are these tools using the correct matching criteria? Is this criteria strict enough? Does it need to be more ‘FUZZY’ and relaxed? 

Regardless of how your duplicates are occurring, duplicate records are the bane of every CRM system. It wastes resources, and can corrupt analytics and reporting.

How Do We Dedupe?

There are many ways you can handle duplicates.

As I mentioned earlier. The best point to prevent duplicates, is to prevent the creation of duplicates in the first place. If you can identify how and when duplicates are occurring, you can use this information to review your processes (automated flows, manual creation, data loads, integrations) and refactor them to prevent these processes creating duplicates in the future. 

You can also manually review and merge duplicate records in Salesforce. If your collection of data is relatively small, this may be a viable option. For the majority of companies, this is simply not a feasible option. As a result, I have compiled a list of possible solutions / approaches along with their pros and cons. Some are out the box within Salesforce, some are free Appexchange Apps and some are paid for:

1. Salesforce Matching / Duplicate Rules

I’ve placed Salesforce’s Matching and Duplicates Rules at #1 because they are free, do not require installation of 3rd Party Apps, and allow for basic Reporting. 

These can be configured from within the Salesforce Setup Menu by searching for ‘Duplicate’. 

Matching and Duplicate Rules are coupled together. The Matching Rule is the criteria record, which resembles the criteria column layout you see when editing List Views. In here you can enter your criteria for matching records, such as CONTACT – fuzzy First Name, exact Lastname, and exact Email for instance. The Duplicate Rule is the action record. This dictates whether the user should be alerted of the Duplicate on record Creation or Update, and whether this duplicate should be recorded for Reporting. 

Once these Matching and Duplicate Rules are in place and active, a data update on the records within the Object you are checking for duplicates will be required, in order to trigger the Duplicate Checks / Logging. 

PROs

• Free
• Included within Salesforce
• Allows matching on Custom Objects
• Allows matching on Custom Fields
• Includes FUZZY, EXACT and BLANK matching

CONs

1. Limited to merging 3 records at a time
2. Does not offer some of the meticulous functionality offered by paid for products

Walk through the Salesforce Duplicate Management Trail here.

DupeCatcher

DupeCatcher lands in at #2 – again, because this is a Free and relatively lightweight app. 

Similar to Salesforce Duplicate / Matching Rules, DupeCatcher uses a Combination of ‘Filters’ which are the criteria for matching records, and ‘Alerts’ which dictates what happens to those duplicate records. 

Out the box, one of the big let downs for DupeCatcher is the lack of Fuzzy matching and the ability to use the tool on Custom Objects. DupeCatcher only works with Leads, Contacts and Accounts. It does however allow you to check specific processes for duplicates, such as Lead to Contact, and Lead to Person Account conversions for example. 

PROs

• Free Appexchange App
• Merge more than 3 contacts per go
• Includes Custom Fields
• Allows for Task creation on Dupe Match
• Custom User Defined Duplicate Error Messages

CONs

1. No Fuzzy Matching
2. No OR Filtering in Matching Criteria
3. No Custom Object Matching

Visit the DupeCatcher Appexchange Page here.

Duplicate Check for Salesforce

Duplicate Check for Salesforce is an easy to use application with a well constructed clean interface. 

Out of the box, the free product gives you enough to get started, but to really get the best out of it and all the features you really want, you need to chuck some cash at it. Typically, pricing is based on per 10,000 records. For example: $99 PA based on 10k records, and $199 PA based on 20k records. 

The free product lacks Custom Field matching, Fuzzy matching, and has not automation. However, it does offer Cross-Object duplicate checking allowing you to check Leads against Contact records for example. 

PROs

• Free, but limited offering
• 10,000 records included in free App
• Cross-Object Duplicate Checking
• Easy to use / clean interface
• Lots of options to refine criteria / actions
• Options to Automate deduplication (Paid)

CONs

1. No Custom Fields in free App
2. No Fuzzy matching in free App
3. No Automation in free App
4. Paid app is ~$99 PA per 10k records

Find out more about Duplicate Check for Salesforce here.

Cloudingo

Cloudlingo is not simply just a Duplicate Management App, it is a whole lot more. I’ve placed this at #4, simply because it is only available as a Paid product.

Depending on which package you go for, you get all of the usual Duplicate Management Features PLUS, the likes of Automated Duplicate Management, Address Validation, Mass Update, Mass Delete, Find / Export Data and Mass Import. 

Basic starts at $1,096 PA, whilst Standard will set you back $2,146 PA. Whilst the usability is not as great as Duplicate Check for Salesforce, it does offer a whole suite of data management functionality. 

PROs

• Extensive Data Management Suite
• Automated Deduplication
• Mass Editing functionality
• Address Validation

CONs

1. No free App
2. Package prices start at a premium
3. Usability outshone by other apps  

Find out more about Cloudlingo here.

Conclusion

All of the apps above are great apps to use for Deduplication. They all have their advantages and disadvantages. 

Salesforce Matching and Duplicate Rules are placed at #1, because they are free, and do the basics without too many bells and whistles to worry about. For basic Deduplication, you can’t get a more fitting product.  

Which app is best for you Salesforce implementation will depend on:

• Your Dataset size
• Do you require Automated Deduplication
• How refined your Matching Criteria needs to be
• Do you require an additional functionality
• Usability
• Pricing

It’s also worth thinking about whether this is something you will implement or manage yourself. If so, then usability will be a big factor.  

If you need any assistance at all with record Deduplication, then please do reach out to us at: team@hyphen8.com.

For more blogs in our App Focus series please check out our other blog posts.