When you integrate a management system (Customer Data Platform) with Zenvia Customer Cloud, it may happen that identical contacts are sent more than once – creating duplicate records.
To ensure your data stays organized and consistent, it is important to define how Zenvia Customer Cloud should act when it encounters duplicate contacts.
What is a duplicate record?
In the contact database, phone (landline), cellphone, and email must be unique for each contact.
If two contacts share at least one of these pieces of information, they will be considered the same contact.
This situation can occur in two main cases:
- When a contact already exists in the Zenvia Customer Cloud database and the management system sends another contact with the same mobile, landline, or email.
- When the management system itself sends two or more different contacts to Zenvia Customer Cloud that share the same mobile, landline, or email.
⚠️ Attention: In both cases, Zenvia Customer Cloud treats the contacts as a single record to avoid duplicate information.
Below are the options you can choose to handle duplicates.
Merge
When choosing Merge, contacts that have the same mobile, landline, or email are combined into a single record in Zenvia Customer Cloud. Distinct data from each contact is aggregated in the database.
Possible scenarios:
1. You update a contact's mobile phone in the management system but keep the old email. In Zenvia Customer Cloud, the contact will have both mobiles (old and new) stored in the database along with the old email.
However, the interface will display only one mobile (it may be the old or the new one), since there is only one field for each type of data.
⚠️ Attention: The same applies to landline, email, and address – the latter is not a unique key but can also be aggregated.
2. You have two or more contacts in the management system with the same landline, mobile, or email. In Zenvia Customer Cloud, these records will be combined into a single contact with consolidated information.
If the names are different, only one will be displayed in the interface.
Overwrite
When choosing Overwrite, contacts with the same mobile, landline, or email will have their data replaced with the most recent information received through the integration.
Possible scenarios:
1. You update a contact in the management system with a mobile, landline, or email that already exists in Zenvia Customer Cloud. During synchronization, the contact's old data in Zenvia Customer Cloud is completely replaced with the new information from the management system.
2. If there are two or more contacts in the management system with the same landline, mobile, or email, one will overwrite the other, keeping only one of them.
The replacement criterion is based on the order in which the data is processed.
Discard
When choosing Discard, duplicate contacts are ignored, keeping only the existing records in Zenvia Customer Cloud.
Possible scenarios:
1. You change a contact in the management system that has the same mobile, landline, or email as a contact in Zenvia Customer Cloud. During import, the changes are ignored, and the Zenvia Customer Cloud data remains unchanged.
2. If there is more than one duplicate contact in your management system, the first one will be created in Zenvia Customer Cloud, and the others will be ignored.
How to decide: merge, overwrite, or discard?
Use the table below to understand the differences between Merge, Overwrite, and Discard and choose the option that best suits your operation:
Merge | Overwrite | Discard | |
What it does | Combines contacts with identical data into one, aggregating the information. | Replaces existing data with the new data. | Ignores duplicate contacts and keeps the existing record. |
Advantage | Keeps complete history. | Always keeps the database updated. | Prevents unwanted changes. |
Risk | Only one value per field is displayed in the interface. | Deletes old data. | May lose new information. |
When to use | When you want to preserve both old and new data. | When you always want to keep the most recent information. | When you want to ensure nothing changes without review. |
Frequently Asked Questions
If I merge contacts, will I lose old information?
No. The data is aggregated, but the interface shows only one value per field.
If I overwrite, can I recover the old data?
No. Replaced data is deleted and is not visible in Zenvia Customer Cloud.
Does the address count as unique data?
No. It is not used to identify duplicates, but if changed, it can also be aggregated or overwritten depending on the configuration.
Can I change this setting after the integration is created?
Yes, but the behavior only changes for new records or updates made after the modification.