Duplicate Identification Tool - Enhanced ability to import contacts
One of the main uses I have for the Duplicate Identification Tool is when I'm importing spreadsheets of contacts into the system. These are provided to the club from external parties, and arrive as a spreadsheet or a CSV file.
To get the highest-fidelity data imported, I run a 2-step process:
- Re-format the incoming data into the Duplicate Identification Tool template file, including all the additional (ignored) columns that contain a lot of additional contact information
- Run this file through the Duplicate Identification Tool
- Set to add all matched contacts to a Marketing List
- Set to NOT create contacts that are new
- Download the Results file, and copy out the unmatched (new) contacts into a new spreadsheet
- Clean up the results from the DIP - remove all the NULL values, reformat phone numbers, grab all the ignored columns, etc
- Copy the new contacts into the Dynamics contact import template spreadsheet
- Upload the new contacts directly via Dynamics import
- Grab those contacts and add them to the same Marketing List
Ideally I'd love the Duplicate Identification Tool to run this entire process for me - match the existing contacts and put them into a Marketing List, create the new contacts with all the additional columns and data fields available (instead of just ignoring them), and tag them into the same Marketing List. This would then be a process that the front-line staff themselves could use with relative safety - at the moment it's more of an admin/backend process due to the steps involved and the risks of getting it wrong.
-
Matt Russell
- Sep 5 2019
- Future consideration
Related ideas
I'd like to bump this idea up the tree in light of Microsoft's removal of the "Add to Marketing List" button in the Import Job results window under the new Unified Interface model.
More info: https://experience.dynamics.com/ideas/idea/?ideaid=e797c116-553e-eb11-8fed-0003ff68cf42
Basically, Microsoft have taken that last bullet point in the original post above and made it a very complicated, multi-step process. It was so easy, but in their infinite wisdom they've removed functionality and made this overall import process even longer and harder.
If we could upgrade the Duplicate Identification Tool to be able to not only match dupes from an import file, but also create the new records (in a high-fidelity fashion, vs just the basic fields it currently supports) this would be a huge timesaver plus a massive increase in data quality assurance. Basically, if the Duplicate Identification Tool does not find a match for the record from the import file, it should use ALL fields presented in the import file to create the new contact/account instead of ignoring any additional fields.
With the changes that Microsoft have made to their Import screen under the new UI, the process I described in the original post is now substantially longer and messier, so there's an even bigger ROI for this idea.