Review and merge duplicate contacts in 6am

Resolve a confirmed duplicate in 6am while preserving the chosen contact ID and a record of the decision. Review identity before merging: matching names are a suggestion, never proof.

• Outcome: One active contact with verified details; the other record archived; originals, final values and evidence retained in Merge history.
• Responsible: A workspace administrator or member with tenancy: manage contacts permission.
• Tool: 6am dashboard → Contacts → Review duplicates.
• Inputs: Two existing contacts in the same workspace and a trusted source that confirms they represent the same person.

01. Decide whether a merge is appropriate

1. Confirm the company in the workspace selector and the Workspace heading. Stop if the records belong to another company. Permissions and history are scoped to this workspace.
2. Open both contact details and compare their native 6am IDs with the private source records. Check current email, international phone, name, company and notes. Resolve contradictory information with the source owner.
3. Merge only when there is sufficient evidence of the same identity, such as an authorized source confirming an old and current email for the same person. A shared family phone, company inbox or identical name is insufficient by itself. Hold unresolved pairs with an owner and next action.
4. For an isolated typo, use Edit in Contacts instead. Review all six fields before saving. Clearing a field in this form removes its value, unlike blank CSV cells. At least one valid email or international phone must remain. Notes have a 2,000-character limit.
5. Record the reason and intended surviving ID before starting. Preserve relevant source evidence in the private job folder; put a concise reference in the merge evidence field rather than unnecessary sensitive details.

02. Select the two records

1. Open Review duplicates. Possible matches by full name lists contacts with matching first and last names, ignoring case and outer spaces. It does not find every duplicate or confirm identity. Names that differ can still be reviewed manually.
2. Search by name, email, phone or company. Each search offers up to 30 matches. Narrow the search when the intended record is absent. Selected records remain available when the search changes.
3. Choose the contact whose native ID must remain under Surviving contact. Choose the redundant record under Contact to archive. Check their identifiers rather than relying on display names.
4. Click Compare contacts. No merge has occurred yet. Verify that the two displayed IDs are distinct and belong to the intended records.

03. Choose and review every final field

1. Compare First name, Last name, Email, Phone, Company and Notes. For each differing value, explicitly choose From surviving contact or From archived contact. Identical values are already selected. A dash represents an empty value; selecting it can clear that field.
2. For Notes, choose one version or Combine both notes when both are relevant. The final note must fit 2,000 characters. If the correct value is absent or the combined note is too long, cancel the comparison, edit the appropriate contact, and compare again.
3. Click Review final result. Check the final email and phone against the trusted source and confirm that at least one valid identifier remains. Use Change field choices if anything is incorrect.
4. Read the consequences: the surviving ID stays; the other record is archived. Discarded emails and phones remain in the audit history and are blocked from reuse. They are not alternate delivery addresses and do not redirect to the survivor. The archived contact ID is not a usable import ID.
5. Enter the Evidence used to confirm identity (10–1,000 characters). Example structure: source reference, who verified the identity, verification date, and why the selected record should survive. Do not invent evidence or use the example as proof.
6. Check I verified these records belong to the same person and reviewed all final values only after completing the review. Click Confirm merge, then read and accept the final confirmation if the pair and consequences are correct. There is no automatic undo.

Tags: Review Tags kept after merge before confirming. The surviving contact receives the union of both sets; the archived contact loses active associations. Merge history records original and resulting tag names. Changes to tag membership or names invalidate the comparison. After merging, verify the combined tags and use SOP 085 to remove any label that no longer applies.

04. Verify and close the review

1. Wait for Contacts merged. Open View contacts, find the surviving record and verify its ID and all final values. The archived record should no longer appear among active contacts.
2. Return to Merge history → View comparison. Confirm the original records, final values, evidence, operator ID and UTC timestamp. History is available to authorized workspace members; it is an audit trail, not a restore button.
3. Update the private working list with the surviving ID and current identifiers. Remove references to the archived ID from future CSVs. Do not reuse discarded identifiers to recreate the archived contact.
4. Record the outcome, surviving ID and history reference in the private job record. Keep unresolved pairs separately with an owner and next action. A merge sends no messages, starts no campaign and grants no marketing consent.

Exceptions and stop conditions

Completion checklist

• Identity evidence supports the merge and the workspace is correct.
• The intended ID remains active and every final field was checked.
• The redundant record is archived and the history contains the decision.
• Source lists use current IDs and identifiers; unresolved pairs have owners.

For file preparation use SOP 082, for execution use SOP 083, and for the full cleanup sequence use SOP 084. This editorial revision describes the implemented 6am workflow.