Issue Summary

You might notice that the data on a referral being added to the CRM is incorrect. Often, referrals added from your EHR automatically will create duplicate accounts. Careful and frequent management of accounts is important to maintain accuracy in your CRM data.

Action step - Merging duplicate accounts is an essential activity to maintain a healthy CRM. 

 

Why does this happen?

EHR data is constantly coming in from 4 possible sources

• EHR Integration (if applicable)
• Users adding from the Referral Source Database
• Users adding from Market Insights/Market Spotlight
• Accounts and Contacts can be created manually by users

In short, it is common and expected to have duplicate accounts in Marketscape CRM

 

Solution

Merging duplicate accounts is a required ongoing process to ensure accurate and clean data and reporting in Marketscape CRM. To help you in this process it is important to:

• Understand the importance and requirements of merging accounts
• Understand the difference between merging and deleting accounts
• Understanding Merging Best Practices
• Then - Action! - merge duplicate accounts and contacts

 

 In this article

In light of the importance of managing duplicate accounts, this article includes the following content:

• The importance of merging accounts
• Merging vs Deleting
• Merging Best Practices - it is important that you have a clear idea of what needs to be done
• Merging Duplicate Accounts - This section shows you how to merge accounts

 

Importance of Merging

In short, if there are duplicate records, when you look at your data in Marketscape CRM, it will look inaccurate. This will be especially apparent when you run reports. In addition, as new data comes in, the errors compound and make the overall database further from reflecting reality. In order to accurately track and report data in Marketscape CRM, you can't have duplicates.

 

 

Merging vs Deleting

Imagine that you have a record for Dr. Steve Marks and one for Steven Marks, M.D. This is the same person. In each record you have valuable data, for example, one record has the doctor's address, and the other has the doctor's office phone number.

If you delete one record, or the other, you will lose a valuable and helpful piece of information. If you merge the records, you maintain both pieces of data.

 

 

 

Merging Best Practices

 

Ensuring that the account and contact records in Marketscape CRM have minimal duplications is essential for accurate reporting. With so many potential data sources; integrations (EHR), Referral Source Database, and users creating new accounts and contacts, there are bound to be duplications of data. 

Here are some best practices and tips on merging accounts and contacts in Marketscape CRM:

 

Always merge records with an end result in mind

When merging records ensures that the data mirrors real life and has the most up to date information. If you are in doubt of what field(s) are correct and should be left visible, confirm first then resume the merge. 

 

Only be concerned with the fields you edit when selecting which field to display

Fields like name, address, phone number, NPI, owners, etc. are important and should be reviewed carefully to select which record will remain "visible". Fields such as ID, source are not important. Fields highlighted in green will be displayed in the merged record.

when records are merged a new sync ID (system record ID) will be created so don't be concerned about which ID remains visible in the system. 

 

When in doubt during the merge process, Stop!

Un-merging merged accounts/contacts cannot be done in the system, so always ensure that you are confident that a merge is the best option. Using a Parent Account may be a better alternative to a merge depending on the situation. 

 

Always start with merging Accounts, then Contacts

When Accounts are merged in Marketscape CRM all of the referrals, contacts, events, and owners will roll up to one record. So merging accounts first will make duplicate contacts easier to identify and the correct account is already associated. 

 

Merging is always a better alternative to deleting a duplicate record

Simply deleting a duplicate record could remove any pertinent history that cannot be retrieved. Merging will be the best option to pare down the data clutter while still maintaining historical records and notes. 

 

Merging can be done under Account/Contact tools or under bulk actions in a Account/Contact view

Using the merge tool (at the bottom of the Account or Contact tab) is the easiest way to comb the data for duplicates. Instructions on how to search and merge accounts and contacts can be found in the Product Feature Guides. Up to 4 records can be merged at once in either location in the platform. 

 

Do several "sweeps" to identify duplicate records

There are several fields to check for potential duplicate records and searching on different fields can give you varying results.

the merge tool will be checking for exact matches in the system so only searching on name may miss some duplicates (example: ABC Hospital may have a duplicate spelled ABC Hosp). 

For accounts it is ideal to start by doing a sweep on Account with the same name and address 1. 

For contacts it is ideal to start by doing a sweep on NPI.

 

Merging doesn't delete records, they are just hidden

When you make the selection to keep a particular field visible on the record, the other information still remains in the system but just isn't visible. You can still search on the data in the system and pull up the merged record. 

 

Check your work

Once a merge has been done, there will be a green bar that confirms that the records were successfully merged. There is a link to view the merged record. It is ideal to ensure the newly merged record had consolidated the data as you were expecting. 

 

How To merge Accounts

Occasionally there will be a need to remove some accounts. In some cases you will want to merge together multiple records, in other cases you are interested in removing the record entirely. 

Simply deleting a record when a duplicate is found could inadvertently cause the loss of important information and is not recommended.

 

Merging Duplicate Accounts

There are two best practice methods for identifying and merging duplicates in Marketscape CRM. 

Method 1: Visualization

Marketscape CRM's primary account view can be a powerful ally when looking to identify and correct data issues.

1. Click the Accounts tabs in the main Marketscape CRM menu bar for the appropriate data you would like to search on.
2. On the page displaying your list of accounts, change the sorting preference by clicking on the dropdown menu for Sort By, which is located under the Search Contacts bar on the left side of the page. Choose Name for accounts. Click Go.
3. Scroll through the list of names to look for entries that may be duplicates.
4. Click on the check boxes to the far left of the duplicate account names. Then scroll to the bottom of the display and from the dropdown menu beside the Bulk Actions label select Merge Records.
5. In the Merge Tool display, the selected accounts will appear side by side. Choose which information to keep in each field by clicking on it and highlighting it green. Only information highlighted in green will appear in the final merged record.
6. Click on the Merge button, located at both the top and bottom of the Merge Tool display.
7. A notification stating Merge successfully completed will appear on your screen. You also have the option here to view the newly merged record or return to the main results display by returning to the previous page.

Method 2: Using the Find Duplicate Accounts Tool

1. Click on the Accounts tabs in the main Marketscape CRM menu bar for the appropriate data you would like to search on.
2. On the page displaying your list of accounts, scroll to the bottom of the display. In the area labeled Account Tools, click on the "Find Duplicate Accounts".
3. In the Duplicate Account Checker window that appears, select the fields you would like searched for matches. Click Run Duplicates Search, located at the bottom of the window.
   • Helpful fields for further refining your search include Name, Address 1, Phone 1, and ZIP code. 
4. Click on the check boxes to the far left of the duplicate account names. Then either select "Merge Selected" at the top of the screen, or scroll to the bottom of the display and from the dropdown menu beside the Bulk Actions label select "Merge".
5. In the Merge Tool display, the selected accounts will appear side by side. Choose which information to keep in each field by clicking on it and highlighting it green.
   • Only information highlighted in green will appear in the final merged record.
6. Click on the Merge button, located at both the top and bottom of the Merge Tool display.
7. A notification stating Merge successfully completed will appear on your screen.
   • You also have the option here to view the newly merged record.
   • Any remaining duplicates that resulted from your previous search still will be displayed in this area.

Always merge accounts (facilities) before you merge contacts (individuals).

 

Deleting Accounts

1. Click the Accounts tabs in the main Marketscape CRM menu bar for the appropriate data you would like to search on.
2. Scroll through the list of names to look for entries that you would like to delete.
3. Click on the check boxes to the far left of the account name. Then scroll to the bottom of the display and from the dropdown menu beside the Bulk Actions label select Delete Records.

Accounts assigned to an event or referral cannot be deleted.