How To Merge Duplicate Activists In Action Network

How To Merge Duplicate Activists In Action Network

You've no doubt come across more than one record for some Activists. This is unfortunately unavoidable. Activists on occasion will complete an Action with a new email address, rather than updating the email address already associated with their record.

What Do I Need To Know About Duplicate Records?

There are a few things that may be useful to know when dealing with duplicate records:
  1. The email address for each activist is a unique identifier. This means that you won't see two records with the same email address.
  2. When a GPEW member updates their email address via the Membership Portal, their old record is unsubscribed and a new record created. The Digital Support Team merge these records when possible. 
  3. If a member changes their email address their previous record will include the field GPEW_New_Email. This field will be populated with their new email address. If the value of this field matches the email address already on their record, then the records have already been merged.
  4. It's not always possible to merge records (more on that below).
  5. You should not merge records unless you've confirmed that they belong to the same person. 
  6. If you're ever unsure, contact us for support.
  7. There are two ways to access the Merge Activists screen. To keep things simple we'll only be showing one in this guide.
It's also worth pointing out that although an activist may have several records, only one should be associated with their membership (if they're a member). This is not always the case, as sometimes members will join twice with different email addresses. If more than one record shows a Membership_Status of Current you may wish to prompt them to contact the Membership Team to check for duplicate subscriptions.

Why Can't I Merge Some Records?

If somebody has an Action Network account then it's not possible to change the email address on their record. Only they can do this, by logging into Action Network and updating their email address via their profile. These users tend to be Action Network administrators, but anybody can create an Action Network account.

You'll see that the EDIT EMAIL button doesn't appear beneath an activist's email address for those you can't edit.



How To Merge Activist Records

Although as an Admin you may have the ability to merge duplicate records, we don't recommend doing so for members due to the risk of causing data quality issues. If in doubt please raise a ticket. You should also be aware that merging an activist will resubscribe them to email if they've previously unsubscribed, so you'll need to check their preferences before proceeding.
1. From either of the Activist Records you wish to merge, click on EDIT ACTIVIST.



2. Click on the EDIT EMAIL button beneath the activist's email address.



3. Enter the email address you'd like to merge the record with and click SAVE CHANGES.



4. On the following page you'll see the two records side-by-side. The values highlighted in green are those that will be kept, and those in red will be discarded. In the example below we've confirmed with Mary that she has changed her surname, and moved to Leeds. Her taste in biscuits has also shrunk. If we needed to keep any of the information highlighted in red we'd just click on the values to keep to turn them green.



5. Once you've confirmed the values to keep click on the button marked MERGE ACTIVISTS.



6. The records will now be merged and you'll see that any email and action history has been merged too.

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