Discover methods to easily identify your duplicate customers.
The presence of duplicate customers is a recurring problem in companies. Do you want to clean up your customer database to get 2023 off to a good start? Here are 3 ways to detect Duplicates in your contact lists.
1. The easiest method: use Excel to detect duplicates in your customer database
To search for duplicates in a client file in Excel:
- Import your customer database into Excel,
- Select the cells concerned ( ctrl+a if you want to select all your data easily in your Excel table),
- Then follow the following path: Home > Conditional Formatting > Cell Highlighting Rules > Duplicate Values,
- Choose the fill and text color for your duplicate values, then click OK.
Then, to quickly Remove Duplicates in your Excel table, you can use the functionality available in Excel: Data tab > Remove duplicates icon
Good to know: before deleting duplicates, as a precaution, it is recommended to copy the original data to another spreadsheet in order not to lose information permanently.
2. The most advanced method: using a DMP to de-duplicate your B2B and B2C data
You frequently use Excel or your CRM to optimize your customer data management, but do you know the DMP (Data Management Platform)? These platforms equipped with advanced technology centralize and manage customer data. These platforms are dedicated to companies that aim to improve the quality of their data to be able to better exploit them later. For example, duplicates are easily identified by a DMP solution such as DQE which has a tool for deduplicating and merging data within its platform. Another advantage to highlight: these SaaS solutions integrate with the main CRM and cloud applications, which makes it easier to connect and centralize the various data of a company.
3. The method for your email database: use an email verification tool to remove duplicates and other errors
You regularly send email campaigns but is your contact database up to date? At the start of 2023, it is also relevant to rely on an Email Verification Tool such as Captain Verify, Klemail, and ZeroBounce to save time. The tool will allow you to detect not only duplicates but also incorrect, misspelled email addresses or even "hard bounces" (impossible deliverability of your email to this address). Reliable customer data will help you achieve better deliverability and performance for your campaigns in the future.
Another possible method: you can also export your list of contacts from your emailing solution, then open the exported Excel file and apply the simplest way that I mentioned above. It's your turn!
