How to Efficiently Merge Accounts in Salesforce

In large CRM systems, duplicate records and outdated accounts can confuse and pollute the quality of your data. This means you may reach out to the wrong client or bombard a prospect with the same information multiple times—actions that can put your business’s success (and reputation) at risk.

‍

If you want to learn how to conduct an effective account merge to ensure accurate data, Salesforce is your answer. The platform is designed to keep your systems up-to-date, eliminate discrepancies, merge duplicate accounts, and, ultimately, ensure quality data.

‍

The Importance of Salesforce Account Merge

‍

Using the Salesforce merge accounts tool effectively lets you maintain an accurate record of your clients and business contacts. Regularly merging duplicate accounts improves several aspects of your sales and customer relations ecosystem.

‍

Enhancing Data Accuracy

‍

One of the main use cases for Salesforce account merge is eliminating outdated records by combining them with new, accurate records. In fact, regularly deleting unnecessary data through merge improves the overall accuracy of your entire database, especially after mass data uploads like a Salesforce data migration.

‍

Improving Sales Productivity

‍

Auditing your data and eliminating duplicates ensures your team can always find the right information whenever needed. 

‍

So, instead of parsing through multiple fields to confirm various account information, they can trust that the data they’re accessing is correct. 

‍

Streamlining Customer Experience

‍

Having outdated or duplicate files in your Salesforce CRM can lead to misdirected or delayed customer communications. By only housing one account record for each account owner, your team can ensure consistent and reliable customer communications.

‍

Preparing for Account Merging

‍

Prime your data for consolidation and ensure a smooth merge with the following steps.

‍

Assess Your Salesforce Data

‍

Start by reviewing your data to determine if you need to transfer a few person accounts or if you need to merge duplicate Salesforce accounts on a wider scale. Then, develop a strategy for tackling outdated data, such as making a list of duplicates to check and eliminate. 

‍

Back-Up Your Data

‍

Create a backup file of your current data to restore your information if you accidentally merge personal accounts or files meant to be kept separate. While you can’t undo a data merge, you can reference your backup database to recreate the eliminated account record.

‍

Steps to Efficiently Merge Accounts

‍

Merging accounts in Salesforce follows the same general process: Merging duplicate contacts within your own system or taking over clients from another business. 

‍

Essentially, merging Salesforce account data requires the following.

‍

Logging into Salesforce and Accessing the Accounts Tab

‍

Upon launching Salesforce, navigate to the Accounts tab, where you’ll find the “Merge Accounts” option under the Tools section. Select this option to open the Salesforce account merge wizard and start streamlining your data. 

‍

Keep in mind that Salesforce automatically allows you to combine accounts, but you may need to enable merge accounts depending on your settings.

‍

Selecting and Verifying the Accounts to Be Merged

‍

Enter a search term to track down the accounts you want to combine. You can use a single search string to find duplicate contacts or search for multiple terms to combine accounts with different names. 

‍

Review the account records to verify that you’ve selected the right accounts and avoid accidentally deleting customer data. Make your selections by clicking the checkbox, then click “Next.” 

‍

Currently, Salesforce only allows you to merge up to three accounts simultaneously. If you have a high volume of duplicate accounts, you can explore outside tools that enable you to mass merge accounts or work with a Salesforce management partner that can handle large duplicate data removal projects.

‍

Initiating the Merge Process

‍

To proceed with the merge, choose one of your selected accounts to act as the master record for that account. Then, determine which aspects of each account you want to store in the master record.

‍

Reviewing and Resolving Conflicts

‍

Salesforce will automatically compare the data in your selected accounts and highlight fields that have conflicting values. Whether using the merge tool to transfer data to another account or combining an outdated record with an updated version, you’ll need to manually determine which record has the correct information. 

‍

Choose what you want to retain for each field to curate a fully accurate and up-to-date account record.

‍

Confirming the Merge

‍

Once you’re confident that you’ve selected the correct information for each field, simply click “Merge” to complete the process and merge the duplicate accounts. 

‍

Now, you and your team can enjoy a more focused CRM experience by eliminating excessive or inaccurate records from your system.

‍

Preserve Your Data Integrity With Account Merge Salesforce Solutions

‍

Regularly combining and auditing your Salesforce accounts keeps your information up-to-date and reduces unnecessary noise from your Salesforce database. By removing duplicate data from your business accounts, you can cultivate an efficient, focused data ecosystem that enhances customer relationships, improves sales, and drives revenue.

‍

How Operatus Can Help

‍

As Salesforce implementation and management experts, the Operatus team specializes in maximizing the functionality of your Salesforce database—our consultants will leverage their expertise to help you take control of your account records. Once you’ve refined your sales data, collaborate with our team to discover novel strategies and Salesforce customizations you can use to supercharge your CRM. 

‍

Get started by reaching out today.