Merging duplicate customers

Duplicate customers happen. Someone writes in from their personal email, then later from work. An old helpdesk had two records for the same person. An integration created one with a slightly different email. Ochre lets you merge two customers into one, cleanly.

When to merge

The right time to merge is when you're sure the two records represent the same human. Common cases:

• Same person, two emails (work and personal).
• Same person, two name spellings.
• One record from a helpdesk import and one created from a new conversation in Ochre.
• One record was created by an integration before the customer wrote in, and another was created when they did.

If you're not sure, don't merge. Aliases (described below) are the looser tool.

Aliases vs. merge

A customer record can hold multiple email aliases. Adding an alias is reversible and non-destructive: it tells Ochre "this email also belongs to this person," and future inbound mail from that address threads to the same record. Aliases also preserve old ticket IDs from imported helpdesks. See conversation-aliases.

A merge collapses two records into one. After a merge, only one record exists. The other is gone. Use aliases first; merge when you have two full records that genuinely should be one.

How to merge

From either customer's profile page, click Merge. Search for the other customer by name or email. Ochre shows a side-by-side preview of both records.

What gets combined

• Conversations: every conversation from both records, sorted by date, attached to the surviving record.
• Email addresses: the loser's primary email becomes an alias on the survivor. Existing aliases on both come along.
• Original ticket IDs: preserved as aliases.
• Custom fields: merged. Where both records have a value for the same field, the survivor's value wins by default; you'll be asked which to keep for any field that conflicts.
• Integration links: Stripe and HubSpot context attaches to the survivor. If both records were linked to different objects in the same integration, you'll be asked which to keep.
• Audit history: combined and timestamped, with a merge event noting who did it.

What doesn't transfer

Nothing is lost in the sense of being deleted, but a few things resolve to one value:

• The display name belongs to the survivor.
• Profile picture belongs to the survivor.
• One Stripe customer link, one HubSpot contact link.

If both records had Stripe links and you keep one, the other Stripe customer is unlinked from Ochre, not deleted in Stripe.

Confirmation step

Merges are confirmed twice. The first confirmation shows the side-by-side. The second is a typed-confirmation prompt with the surviving record's email, to prevent accidents during a quick merge spree.

Undoing a merge

Merges can be undone within 24 hours from the audit log. After 24 hours, the merge is considered final and the only way to split the records is to manually create a new customer with the right email and reassign relevant conversations.

This window is intentional. Aliases and custom fields would otherwise drift over the days following a merge, and a late undo would put the system into an awkward half-merged state.

Permissions

Only admins and members with the Customers: Merge permission can merge records. Agents can flag suspected duplicates from the customer panel; an admin gets a notification and can approve or dismiss. See roles-permissions.

Detecting duplicates

The Customers page has a Possible Duplicates view that surfaces records likely to be the same person. The detector looks for:

• Identical names with different emails.
• Same domain, similar names.
• One record with very few conversations being a stub of another.
• Cross-record matches between Stripe and HubSpot data.

Each suggestion is shown with the evidence; admins can merge with one click or dismiss.

Merging in bulk

For migration cleanup, bulk merge is available from the Possible Duplicates view. Select multiple suggestions and approve as a batch. Bulk merges still go through the same combine logic record-by-record; they don't shortcut the conflict prompts. Plan a half hour the first time you run it on a large workspace.

After merging

The surviving record's profile shows all combined conversations. Aliases are listed under identity, and a small "merged from" timeline note records who triggered the merge. Conversations remain in their original folders and inboxes; merging customers does not move conversations.

If a customer comes in fresh after a merge with one of the now-aliased emails, Ochre threads the conversation to the survivor automatically.

Merging is the cleanup tool, not the everyday tool. Most "duplicate" cases are better solved with an alias. When merge is the right answer, do it deliberately.