Customer relationship management (CRM) systems are the backbone of modern businesses. They help sales teams track leads, marketing teams segment audiences, and customer success teams maintain relationships. But there is one major issue lurking in almost every CRM: duplicate data.
At first glance, duplicate records might seem like a minor inconvenience. But in reality, they are a silent revenue killer, costing businesses millions each year in lost opportunities, wasted effort, and inaccurate reporting.
On a recent episode of UpYourStack, Noah Berk, Co-CEO of Aptitude 8, sat down with Hampus Isaksson, Partner and COO at Dedupely, and Tin Castro, Customer Success Manager, to discuss the true impact of duplicate data, why traditional deduplication methods fall short, and how Dedupely is solving this problem for HubSpot users.
The Revenue Impact of Duplicate Data
Most companies know they have duplicate records in their CRM, but few realize how costly the issue really is. At HubSpot’s last Inbound conference, the topic of data quality took center stage, with a shocking statistic: poor data—primarily due to duplicate records—can cost businesses up to 20% of their annual revenue.
This revenue loss stems from multiple factors:
- Sales inefficiencies: Reps waste time trying to figure out which contact record is the right one. Important interactions might be logged under a duplicate, causing missed follow-ups.
- Marketing misalignment: Email campaigns are sent multiple times to the same lead, increasing opt-outs and damaging credibility.
- Poor customer experience: Support teams struggle to get a full picture of customer history, leading to slower response times and frustration.
- Inaccurate reporting: Duplicate data skews analytics, making it harder to track performance, forecast revenue, and make informed decisions.
Duplicate records do more than just clutter a CRM. They create real financial and operational inefficiencies that compound over time.
Why Traditional Deduplication Methods Fail
Historically, businesses have relied on manual processes or basic CRM deduplication tools to clean up duplicate records. But these methods are often time-consuming, inconsistent, and ineffective at scale.
Manual Deduplication
Manually searching for and merging duplicates is impractical for any company with a large database. It requires employees to spot and compare records one by one, leading to errors and wasted time.
Built-in CRM Tools
Most CRMs, including HubSpot and Salesforce, offer some level of deduplication. However, these tools typically require users to merge records manually and often miss subtle duplicates—such as slight name variations or email inconsistencies.
Bulk Merging Challenges
Even when bulk merging is available, it often comes with limitations. Many built-in tools lack customization, meaning businesses must adjust their data structures to fit the software, rather than the other way around. As a result, businesses continue to struggle with duplicate records, leading to frustration and lost revenue.
How Dedupely Solves the Problem
Dedupely was built to address these challenges head-on. Unlike traditional solutions, Dedupely integrates seamlessly with HubSpot and other CRMs, making deduplication simple, automated, and scalable.
Automated Duplicate Detection
Dedupely scans CRM data to identify duplicates based on multiple criteria, such as name, email, company, and custom fields. This ensures that even subtle duplicates are caught and merged correctly.
Bulk Merging at Scale
Rather than forcing users to merge records one by one, Dedupely allows businesses to bulk merge thousands of duplicates in just a few hours. This feature alone saves teams hundreds of hours of manual work.
Customer-Centric Approach
One of the key differentiators of Dedupely is its customer success-driven model. Unlike other SaaS tools that require users to figure things out on their own, Dedupely offers hands-on support to ensure the tool is set up correctly before a customer even makes a purchase.
According to Dedupely’s Partner and Success Manager, Tin Castro, this preemptive customer service approach has been a major factor in their success. By helping customers clean up their data before they commit to a subscription, Dedupely builds trust and ensures long-term satisfaction.
The Future of Deduplication
As businesses continue to generate and store more data, the challenge of maintaining clean CRM records will only grow. Looking ahead, Dedupely’s team sees artificial intelligence playing a larger role in automating deduplication even further.
According to Dedupely’s Operations Lead, Hampus Isaksson, the goal is to reach a point where deduplication becomes a fully automated process that businesses no longer have to worry about.
By incorporating advanced algorithms and AI-driven matching, Dedupely aims to make duplicate records a thing of the past.
For businesses that rely on CRM data to drive sales, marketing, and customer success, finding a reliable deduplication solution is no longer optional. It is a necessity.
Final Thoughts
If your CRM is cluttered with duplicate records, you are likely losing revenue and frustrating your teams without even realizing it. Cleaning up data manually is not a sustainable solution, and built-in tools often fall short.
Dedupely provides a smarter, more efficient way to manage duplicates, saving businesses time and money while improving overall data quality.
To learn more about how Dedupely can help, visit Dedupely’s website and see how easy it is to take control of your CRM data.