When do contacts merge automatically?

Cloze will merge contacts for you automatically as needed so you shouldn't have to merge contacts often. 

If contacts have the same:

• email address, or 
• the same mobile number

They will be merged automatically. 

Where contacts import from

It is common to connect to Cloze multiple email accounts (like Gmail or Office 365 Outlook), your phone contacts, and import a spreadsheet of contacts. When Cloze finds contacts with an overlapping email address or mobile phone number, it will automatically merge the contacts.  

Contacts can import into Cloze from many places:

• Google Contacts
• Office 365 / Outlook Contacts
• A CSV or Excel spreadsheet import
• iPhone or Android phone contacts app
• Other integrations like MailChimp, dotloop, Skyslope, Zillow Premier Agent -- any service that has a contact integration with Cloze
• Lead Capture - an inbound lead email is processed and creates a contact in Cloze

To avoid creating many duplicates, Cloze merges contacts automatically. 

Example of how contacts merge automatically

Let's look at an example.

First, you connect your Google account and it imports contact information found in Google Contacts to Cloze. One of those contacts is  Margaret Simpson (contact record A below).

Contact record A from your work Google Contacts account

• Name: Margaret Simpson
• Email: maggie@companyname.com
• Mobile phone: 617-555-0987
• Street: 811 Rockland Street
• City: Springfield
• State: MA
• Postal Code: 01118

Then you authorize your address book on your iPhone and it also has a contact for Margaret Simpson.

Contact record B from your iPhone contact app

• Name: Margaret Simpson
• Mobile phone: 617-555-0987 [overlaps the Google Contact]
• Email: margaret.simpson@cloze.com [a new email address not already in Cloze]

The mobile phone number (617-555-0987) on both records is the same so they will merge automatically. 

The merged contact in Cloze now includes both email addresses, mobile phone number, and postal address.

Contact records A and B merged automatically to form:

• Name: Margaret Simpson
• Email: margaret.simpson@cloze.com [merged in from your iPhone contact app]
• Email: maggie@companyname.com
• Mobile phone: 617-555-0987
• Street: 811 Rockland Street 
• City: Springfield 
• State: MA 
• Postal Code: 01118

Next, you import a spreadsheet that also includes Maggie Simpson. 

Contact record C from a spreadsheet

One row in the spreadsheet includes:

• Name: Maggie Simpson
• Email: maggie@companyname.com
• Email 2: margaret.simpson@cloze.com
• Email 3: maggie@anothercompanyname.com [a new email address not already in Cloze]
• Work phone: 781-555-7755
• Mobile phone: 617-555-0987

The mobile phone number (617-555-0987) and the two email addresses (maggie@companyname.com and margaret.simpson@cloze.com) on both records overlap the ones found in the spreadsheet import so they will merge automatically. 

Now the person includes the new information from the spreadsheet, in a single merged contact record. 

Contact records A and B and C are merged automatically to form:

• Name: Margaret Simpson
• Email: maggie@companyname.com
• Email 2: margaret.simpson@cloze.com
• Email 3: maggie@anothercompanyname.com [merged in from the spreadsheet import]
• Work phone: 781-555-7755
• Mobile phone: 617-555-0987
• Street: 811 Rockland Street 
• City: Springfield 
• State: MA 
• Postal Code: 01118