What are duplicate people?
Gloo identifies potential duplicates when two or more people have the exact same name.
Why duplicates exist?
There are a few different ways duplicate people can end up in your Gloo Workspace and most of the time, it happens simply because people can be added to Gloo from different sources. For example:
You may have already created a contact in Gloo, or someone may have been added automatically the first time they texted your Gloo number. Later, you integrate your Gloo account with a Church Management System (ChMS), such as Planning Center or CCB, and that same person is brought over from your ChMS as a separate profile.
Duplicates can also happen when you upload a CSV containing someone who is already in Gloo, but with a different phone number.
Finally, your ChMS itself may contain multiple records for the same person, each with a different integration ID. When those records are synced, Gloo may bring each version into your account.
Finding duplicate people
If the same person can appear more than once in your Gloo Workspace the Duplicates tab helps you find these potential duplicates so you can review them and, when appropriate, merge them into a single profile. Just navigate to People -> Duplicates to access the active list:
Good to know: Duplicates are identified by name, not by phone number. Two profiles with the same phone number but different names won't appear in this list. The Duplicates page shows groups of people with matching names so you can review their profiles before deciding whether they should be merged.
Reviewing your duplicate people
Each duplicate group includes the matching profiles and a suggested primary profile. Gloo makes this suggestion using information such as:
Integration list membership
Whether the profile has a primary phone number
How complete the profile is
The suggestion is there to help you make a decision, but you should always review the profiles before merging them.
Just because two people have the same name doesn't necessarily mean they're the same person. For example, you might have two different people named John Smith in your organization. Take a moment to review the available information and make sure the profiles belong to the same person before merging.
Merging duplicate people
Once you've determined that profiles represent the same person, you can merge them by selecting the profile you want to keep as the primary profile. Before the merge is completed, Gloo shows you a Merge Preview so you can review what will happen.
Merge Preview
The Merge Preview shows the profile you've selected as the primary profile and the integration IDs that will be absorbed into the primary profile.
Important: Merges are irreversible. Please review the information carefully before confirming the merge.
What happens when you merge?
The primary profile keeps its fields. The duplicate profiles are soft-deleted, and their integration IDs are stored on the primary profile. This helps prevent those integrations from creating the duplicate profiles again during future syncing.
In other words, you're not simply deleting the extra profile- you’re consolidating the profiles while preserving the integration relationships needed to prevent the duplicate from coming back.
What happens to the duplicate list after I merge?
The duplicate group will remain on the page as long as matching duplicate profiles exist. Once you've successfully merged the profiles and the duplicate no longer exists, the group will no longer appear after the page refreshes.
If you're not sure whether two profiles belong to the same person, don't merge them just because their names match. Since merges can't be undone, it's better to leave a potential duplicate for later than to accidentally combine two different people.