Managing and Merging Contact Records

Keeping your contact records accurate and organized is easier with new contact management tools in the OTS Dashboard. You can now update primary email addresses, identify and merge duplicate contacts, review changes made to a contact, and more.

Edit a Contact’s Primary Email Address

You can edit a contact’s primary email address directly from their contact record in the OTS Dashboard.

When you update the primary email address:

OTS checks whether the new email address is already associated with another contact.
If no duplicate is found, the contact is updated and you’ll see a confirmation message.
The patron will receive a system email notifying them that their email address was updated.
If the email address already belongs to another contact, OTS will show you the existing record and give you the option to merge the contacts or return to edit the email address.

This helps prevent multiple contact records from sharing the same primary email address.

Merge Contacts With Duplicate Email Addresses

If you enter a primary email address that is already associated with another contact, OTS will guide you through the merge process.

1. Review the Duplicate

You’ll first see the existing contact associated with the email address. From here, you can either return to the contact and enter a different email address or continue with merging the two records.

2. Choose the Primary Record

Next, select which contact should serve as the primary record. The primary record determines the initial information that will be carried into the merged contact. You’ll have an opportunity to review and change individual values before completing the merge. Important customer activity associated with the contacts will be preserved, including:

Orders
Donations
Memberships
Subscriptions

3. Choose Which Information to Keep

Before completing the merge, you’ll be able to compare information from both contacts and select which values should be included in the final record.

Fields with identical information will be disabled, allowing you to focus on the information that differs between the two contacts.

Depending on the information available, you can review:

First and last name
Preferred name
Primary email address
Phone number
Primary address
Birthdate
Pronouns
Custom fields
Tags
Household information
Email marketing opt-in status

Tags are displayed as a multi-select option so you can preserve the appropriate tags from both records.

4. Complete the Merge

Once the merge is complete, you’ll be taken to the updated contact record and see a confirmation message. The primary contact record is maintained while the applicable information and history from the other contact are combined into it.

Note: Contact merging is available to Producers, Box Office Managers, and Admins.

Merge Contact Records Manually

You don’t have to wait for a duplicate email address to merge contacts.

On any contact record, select the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner and choose Merge Records. OTS will display suggested contacts that may be duplicates based on information such as:

Similar first names, including potential nicknames or typos
Matching last names
Matching addresses
Matching cell phone numbers

You can select one of the suggested contacts or use the search field to find another contact by name or email address. After selecting the contact you want to merge, you’ll follow the same merge process described above:

Choose the primary record.
Review differences between the records.
Select which information you want to keep.
Complete the merge.

Orders, donations, memberships, subscriptions, and other applicable contact history will remain associated with the merged contact.

View a Contact’s Audit History

Each contact record now includes an Audit History tab to make it easier to understand when important changes were made.

The Audit History includes:

Updates to the contact’s primary email address
Contact record merges

Actions are organized by the date they occurred. When additional information is available, use the dropdown arrow next to an entry to view more details. Audit History follows the same format used for audit records elsewhere in the OTS Dashboard, giving you a consistent way to track important changes.

Managing and Merging Contact Records and Editing Primary Emails