Resources / Glossary / The record
Duplicate lead
A second record for a customer who is already in the system, usually created by a new inquiry from a different channel.
Duplicates happen constantly. The same shopper submits a form on Monday, calls from a different number on Wednesday and walks in on Saturday, and the store now has three records with three owners. They also appear when a service customer starts shopping, since that history sits under a different part of the business.
Systems try to catch these by matching phone numbers, email addresses and names, and the matching is never perfect. Somebody still has to decide which record survives, what gets merged into it and who owns the customer afterward.
Why it matters for a sales manager
Duplicates cause the two things customers complain about most: being contacted by several people from the same store, and having to repeat everything they already said. They also inflate your opportunity count, which drags down every conversion rate you report. A weekly look at the duplicate list is dull work that improves both the experience and the numbers.