Email and Mobile Phone Are Default Unique Identifiers
VipeCloud uses a contact's email address and mobile phone number to determine whether that contact already exists in your account. These two fields are unique by default, so it's not possible to have two contacts with the same email address or the same mobile phone number, unless you manually turn this behavior off.
Duplicates can still occur in edge cases, such as someone changing their email or phone number before being re-added to the system, but you generally won't end up with the same contact in the system twice under the same email or phone number.
What Happens When You Import a Contact That Already Exists
If you import a CSV that includes a contact whose email or mobile phone number already matches a contact in the system, one of two things happens:
If all of the imported data matches what's already on the contact record (name, phone, address, etc), the import skips that row.
If the email or phone matches an existing contact but other fields are different (a new phone number, for example), the existing contact is updated with the new data, since newer data is generally the most accurate.
Either way, no new contact is created.
What Happens When an Existing Contact Submits a Sign-Up Form
Sign-up form submissions follow the same duplicate logic as imports:
If the email or mobile phone number on the submission doesn't match anyone in the system, a new contact is created using the standard and custom fields included on the form.
If the email or mobile phone number matches an existing contact, that contact is updated with any submitted values that differ from what's already on file.
This mechanism is why it is a best practice to require a unique identifier in every sign up form that you create.
How to Mark Additional Fields as Unique
Beyond the default email and mobile phone checks, you can mark other contact fields as unique. When a field is marked unique, the system won't allow a new contact to be saved if that field's value already exists on another contact.
For example, if an existing contact has the phone number 123-555-1212 and you try to save a new contact with that same number, the save is blocked.
For more on setting this up, see the Custom Fields 101 article.
Can Contacts Be on Multiple Contact Lists?
Yes. Being on multiple contact lists doesn't create duplicate contacts. Contact lists are simply groupings used for sending mass emails and texts. A contact could be on a newsletter list, a list for an upcoming service announcement, and the original import list used to track conversion, all without existing as more than one contact record.