Forum Discussion

HotTubDave's avatar
HotTubDave
Contributor 3
8 months ago

Duplicate clients

I've been asking about this for a while and am hoping that someone has found a solution.  

At least once a week, when syncing with quickbooks, I get an error message saying that it can't sync CLIENT NAME because CLIENT NAME already exists.

There are essentially two causes of the problem:

An existing customer uses the on-line request form.  The most common thing I'm seeing is that they type their address as "NJ."  When we enter new clients, we use the autofill feature with the address that always fills with "New Jersey."  We usually catch the error AFTER the technician has gone out and done a job, entered job notes, created and invoice and collected payment.  Now we have two records in jobber, each with incomplete information,

The second cause of the problem is if I or my office manager are talking to someone and create a new customer account.  I can't blame anyone but myself, but it would be a nice feature for jobber to catch that.  

If I change a password on my bank account and I used that password a year ago, the bank notices it.  If I try to open a google account and use my name when I already have a google account, google catches it.  So does just about every other on-line service.

So my first question is how come Quickbooks, TDBank and Google can figure it out and Jobber can't?

My second question is with all the investment in artificial intelligence, how come jobber can't see that it has two records with the same name, phone number, email address and street address?

This could be resolved in one of two ways:

  1. Either have jobber check if the name/address/phone number or another unique identifier is being use when a new client is entered.
  2. Have jobber allow me to merge the two client records into one.

Right now, it takes half an hour for me to cut and paste between the two records to make one.  The real pain in the neck is the photos we take for our customers projects.  They can't be cut and pasted between two jobber accounts.  They need to be downloaded from the extra client record to my PC, then uploaded to the other client record.

Sorry for my venting - but this is getting to be a real time killer for me.  I invested in computer hardware and software to make up for my shortcomings - not to create problems that I have to use my evenings to fix.

Anyone else care about this, or am I the only one with the problem?

client hub
client manager

8 Replies

  • MrElectro's avatar
    MrElectro
    Contributor 3
    22 days ago

    Can I also add that I also have this issue but also get customers making a request when they have an existing account but somehow adding there address again so I can have some customers with 7 different addresses which are all under the same account and all ever so slightly different. Because of the way in which requests - quote - job etc can be moved its not often caught unless you delve deep into the customer profile and find out they have multiple properties with the same address. Now we have to either leave these or delete the extra ones which deletes are the history against that particular address. So it would be better to have a way for a customer once they have an existing account to at least need to login maybe to make a new request etc or be able to merge addresses, customers etc. My jobber crm is now a complete mess of duplicate customers and addresses.

  • HotTubDave's avatar
    HotTubDave
    Contributor 3
    3 months ago

    I have noticed lately that Jobber will catch similar information when entering a new customer and let me know the client already exists.  So kudos to that!

    still have the issue with job requests however.  I don’t know that I want my customers or prospects getting error messages that “client already exists.”  Maybe Jobber could flag it so I see on the back end?

    or just spend 40 minutes once or twice a month doing it manually when Quickbooks catches the error.

    But it does raise the question:  How come Quickbooks can spot the error and Jobber can’t?

  • Nantucket's avatar
    Nantucket
    Contributor 2
    3 months ago

    Hey Jobber Community.

    my first post, so this thread is where I’ll jump in to ask for the same feature or ability to migrate client data, or even inside a job you could just change the client,

     

    I have a few instances where I had multiple reaching out to me for different projects before I realize they work for the same company so I had two individual clients three properties on one two properties on the other before I got any billing done, luckily there’s one billing email so I was able to just add that billing email to both clients and now the office can log into the client hub and see everything under that email but again for people who are not technically advanced I think the client hub is still a ways out for some of my clients

    So anyways, requesting job does do some sort of merge function or at least be able to change the client

    I’m not too far into where I can’t manually move stuff over at this point, but I can imagine having technicians doing this working under me and then getting way behind. It would be a pain to try to get it all fixed.

  • HotTubDave's avatar
    HotTubDave
    Contributor 3
    6 months ago

    If a merge function isn't practical, how about have Jobber just note that the address or phone number is already in another customer record, just to catch the data entry conflict before it becomes a duplicate of an existing record?    

  • CandyCain24's avatar
    CandyCain24
    Contributor 3
    6 months ago

    I dont think leaving it up to the client is the best solution. We definitely need a merge option for when our employees enter in the same client two or three times. (yes that has happened) i have even had them reissue invoices for the same service at least two different times. 

  • krista's avatar
    krista
    Jobber Support Team
    8 months ago

    Hi Dave, thanks for reaching out. I appreciate the time you took to share this feedback. One solution to the issue I know works for some of our customers is to have a login for existing customers on your webpage. This will let your customers login to the client hub and submit requests within their client portal. You can get this link from the Gear Icon > Settings > Client Hub > bottom of the page > share login page

    I think a merge client option would be a great idea, I would be happy to share this use case with the team. There are so many emerging opportunities for us to implement AI to help us improve workflows and we are always looking for more. 

    As for this working with the Quickbooks Online sync, our Success Team would be happy to resolve that with you. Please reach out to 1-888-721-1115 option 1 or support@getjobber.com at your convenient. 

    • HotTubDave's avatar
      HotTubDave
      Contributor 3
      8 months ago

      Thanks Krista.

      I am really against the idea for my customers having to log into the client hub.   I don't know about you, but I must have 150 passwords and half are for sites that really don't need that level of security.  I use a password manager but some of my customers are senior citizens that are challenged sending a text message or email.  I want to make it easier for them, not harder.  Also, we do repairs, so we may only interact with a customer once every 2 or 3 years.  They aren't going to remember they have a client hub. 

      If I'm the only customer with the problem, I understand you guys not wanting to put the resources into it.  I was just looking to see if it's a common issue or I'm a loner.

      Thanks,
      Dave Felder