Improved Temporary Contact Mapping Needed

[danowens]

I have noticed when processing new temporary contacts that we sometimes get into a situation where the "new" contact is actually already in our system, but they have changed their email address. If I select the existing contact to merge them with, the new email address gets ignored and the auto responder receipt goes to the old address. So this forces us to create a new contact for the same person just because their address has changed.
Similarly, if a spouse were to donate, it is not feasible to merge them with the other member of the family because the member that already exists in our data is the one that will get the receipt.
Could it be possible to have a more interactive merge option so that in these scenarios we can pick which fields the new data will get merged with? Or indicate this is a new household member to an existing record? And in some cases we might want to merge the new contact with an existing record, but have the new contact data take precedence over the old, as in the case when an email address is updated.

[CnP.Support]

Hi DanOwens,

Interesting observation and case!

I agree that the situation needs to be addressed. I will discuss with our team and see if we can come up with a solution.

There is a challenge with the autoresponder & that is the Contact record used for mail merge is what is available in the "Contact" record and not the XML. It has been a bit challenging and one that may result in the situation you are experiencing. I will discuss it with the team and see if we can come up with an alternative.