Most organisations hold more versions of a customer than they realise. A newsletter signup creates one record. A service ticket creates another. An online purchase creates a third. Loyalty programs, mobile apps and website forms add even more. It’s normal. It’s simply what happens when customers interact with you across different systems.
The real issue is what happens next. Systems treat every version as different people.
- Marketing thinks someone is new when they’re not.
- Customer Service can’t see the last purchase during a call.
- Sales follows up a lead who’s already converted.
It slows teams down and makes experiences feel disconnected.
This is where identity resolution in Data 360 makes a real difference. It’s the process that brings those scattered records together. It uses exact matches such as email or phone. It picks up near matches such as spelling variations. And it relies on smart logic to recognise patterns that suggest two records belong to the same person.
Once it connects the pieces, Data 360 forms one living customer profile. It updates in real time as people browse, buy, lodge cases or change their details. Every team starts working from the same source of truth, which makes decisions clearer and far more confident.
But identity resolution doesn’t run on technology alone. You need a few business decisions in place to get it right.
Decide what counts as a trusted identifier
Your organisation needs clarity on which fields are safe enough to use when joining records. Email, phone and customer ID are common choices, but every business is different. Setting these rules early avoids incorrect matches and keeps data quality high.
Decide how strict or flexible matching should be
Some teams want conservative matching because they’d rather keep records separate than risk linking the wrong people. Others prefer flexible matching to bring more records together. This decision shapes how effective your unified profile will be.
Decide how to handle conflicting data
It’s common for the same person to show up in two systems with slightly different details. Data 360 can make sense of those differences.
Not all fields are created equal. Some update instantly. Some are edited by customers themselves. Some come from forms with tight validation. Others come from older systems that allow free text. When you understand how each source behaves, the more reliable value usually reveals itself.
You might decide that checkout data is the most dependable because customers update it when they buy. You might lean on service data for addresses because agents confirm it during calls. In other cases, the most recent value is the safest bet.
These rules give Data 360 a clear way to resolve differences so profiles stay accurate and teams see the same picture.
Why it matters
These decisions aren’t technical. They’re operational. And they make a real difference to how identity resolution behaves day to day.
Consider a simple example. A customer signs up to a newsletter with one email, then checks out using another. Without identity resolution and clear rules, your systems treat them as two people. A welcome journey might fire even though they’re already buying. A promotion might hit one version of their profile but not the other. A service agent might miss the purchase entirely.
When identity resolution connects those pieces, everything gets smoother.
- Journeys feel more relevant.
- Segments make more sense.
- Automation becomes reliable.
- Reporting becomes honest.
Identity resolution is the foundation that makes personalisation practical and customer experience consistent from end to end.
If you want help thinking through the decisions that support identity resolution inside your Salesforce environment, let’s talk. We’re always happy to walk through the practical steps.
