Managing Contacts with Duplicate Emails
You can set your system to require a unique email address for all new contacts, but there maybe times where you need to add a contact with the same email address. You can enable the unique requirement but still give your team the flexibility to create new contacts by giving a user an override or by putting the contacts into the contact creation approval process.
Important
In order for any of the workflows below to work, you must enable the Require Unique Emails on Contacts Configuration. You can find the configuration under Settings > System Configurations > Customers > Contacts.
With the 'Require Unique Email Address on Contacts' enabled, when any users tries to enter a new contact and the email address 100% matches another contact's email address, the user will see a pop-up with the other contact(s). The pop-up will show a list of contacts with the same email address, and depending on their permissions, they will either be able to ignore the pop-up and create the new contact anyway, or they can view, edit, or request access to any of the other contacts listed. Users can also click on 'View All Contacts with This Email’ which will bring them to the Contact Search page with the email field filled out.
If you want to allow only a few users to bypass the requirement, you can give those users the 'Create Contacts with Duplicate Email Addresses' permission. The permission is found in the Contacts section of the user permissions page. With this permission, a user will still see the pop-up and any relevant contacts, but can continue to create the contact as normal.
However, if you would rather give your users the option to create any contact they want, but require additional approval, you can enable the 'Allow Approval For Duplicate Email Addresses on Contacts' configuration. This configuration allows the user to either create or request approval for contacts with duplicate emails. Once a contact is created, the contact will go into the Contact Creation section of the Approval Queue widget. Another user with the Approve New Contacts permission and access to the widget will need to approve the contact before it can get worked on by the creator.
Important
A user with the Create Contacts with Duplicate Email Addresses permission will bypass the approval process.
If you just want users to see the list of duplicate emails but still have the option to add contacts, you should enable the 'Require Unique Email Address Configuration' and give All users the the 'Create Contacts with Duplicate Email Addresses' permission.