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How Persona Merges Happen

AIQ automatically merges customer personas across POS, Ecommerce, loyalty signup, and other sources to maintain a unified master profile. This article explains merge logic, timing, examples, and how to view merge history.

Updated over 3 weeks ago

Prerequisites


Before getting started, ensure you have:

Required Permissions:

The personas page is available to users with the following permissions:

  • Staff

  • Manager

  • Analyst

  • Marketing

  • Marketing Analyst

  • Operator

  • Owner

How Automatic Merging Works

AIQ merges personas when matching PII is detected. The system uses a strict priority order to determine when profiles represent the same customer.

Merge Priority (Highest → Lowest)

  1. Phone number

  2. Email address

  3. First + Last Name + Date of Birth (if enabled in Loyalty Settings)

  4. Government ID number

  5. Medical ID number

If any of these match, the profiles will automatically merge.


Examples

Example 1: Shared Phone Number

A customer signs up for loyalty with their friend’s phone number. Phone number has the highest priority → AIQ merges both profiles under that phone number.

Fix: Update the incorrect PII in the persona (see Manual Merging doc). The system will unmerge and correct itself within 24 hours.


Why Merges Happen

  • Duplicate Signups: Same phone number used with different names or emails

  • Shared PII: Family members or friends sharing phone/email

  • Partial Updates: POS, Ecommerce, or signup form data updating only one field

  • Multiple systems syncing into AIQ: We unify all PII into the master persona

Important Notes

  • ⚠️ Merges run overnight and can take up to 24 hours to process

  • Old emails remain visible in the Merges tab, but only the most recent email or phone receives your marketing message

  • POS updates may require the customer to make another purchase before syncing


Why Merges Do Not Happen

AIQ does not merge personas based on:

  • Same first and last name only

  • Similar names

  • Typos or formatting differences

  • Incomplete PII

  • Recent transactions (merge may not have processed yet)

If Name + DOB merging is enabled in Loyalty Settings, profiles will merge only when both match.


How to View Merge History

  1. Navigate to Customers > Personas

  2. Open a persona

  3. Go to the History tab

  4. Click the Merges tab

If the persona has zero merges, the merges tab will not appear


What You’ll See in the Merges tab

  • AIQ Universal ID

  • List of merged personas, including:

  • Platform source (POS/Ecom/Loyalty/etc.)

  • AIQ ID

  • Date Imported

  • Source ID

  • PII used for merging


How to Search for Merged Personas

Use the merge search operator:

  • merge:[phone] merge:[email]

Examples:

Remove all dashes, spaces, and special characters.

Tip: This is the fastest way to find “missing” personas that were merged into another customer.

For correcting merges, see: Manual Persona Merging.

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