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Troubleshooting Persona Merges

If you’re seeing missing personas, incorrect emails, mismatched transactions, or unexpected merges, use this troubleshooting guide.

Managing Personas in AIQ: Merging, Archiving, and Deletion

AIQ provides several tools for managing personas, including merging accounts, archiving personas, and handling bulk uploads. This guide explains how these processes work and what limitations exist.

ℹ️ How merging and unmerging works: AIQ merges personas automatically when two records share the same PII (phone or email). Unmerging works the same way in reverse — when you update a value in the Merges tab so it no longer matches another record, AIQ separates the accounts at the next overnight sync. There is no "unmerge button" — the separation is triggered by correcting the data that caused the merge.

Issue 1 — “A shopper is missing”

Likely Cause

The shopper was merged into another persona.AIQ automatically merges personas when they share the same phone number or email address, ensuring duplicate profiles are consolidated into a single account.

Fix

Use the merge search operator:

merge:[email or phone]

Examples:

merge:6035551212 merge:[email protected]

If the shopper appears, they were merged.

Issue 2 — “The wrong email or phone is attached to a persona”

Likely Causes

  • Duplicate signups

  • Staff entering temporary/placeholder data

  • Stale POS or Ecom PII syncing in

  • Shared phone number (e.g. family members using the same number, or a number that previously belonged to a different shopper)

Fix

Navigate to Persona in question, select "History" and "Merges". Locate the profile/merge information that has incorrect Phone Number or Email causing the merged account behavior, and Update the correct PII in the Merges Tab to separate accounts after overnight sync.

Issue 3 — “Transactions are showing under multiple personas”

Likely Causes

  • Partial PII captured at checkout

  • POS created duplicate Ecom Profiles

  • Recent purchase hasn’t merged yet (24-hour processing delay)

Fix

  1. Determine the correct phone/email

  2. Update PII on the correct persona

  3. Wait for the merge to process overnight

For POS systems: shopper may need a new transaction before updated PII syncs.

Issue 4 — “A purchase was made within 24 hours and the merges look wrong”

Reason

AIQ merges overnight. Recent data may not be processed yet.

Fix

Wait 24 hours for merging/unmerging to complete.

Issue 5 — “Staff added placeholder data and now merges are incorrect”

Cause

Fake phone numbers/emails (e.g., 1234567890, [email protected]) were used and accidentally merged with real shoppers.

Fix

  • Correct the PII in Traits

  • Reach out to Support if the data must be removed entirely

  • Retrain staff to avoid placeholder entries

Issue 6 — "I followed the unmerge steps but nothing changed after 24 hours"

Likely Causes

  • The POS re-synced the old phone/email, overwriting your correction

  • The sync is still in progress (runs overnight — allow a full 24 hours from the time of the correction)

How to Confirm the Unmerge Worked

  1. Search for the shopper by phone/email — they should now appear as a standalone persona

  2. Run a merge search (merge:PHONE or merge:EMAIL) — if it still returns a merged profile, the separation hasn't completed

  3. Open the Persona > History > Merges — the corrected record should no longer show the shared PII

If It Still Hasn't Unmerged

  • Check whether the POS re-synced the old PII. If so, update the incorrect value again after the sync completes

  • Open History > Merges and check for additional merge records — each entry containing the shared identifier must be corrected

  • If all records have been corrected and 24 hours have passed with no change, contact AIQ Support

Issue 7 — "A shopper's phone number changed and now their account merged with someone else's"

Cause

When a shopper's phone number is updated to a number that already belongs to another persona in AIQ, an automatic merge is triggered. This also occurs when family members share a phone number, or when a shopper reuses a number that previously belonged to someone else.

Fix

  1. Run a merge search using the phone number (merge:PHONENUMBER) to locate the merged persona

  2. Navigate to the persona > History > Merges

  3. Locate the merge record with the shared phone number and update it to the shopper's previous number

  4. Wait up to 24 hours for the overnight sync to separate the accounts

  5. Once separated, update the Persona's main Traits with the correct current phone number

⚠️ Prevention: Before updating a shopper's phone number in your POS, confirm the new number isn't already associated with another shopper in AIQ. A quick search in Customers > Personas can prevent unintended merges.

Best Practices to Prevent Merge Issues

  • Always collect accurate phone + email

  • Never enter fake PII for checkouts

  • Strengthen staff training for POS behavior

  • Only use Name + DOB merging if your use case requires it

When to Escalate to Support

  • You need PII removed from a merged record

  • An unmerge correction didn't take effect after 24 hours and POS data appears to be re-syncing the old value

  • A shopper cannot be located via merge searches

  • A merge created impossible point totals

  • You can’t determine the correct “master Persona”

Support can safely adjust PII or undo merges that cannot be corrected through the UI.

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