Suppose a small B2B team finds two contact records that appear to be the same person. One has the meeting notes and an open task; the other is linked to an active opportunity. Someone merges them, then a rep discovers they were two different people with similar names.

Exporting the contact fields before the merge seems necessary, but not sufficient. Restoring two names and emails doesn't automatically put the notes, tasks and opportunity links back where they belonged.

I'd want a pre-merge record of both IDs, the conflicting fields, and which activities/relationships belonged to each. The merge review would also show those relationships, rather than just ask which phone number to keep. I wouldn't let the merge silently decide which active follow-up should continue.

For teams that have had to undo a mistaken merge, what information made recovery possible? Is a pre-merge export plus an activity/relationship map enough, or do you require a native unmerge option before allowing routine merges? I'm asking about the recovery process, not recommendations for a different CRM.

Consider a CSV used to update existing contacts by record ID. Some phone cells are blank because the source has no new information; others are blank because someone deliberately removed an incorrect number. Those are two different instructions, but the file looks the same.

Ignoring every blank preserves good data, yet also preserves numbers that should be cleared. Treating every blank as a deletion risks wiping fields the export simply didn't include.

I'd lean toward a separate, explicit clear-field instruction and a preview that shows additions, replacements and deletions before import. For example, a blank phone cell would leave it alone, while a clear_phone flag would remove it. That adds a little work for whoever prepares the file.

How do you make that distinction in a repeatable bulk-update process, and who reviews intentional clears? I'm interested in the import convention and review step, rather than a CRM recommendation.

Suppose a three-rep B2B team reassigns a lead because of a territory change or someone going on leave. The contact owner changes from Rep A to Rep B, but A still owns a meeting follow-up task and has an unsent sequence step queued.

Moving every open task automatically could hide who promised the customer what. Leaving them with A risks a missed follow-up, and letting both sequences continue could send duplicate messages. I would preserve the owner-change history, pause outbound steps, and require B to accept the open tasks, but I am unsure what should be automated versus reviewed by a person.

How do you handle this in practice? In particular, what event makes the handoff complete, and what do you monitor for the first day to catch tasks or emails that stayed with the old owner?