Your CRM system is only as effective as the data it holds. For HubSpot users, duplicate records remain one of the most persistent—and expensive—data quality issues, often going unnoticed while quietly draining resources and weakening customer relationships.

While HubSpot offers some built-in deduplication features, duplicate records are still common across many organisations. Experian reports that 94% of businesses suspect inaccuracies in their customer data, with duplication rates of 10–30% being the norm for organisations without formal data quality measures.

Let’s examine what duplicate data is really costing your business—and how addressing it can generate a strong return on investment.

Marketing Spend Waste: Paying Twice for One Contact

Duplicates inflate your marketing costs in ways that often go undetected:

• Email Campaigns: Although HubSpot doesn't charge per email, inflated contact volumes due to duplicates can push you into a higher, costlier pricing tier.

• Direct Mail: Sending print campaigns to duplicate contacts results in wasteful postage and printing costs. Just one mailing to 10,000 records with 20% duplication could cost between £1,600–£8,000 in wasted materials.

• Ad Campaigns: Duplicates in HubSpot can reduce targeting precision in paid campaigns (like Facebook or LinkedIn), driving up your cost per acquisition.

The Data Warehousing Institute estimates data quality issues cost U.S. companies more than $600 billion a year—with duplicates being a major contributor.

Lost Sales Time: The "Time Tax"

Your sales team wastes precious hours dealing with data chaos:

• Duplicate Outreach: Reps unknowingly contact the same lead more than once, reducing trust and professionalism. Gartner estimates this can reduce potential revenue by 25%.

• Record Reconciliation: Reps must compare and update multiple contact records, cutting into selling time.

• Missed Opportunities: Incomplete views of customers due to fragmented records can result in lost upsell or cross-sell potential.

With a rep earning £45,000 annually, wasting just 30 minutes daily equals over £3,000 in lost productivity per person.

Damaged Customer Experience

Duplicate data also impacts the quality of service:

• Inconsistent Communication: Different departments may contact the same person with conflicting messages.

• Repetition: Customers are asked to repeat information they’ve already shared.

• Inefficiencies: Support teams waste time searching across multiple records for a customer’s history.

According to Validity, 75% of companies lose customers due to poor data management—particularly through duplicate records and irrelevant outreach.

Misleading Analytics & Forecasts

Bad data doesn’t just affect operations—it disrupts business strategy:

• Inflated Numbers: You may believe your customer base is larger than it is.

• Faulty Conversion Metrics: Duplicate records distort funnel performance.

• Inaccurate Forecasting: Strategic planning becomes flawed due to broken data.

MIT Sloan estimates that poor data quality can eat up 15–25% of an organisation’s revenue, largely due to compromised decision-making.

System Strain and Tech Debt

The unseen infrastructure costs of poor data quality can be significant:

• Increased Storage: Thousands of redundant records bloat your CRM.

• System Slowdowns: Larger databases often perform sluggishly.

• Integration Issues: When duplicates sync with other systems, complex problems can arise, often requiring manual or expensive developer intervention.

Case Study: £960,000 Wasted from Duplicates

A real-world example from Children’s Medical Center Dallas found that after cleaning up their CRM, they had an average cost of £75 per duplicate. For a company with 50,000 records and a 20% duplication rate, that’s 10,000 duplicates, equating to a loss of £750,000.

Why HubSpot’s Native Deduplication Isn’t Enough

While HubSpot offers basic deduplication:

• It’s limited to email (contacts) or domain (companies)

• Doesn’t support fuzzy matching (e.g. "Jon" vs "John")

• Requires manual intervention

• Lacks scheduled deduplication

• Doesn’t manage cross-object relationships (contacts, companies, deals)

The Solution: A Holistic Data Quality Strategy

Audit your data to understand how extensive the duplicate issue is—look at record types, causes, and financial impacts.

Prevent future duplicates with standardised data entry, validation rules, team training, and integration reviews. Assign data ownership across departments.

Clean your existing records using advanced tools like Insycle, enabling fuzzy matching, batch merges, and automation.

Monitor and maintain data quality with regular reports, scheduled processes, and ongoing staff awareness.

The ROI of Data Quality

Businesses that take control of their CRM data see:

• 15–20% reduction in marketing spend

• 20–30% improvement in sales productivity

• 10–15% boost in customer retention

• 25–40% uplift in reporting accuracy

• Greater customer satisfaction overall

Real-World Result: Financial Services Firm

A mid-sized firm with 35,000 HubSpot contacts launched a data quality initiative and within six months:

• Reduced duplicate rate by 89%

• Saved 65% of time previously spent resolving issues

• Cut operational costs by £140,000

• Improved customer satisfaction by 18%

• Increased marketing performance by 12%

Final Thought: Duplicate Records Are More Than Just an IT Problem

High-quality CRM data is a strategic asset. Businesses that invest in managing duplicates are able to:

• Make faster, better-informed decisions

• Build trust through seamless customer experiences

• Reduce overheads and system strain

• Gain reliable insight into performance

• Strengthen every customer relationship

With each duplicate potentially costing £75–£100, the real question is: Can you afford not to act?

Book your AI Data Audit today and turn your HubSpot data into a source of real business advantage.