Building a website enquiry to CRM flow for a UK small business without duplicate contacts

Description and use

Automating website enquiries into a CRM without duplicate contacts: clean data, search, update/create, notify, and error handling.

Problem

Duplicate contacts are created when a website enquiry form submits to a CRM, causing multiple records for the same person and fragmented notes.

Outcome

The pattern eliminates duplicate contacts, consolidates enquiry data, and provides reliable notifications and error handling.

Workflow

• Receive enquiry via webhook
• Clean data: trim spaces, lowercase email, normalize phone
• Search CRM for contact by email
• Branch: if found, update contact and attach enquiry; if not, create contact then attach enquiry
• Notify team via email/Slack/Teams with CRM link
• Confirm receipt to enquirer
• Handle errors: store payload, alert named person

Evidence

The workflow creates a contact on every submission.

Source

The clean step is a Code node placed straight after the Webhook node.

Source

A test checklist to hand over… [ ] A brand new email creates exactly one contact…

Source