Recently tried to use the iPad Event App and added someone to my event, assuming that Marketo's deduplication rules by email address would merge the records when I synced the app to my instance. Instead it created a duplicate! Support said "The Event Check-in app only looks at the people in the event program, and not the entire database; if someone is not invited or registered for the event, or they were in the event but created as a new person on your tablet, this would have caused the duplicate."
What if I have a walk up to my event who was never invited but came along with a friend or colleague? I'd have to rely heavily on outside deduplication systems to manage this, what a nightmare.
When I asked why this behavior was native, support responded "This is expected behavior, yes. Currently it is set to look at people in the event program so that you may use the app with limited or no internet connectivity, as the app is not actively looking through your database, and instead checking the contacts you are expecting as guests in the pre-loaded event list. When you sync with Marketo, it is similar to if you import a static list, which can cause duplicates if the static list has a pre-existing lead".
Why can't it create a record in the app and then as you sync that over to your instance, it deduplicates then? This limits the app even more severely than anticipated.
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