Verification during a CRM migration
A CRM migration is the only time a company agrees, without argument, that the contact data needs work. Once it lands in the new system the window closes and nobody reopens it for years.
Verifying during the migration rather than after it is the difference between a clean start and importing a decade of dead addresses into a system you have just paid to implement.
Whatever goes in on day one is what the team trusts
Sales teams calibrate on what they find in the first month. If a third of the contacts bounce, the system gets a reputation for having bad data and adoption suffers in a way no training session recovers.
Migrations also multiply duplicates. Merging three sources produces the same person under two spellings and three addresses, and deduplication before verification means you check the address once rather than three times. Duplicates are collapsed on our side too, and never billed twice.
There is a scheduling argument as well. Verification during the extract phase adds a day to a project that already has a window. Doing it afterwards means a separate project nobody has budget for.
How the work gets done
The order that matters for teams migrating a CRM, rather than a generic checklist.
Verify the extract, before transform
Check the file as it comes out of the old system. The verdict then travels through the mapping as a field, and you are not running a second pass against the new schema.
Map the verdict into a field, not a filter
Import everything with the verdict attached. Deleting records mid-migration is how a customer with an old address becomes a customer nobody can find.
Suppress rather than delete
Invalid addresses belong on a suppression list in the new system. The record has history worth keeping; the address is what stops being used.
Set the re-check cadence before go-live
Quarterly, scheduled in the new system while someone is still paying attention to configuration. After go-live it becomes a task nobody owns.
What verification will not do here
What it costs
A typical mid-market migration of 100,000 contacts is $139. Since duplicates are collapsed before billing, the merged-source row count usually overstates what you will actually spend.
Every tier works the same way. Unknown results and duplicates are never billed, and credits do not expire.
Questions we get asked
Before or after the migration?
Before, on the extract. Afterwards it becomes a separate project competing for budget with everything else the new system needs.
What about contacts with several addresses?
Verify all of them and store a verdict per address. Which one is current is a question for engagement history, not for a verifier.
Should invalid records be dropped from the import?
No. Import them with the verdict and suppress the address. The relationship history is usually worth more than the address was.
Try it on your own list first
100 free checks a month, no card. Run a sample and read the unresolved count before you decide anything.