What does a near-match customer problem look like during utility service set-up?

A sales team lead approves a move-in application, APP-2187, for a residential electricity connection. The approval notes a concession card and a request for direct debit. The set-up officer's task is to turn that into a working service.

The agent searches for the customer and finds CUST-0932, a similar name at a previous address. The address differs and the date of birth field is blank, so the match is uncertain. The correct step is to create a new customer record, CUST-4410, and flag the near-match for review rather than merging.

It then opens service account SVC-7731 against premises reference PREM-5502, links the concession record, attaches a direct debit mandate MAND-0118 in pending status, and schedules the welcome notice for the billing team.

The state change is three new records, two links and one review flag, with no change to CUST-0932. In the failing variant, the agent merges into CUST-0932. The first bill then goes to the previous address and the concession is applied to the wrong person.

**What it teaches:**

- A near-match is a decision point that needs evidence, not a lookup that returns the top hit. - Consequences appear later, at billing, so a grader should inspect downstream state as well as the immediate writes. - Correct behaviour includes leaving existing records untouched.