What if there was a setting on tables and field editors where you could choose fields that could identify duplicates as you are entering data to create a new record. Things like combination of first and last name, email, phone, etc… then, as you type, it would look up existing records and display them in an overlay next to or below the field. If the user sees an existing record in the list that matches the one they are creating, they can click it and it will take them to that record so they can update it.