Importing Contacts into your Software
This file will guide you through how to import Contacts into your database.
Import Format
The first step is to have your contacts in a CSV file, please see the attached example of the columns for the file.
There are some columns which are compulsory:
First Name, Last Name and at least one Contact Detail (ie. Phone Number or Email Address).
Consultant, Group and Source are also required fields - If your data is for multiple consultants, groups and sources then these will need to be listed in the columns in your file too, however, if all data is for one consultant and/or for one group and/or source, you can select these as default options instead of including these data columns.
Consultant, Group and Source are also required fields - If your data is for multiple consultants, groups and sources then these will need to be listed in the columns in your file too, however, if all data is for one consultant and/or for one group and/or source, you can select these as default options instead of including these data columns.
To bring contacts in that are part of nested groups i.e: Residential/Buyer/Current Buyer , replace the '/' with a colon (:) e,g,- Residential:Buyer:Current Buyer
If you don't use this formatting, the importer will import them into the 'Other Imported' group
If you are importing contacts in multiple groups you can separate each group with a semi colon ( ; ) in the groups cell e.g .
- The import process is set to skip any contact that has any information missing in the above mentioned compulsory fields.
- If the import wizard matches a contact with Name and the Contact Detail it will update the contact.
- If there is a missing surname a . (full stop) should be used rather than a , (comma).
- Avoid using , (comma) anywhere in your spreadsheet. CSV stands for Comma Separated Values and having commas in your file can create issues with cell alignment.
The Import Process
- Go to "Setup" menu and select "Contact Importer"
- Click on "Add File" ( must be in CSV format)
- Click on "Step 2: Match Up Columns"
It's recommended if you can to have a copy of the CSV file open on another screen, so you can match them up as you go
- Although not compulsory you can check the Save Match Columns option and give a name to the import to make it easier to import your other CSV files with the same columns.
- Start typing in the "Default Group(s)" field the group the imported contacts are to be added to, if all contacts belong to same group/s
- Start typing in the "Default Consultant(s)" field the consultant that the imported contacts belong to, if all contacts are to be assigned to the same consultant
- Tick the checkbox if all imported contacts are to be set as active
- Tick the checkbox if all imported contacts are to be subscribed to email updates ( If you wish to specify individual contact subscription status, include a Subscription column in the CSV with Subscribed status Yes or No { Y/N, 1/0, True/False are also valid options])
- Tick the 'Update Subscriptions' checkbox ONLY if you want any existing contacts, to have their subscription status overwritten (this applies to the option above and the 'subscribed' column in the CSV file.
- Choose the "Default contact source" the imported contacts are to be added to from the drop-down list
- In the " Your CSV File Column" Match the CSV file columns on the left with corresponding Arosoftware Customer Data fields on the right.
- Click "Step 3 Preview Import"
- Import preview will show a summary of information to be imported.
- To receive a .csv file of any rows that have errors click on the "Download error". This will create a .csv file that you can save to be able to update the appropriate details later and complete another import.
- If you are happy with the details shown Click "Step 4: Run Import" to complete the import process.
