This article describes the process of importing contact records in bulk and highlights considerations when handling your data ensure data integrity within the Event Hub system.
IMPORTANT: To ensure data integrity it
is strongly recommended to mandate a
unique CRM key to avoid duplicate records.
If you use a secondary CRM like Salesforce
or CRM Dynamics - you will already have a
unique key attached to your contacts.
Prerequisites
Permissions
Bulk loading of contacts can only be done by a Client Administrator or Department Administrator who is permitted to manage the CRM.
If you're unable to see [CRM INTEGRATION] menu option in the right-hand menu you must enable it by, checking [Can manage CRM] from Users Configuration.
Import Template
The import data must be formatted using a specially formatted CSV file. The import template can be downloaded here.
Import Contacts
Step 1
From the [CRM INTEGRATION] menu select [Import CSV] and choose the import .CSV file you're created using the import template.
Step 2
Once all the import files have been added, click [POST ALL]. Next, click [OK] confirm that the contacts will be added to your selected Business Unit
Step 3
The time taken to import the file(s) will depend upon the size of your import file. Once the import has completed you'll note the status of the import including;
Guests Created - new contacts created
Guests Updated - existing contacts, matched on CRM key and/or email that have been updated with new data.
Errors in load - records with invalid or missing data
Considerations
To maintain your data integrity please consider the following;
Check your data. If you open your import file in Excel make sure your data remains as expected. For example leading "0" is often removed by Excel. Excel sees data like 0001234 as a number and truncates the "000".
Use a single header row. Make sure first row is a header row. There should only be ONE header row. This header row should represent the fields you are mapping to the Event Hub, Event Relationship Management (ERM) Database. See the columns as per the template provided.
Remove any blank rows. Blank rows below your data can be seen as real rows sometimes due to Excel saving blank spaces in these rows.
Remove any empty columns. Try not to provide column headers but where there is no data in that column. If you do not wish to load to a column its best to remove that column headers.