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How to Import Additional Leads and Prospects

  • Updated

Once you complete implementation &/or your database is live, you should be adding new leads and prospects by using the Zen Planner prospecting tools (widget, free class registration, etc), having staff adding them manually, or using the people import tools available to database owners in the setup menu to bulk upload entire files of prospect info. 

Click here for more information about Zen Planner's prospecting tools

Manually adding a new prospect through Studio

Manually adding a new prospect through the Staff App

 

Here is a walkthrough of how to bulk upload new lead & prospect info from a file

** Please Note: The upload/import tools are only available to staff with database owner privileges **

 

Step #1 - DOWNLOAD THE SAMPLE FILE FROM THE PEOPLE IMPORT PAGE

Click here to view a short video tutorial instead

  • Click on the 'download sample file' link near the top of that screen (you MUST use this file to format your data)

 

Step #2 - ADD YOUR PROSPECT/LEAD DATA TO THE SAMPLE FILE & SAVE

Click here to view a short video tutorial instead

  • Open the Sample file in excel or another spreadsheet program (we do not recommend using Apple Numbers due to known issues with saving in the correct format), remove the single line of example data at the top (George Washington) then paste your prospect data into the appropriate columns.
    • Please Note - You are limited to the data types for the columns that you see in the Sample file you download. If you need to bring in additional info, please click here for directions on creating custom fields. After you create your custom fields you will need to re-download the Sample file.
  • Please see the 'WARNINGS' below for specific formatting requirements & recommendations. 

 

WARNINGS

THIS IMPORT DOES NOT CREATE DUPLICATE PROFILES
If there are people in the import file with the same first, middle, last name combination as a profile(s) already in your database, the database profile(s) will be overwritten and any overwritten data will be lost. 

For example, if you have a Joe T. Smith in your database and a Joe T. Smith in the import file, when the file is imported, file Joe T. Smith's data will overwrite the info in the existing Joe T. Smith's profile in your database. This process can overwrite info in alumni, prospect, member, and staff profiles (including database owner profiles) causing login and privacy issues.

  • To avoid profile issues, you must add a unique value to the MiddleName field in the file (eg. Joe, July Import ,Smith) to create a unique profile name. Only use letters, do not use symbols.  


FIRST & LAST NAME ARE THE ONLY REQUIRED FIELDS
Every record in your file must have a first & last name in order to be imported. If either is missing, the entire record will be skipped and the person will not be imported.

 

REMOVE SYMBOLS AND SPECIAL CHARACTERS
Commas are fine, but other types of symbols (eg.  &   ;  / ) can cause the import to break and data to be imported into the wrong fields. Best practice is to remove these types of symbols altogether.

Special characters, including accented non-English language characters (eg. à, è, ó, ö) will not be imported as they appear in the file but as question marks (?). So, Gisele Bündchen will import as Gisele B?ndchen. To prevent this from happening you will need to replace the accented characters with their English language equivalent (eg. à = a).


HOW TO MAKE PEOPLE APPEAR AS PROSPECTS 
The only thing required is to add a program name to the ProspectProgram column in the Sample file. You can only add one program per person to this field, and that program has to already exist in your database (Setup>Programs>Programs).

If you have built out any other prospect fields in your database (Setup>Database Tools>Lookup Codes) that are columns in the Sample file, you can add those as well but they are not required to make the person a prospect.

 

 

Step #3 - IMPORT YOUR FILE & REVIEW THE RESULTS

Click here to view a short video tutorial instead 

  • Click 'Continue to Next Step'
  • Click on 'Choose File' and select your finalized Sample file
    • DO NOT change any of the other settings
  • Click on 'Upload and Preview'
  • You will see a preview of the first few records.
    • If you see anything that doesn't look correct (info in the wrong columns, etc), navigate away from the import page and review your Sample file for issues
      • Review the 'WARNINGS' section above for known formatting issues and how to fix them. If your issue isn't part of the warnings, please reach out to the support team for additional troubleshooting.
  • If the records in the preview look good, click the 'Import Data Now' button at the bottom of the page and wait for the import to finish
  • DO NOT NAVIGATE AWAY FROM THE IMPORTING STATUS PAGE, this page will give you important feedback about the progress of your import and success/fail rate for each record.
    • If you have any records that fail to upload you will see a link to download an error report of just the failed records. You can make corrections in that file then import that corrected file after deleting the 'Failure Reason' column.
    • Due to limitations with importing, all errors may not be reported in the error file. It is ultimately your responsibility to review your imported data for errors.
  • Go to the People>Prospects in your database to review your imported data IMMEDIATELY.
    • If there is an issue with the imported data you must notify ZP support immediately in order for a successful database restore to happen.

 

Please note, due to storage limitations there is a rolling 5 calendar day window from which we can restore database data. A database restore will return your database to the exact state it was in on the requested restore date which can result in lost data if sales, attendance, or other changes were made after the requested restore date. 

 

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