Whether you keep your contacts in a CRM, Outlook, an accounting programme or any other application or software, most of these tools let you export your contacts into Excel, into a file with the "xlsx" extension or into a text file with the "csv" extension.
If you exported your contacts into a file with the "xlsx" extension, you can open it in Excel straight away and we will show you how to prepare the contacts for import into Quanda.
If you exported your file into a text file with the "csv" extension, let us show you how to open this file in Excel. You may have already tried to open the file right after the export. It does open in Excel, but its content is not arranged into columns and looks very messy. That is why Excel has its own procedure for opening "csv" files.
How to proceed when you want to open a file with a "csv" extension in Excel
It is only a few steps.
- Open a blank sheet in Excel.
- Click "Data" in the upper menu.
- In the menu on the next line, usually on the far left, you will find the "Get and transform data" section and "From text/CSV" in it. Different versions of Excel have it slightly differently, but the names and places are very similar.
- Choose "From text/CSV" and find the downloaded file.
- Click the import button.
- Depending on the version of Excel you are using, the following steps may differ a bit. The principle is always the same though.
- Select that the file is delimited.
- If the diacritics do not display correctly, choose the "UTF 8" encoding.
- Choose a comma as the delimiter and finish the import.
At this point you should see your data in Excel in the right shape and in columns. If you cannot get it to work, contact us on the support phone number or e-mail.
For the import that follows we recommend importing at least this basic information.
- First name.
- Surname.
- Phone.
- E-mail.
- Tag.
Quanda uses tags to split contacts into groups.
By assigning a tag you place a contact into a certain group. Contact tags help you work with contacts effectively in various places in Quanda. They are used, for example, for quickly selecting the recipients of an e-mail campaign. Think in advance about which groups of contacts you will need for your further communication. We recommend splitting your contacts into existing and potential customers, because these 2 groups will mostly get different information. You can also create other tags that split your contacts into further groups, for example by product category, place of purchase, way of purchase, the way they use your product, their relationship to your company, their influence on closing a deal and so on.
For every group created with a tag it is worth preparing a plan of what you will send to that particular group and when, so that the contacts in a given group regularly receive the right information.
This targeting will very significantly affect the results of your e-mail campaigns. That is why we recommend paying increased attention to this split and doing it really thoroughly.
Do not overdo the number of groups, though. It is important that you can then handle creating e-mails for the individual groups according to your plan, and stay in regular communication with all contacts.
Create a separate column for "Contact tags" in Excel. If you need to place one contact into several groups at once, write the individual tags into one column, into one cell, and separate them with a comma. Quanda creates these tags during the import and assigns them to the contacts automatically. If you want to place contacts into the same group, always choose the same tag. Spaces, lower and upper case letters and diacritics are distinguished when tags are created.
Quanda lets you use a whole range of automations that can create a salutation from the surname or first name, determine gender, fill in the name day date, fill in custom fields, add or remove contact tags, or send e-mails. These automations can be triggered directly when new contacts are created or when contacts already stored in Quanda are edited. You will find these automations in the upper menu under Contacts / Automation.
Contact automations are not available in all plans. Please have a look at the pricing page, where you can find which plans contain these automations and to what extent.
Once you have all the data you want to import ready, save the file. When saving, choose the "xlsx" or "csv" file type.
If you are saving a file with the "csv" extension, Excel offers you several options for saving a "csv" file, depending on its version. Always choose the one that has comma separated values in its name or description. Do not use "csv" for "MS-DOS" or "Macintosh", because Quanda does not support these formats.
You can also use a contact import at any later time to fill in, correct or add further contacts or data.
Quanda is also fully prepared for keeping all the data required from the GDPR point of view. With an import you can therefore also import the legal basis for processing personal data, the purpose of the processing and its validity, and set the permission to send e-mails.
Do you have questions? We will be happy to answer them. Just contact our customer support at +420 605 163 892, e-mail: support@onquanda.com.
Updated květen 5, 2021