Importing Additional Info into Existing Contacts

There are a variety of scenarios that you could encounter when it comes to importing contacts into your BigContacts database. This article is covers scenarios that will help you produce a clean import and explains to you the best practices for utilizing the import tool for best results.

Scenario #1 - You want to add additional information to your existing business contact records

The BigContacts import tool allows you to add data to existing business contact records without duplicating these business records. Below are the steps you will need to take to add additional data into existing business records. Please pay close attention to any "SPECIAL NOTES" listed below as well

You will first want to export a list of your business contact records to ensure that the business names in your spreadsheet exactly match the records that you currently have in your BigContacts account. This will ensure that the new data you are adding to your database will be associated with the correct contact records and you will not duplicate any of your business records.
To export a list of your business contact records you will see the "Reports" tab and select "Company name" from the field list and then use any filters you wish to use to target a specific segment of your business contact if needed.
After you have selected the fields and filters that you need for this you will then click on the "View Results" button. This will generate your list of contacts.
Next, you'll want to click on the "Manage Results" button on the top or bottom right of this list.
Choose the option to "Export to Excel" and you now have a spreadsheet with all your of business records. You're now ready to add additional columns to your spreadsheet.
After you have added the needed columns and entered the necessary data next to each contact record you are ready to save the spreadsheet and upload this to your BigContacts account.

SPECIAL NOTES:

Anytime you are importing data to existing contacts in your BigContacts account there are a few things to know:
- If your spreadsheet contains data for a field that already has information loaded to it in your account...we will check to see if the data is the same..if so we do nothing. If the data you are currently importing is different (for example let's say the "contact type" field for a given contact is set to "prospect" and you are reimporting information to this contact record and this time you have the "contact type" field set to "client") we will overwrite the old data (prospect) with the new data (client)
- There are three fields in the contact record that can have essentially unlimited values. (phone, email, address). For these specific fields, if you import data that is different from what has already been loaded to that record, we will simply add a new phone, email, or address to that contact record.

Scenario #2 - You want to add additional information to your existing individual contact records

The BigContacts import tool allows you to add data to existing individual contact records without duplicating these individual records. Below are the steps you will need to take to add additional data into existing individual records. Please pay close attention to any "SPECIAL NOTES" listed below as well

You will first want to export a list of your individual contact records to ensure that the individual contact names in your spreadsheet exactly match the records that you currently have in your BigContacts account. This will ensure that the new data you are adding to your database will be associated with the correct contact records and you will not duplicate any of your individual contact records.
To export a list of your business contact records you will see the "Reports" tab and select "Company name" from the field list and then use any filters you wish to use to target a specific segment of your individual contact if needed.
After you have selected the fields and filters that you need for this you will then click on the "View Results" button. This will generate your list of contacts.
Next, you'll want to click on the "Manage Results" button on the top or bottom right of this list.
Choose the option to "Export to Excel" and you now have a spreadsheet with all your of individual contact records. You're now ready to add additional columns to your spreadsheet.
After you have added the needed columns and entered the necessary data next to each contact record you are ready to save the spreadsheet and upload this to your BigContacts account.

SPECIAL NOTES:

Anytime you are importing data to existing contacts in your BigContacts account there are a few things to know:
- If your spreadsheet contains data for a field that already has information loaded to it in your account...we will check to see if the data is the same..if so we do nothing. If the data you are currently importing is different (for example let's say the "contact type" field for a given contact is set to "prospect" and you are reimporting information to this contact record and this time you have the "contact type" field set to "client") we will overwrite the old data (prospect) with the new data (client)
- There are three fields in the contact record that can have essentially unlimited values. (phone, email, address). For these specific fields, if you import data that is different from what has already been loaded to that record, we will simply add a new phone, email, or address to that contact record.

Scenario #3 - You would like to link NEW individual contacts to existing business records

The BigContacts import tool allows you to easily link new individual contact records to existing business records without duplicating the business record. Below are the steps you will need to take to import and link these new records. Please pay close attention to any "SPECIAL NOTES" listed below as well

You will first want to export a list of your business contact records to ensure that the business names in your spreadsheet exactly match the records that you currently have in your BigContacts account. This will ensure that the individual contacts you are adding to your database will be associated with the correct contact business records and you will not duplicate any of your business records.
To export a list of your business contact records you will see the "Reports" tab and select "Company name" from the field list and then use any filters you wish to use to target a specific segment of your business contact if needed.
After you have selected the fields and filters that you need for this you will then click on the "View Results" button. This will generate your list of contacts.
Next, you'll want to click on the "Manage Results" button on the top or bottom right of this list.
Choose the option to "Export to Excel" and you now have a spreadsheet with all your of business records. You're now ready to add columns needed to insert your individual contact information next to each business record on your spreadsheet.
After you have added the needed columns and entered the necessary individual contact data next to each business record you are ready to save the spreadsheet and upload this to your BigContacts account.

SPECIAL NOTES:

If you have more than one individual contact that you wish to link to the same business record, you will simply create a new line (row) for each individual record by inserting a line below the current business record, pasting the business information on that new line (row) again and entering the next individual contact to be linked to that business record.
Anytime you are importing data to existing contacts in your BigContacts account there are a few things to know:
- If your spreadsheet contains data for a field that already has information loaded to it in your account...we will check to see if the data is the same..if so we do nothing. If the data you are currently importing is different (for example let's say the "contact type" field for a given contact is set to "prospect" and you are reimporting information to this contact record and this time you have the "contact type" field set to "client") we will overwrite the old data (prospect) with the new data (client)
- There are three fields in the contact record that can have essentially unlimited values. (phone, email, address). For these specific fields, if you import data that is different from what has already been loaded to that record, we will simply add a new phone, email, or address to that contact record.