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External Contact Data Import

Required Role

Administrator or Box Office can run external contact data imports.

Navigation: Options > Imports > External Contact Data Import

Purpose

This import loads comprehensive customer contact data from external systems or databases into Stagemgr. It supports household records with multiple people at the same address, and a custom tagging system for organizing and cross-referencing imported data.

Use this import when migrating contacts from another ticketing system, CRM, donor management platform, or any external data source.

User Options

Option Required Description
Theater Association Yes Select the theater to associate all imported contacts with
File Upload Yes CSV file containing external contact data

Required CSV Headers

Primary Contact Fields

Header Description
ExternalId External system identifier (creates an "ExternalId" tag for cross-reference)
FirstName Primary contact's first name
MiddleName Primary contact's middle name
LastName Primary contact's last name
FullName Complete name (overrides individual name fields if provided)
EmailAddress1 Primary contact's email address
Phone Contact phone number

Second Household Member Fields

Header Description
FirstName2 Second household member's first name
MiddleName2 Second household member's middle name
LastName2 Second household member's last name
FullName2 Second household member's complete name
EmailAddress2 Second household member's email address

Address Fields

Header Description
Address Street address line 1
Address2 Street address line 2
City City name
StateCode State abbreviation (2 letters)
PostalCode ZIP code

Custom Tag Fields

Header Description
Tag1 Custom tag label for categorization
TagValue1 Value for custom tag 1
Tag2 Second custom tag label
TagValue2 Value for custom tag 2

How It Works

Household Support

When a row includes both primary contact fields (FirstName, LastName) and second household member fields (FirstName2, LastName2), the import creates two separate customer records:

  • Both records share the same address
  • Both records receive the same custom tags
  • Each record has its own email address (EmailAddress1 and EmailAddress2)
  • Both are associated with the selected theater

When to Use Household Fields

Use the second household member fields when your source data includes couples or families at the same address. This gives each person their own record for individual communications, while preserving the shared address.

External ID Tracking

The ExternalId field creates a tag on each imported record that preserves the original system's identifier. This is valuable for:

  • Cross-referencing records between Stagemgr and your source system
  • Identifying records during future imports from the same source
  • Auditing and data reconciliation

Custom Tags

The Tag1/TagValue1 and Tag2/TagValue2 fields let you attach arbitrary metadata to imported records. Common uses include:

  • Source system name (e.g., Tag1: "Source", TagValue1: "Salesforce")
  • Donor status (e.g., Tag1: "DonorLevel", TagValue1: "Gold")
  • Import batch identifier (e.g., Tag1: "ImportBatch", TagValue1: "2026-03")

Data Processing

  1. Each row is matched against existing customer records using standard duplicate detection criteria.
  2. If a match is found, the existing record is updated.
  3. If no match is found, a new customer record is created.
  4. Duplicate records found during processing are automatically merged.
  5. Character encoding issues in header names are automatically handled.

Expected Outcome

  • Customer records are created with custom tags for organization
  • External IDs are preserved as tags for cross-system reference
  • Household members receive separate records sharing the same address and tags
  • All contacts are associated with the selected theater
  • If a fatal error halts the import, the imports page status note records the failure (this importer does not produce a per-row result file — see Result File for the importers that do)

Example CSV

ExternalId,FirstName,MiddleName,LastName,FullName,FirstName2,MiddleName2,LastName2,FullName2,EmailAddress1,EmailAddress2,Phone,Address,Address2,City,StateCode,PostalCode,Tag1,TagValue1,Tag2,TagValue2
1001,Jane,,Smith,,Robert,,Smith,,jane@example.com,robert@example.com,312-555-0100,123 Main St,,Chicago,IL,60614,Source,Salesforce,,
1002,Maria,,Garcia,,,,,,maria@example.com,,773-555-0200,456 Oak Ave,Apt 3,Evanston,IL,60201,DonorLevel,Gold,,