In EMPPLAN, CRM entries are used to store the address, status, and contact information of your end customers or potential leads. Essentially, CRM entries contain address data along with additional information tailored to your needs. These can be modified and expanded at any time—either individually or through manual or automated imports—and EMPPLAN enriches them with additional Google Places data to provide you with optimal support.
Do you carry out door-to-door projects? If your data includes information on residential units and/or business units, then activate the toggle in the CRM import Add remaining potential as NOT YET VISITED. EMPPLAN will then create as many empty CRM entries as your door-to-door promoters are expected to qualify, based on the remaining potential. If you want to import existing customers, please use one or both columns as described below.
Behind the CRM level lies building data, which you can also directly influence with this import. See also “Additional Data Fields (at the Building Level).”
Below, we’ll show you how to quickly and efficiently import this data into EMPPLAN, even in large volumes.
Importing or updating CRM entries is incredibly easy in EMPPLAN. If you’re not using an automated method via the EMPPLAN IO API, you can always do this manually. You can download a sample CSV file here. Your CRM data may include the following columns:
| Data Description | Column Headings in Your .csv File | Field Mapping in EMPPLAN | Sample Data | Data Submission | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Import ID | to be freely defined but must consist only of letters and low lines e.g. import_id | No mapping required | Run List X-00001 | empfohlen | This is recommended to ensure that the data can always be updated. Use a unique string for this purpose so that you can update the record at any time based on it. EMPPLAN always generates a unique ID at the database level. This so-called mongoId can also be used for updates. It is displayed in the CRM in the _id column. |
| Form of address | to be freely defined | formOfAddress | ##MaleFormOfAddress | optional | Form of address with the following values:
|
| First name | to be freely defined | firstName | John | optional | |
| Last name | to be freely defined | lastName | Doe | optional | |
| Company | to be freely defined | address.company | First Class Company Ltd. | optional | |
| Company Identification | to be freely defined | isBusinessUnit | 1 | optional | This field allows you to mark a lead as a company. “1” indicates a company. If no value is entered, the value “0” is set. |
| Street name | to be freely defined | buildingCache.streetName | Sample street | optional | |
| Street number | to be freely defined | buildingCache.streetNumber | 13 | optional | |
| Street number appendix | to be freely defined | buildingCache.streetAppendix | a | optional | Delimiters such as “/” or “-” are automatically removed. |
| Street number and appendix | to be freely defined | streetNumberAndAppendix | 13/a | optional | This is an alternative when the street number and suffix are entered in a single field. |
| Street name Street number and appendix | to be freely defined | streetNameAndNumberAndAppendix | Sample street 13/a | optional | This is an alternative when the street name, number, and suffix are all included in a single field. |
| ZIP Code | to be freely defined | buildingCache.zipCode | 12345 | optional | |
| City | to be freely defined | buildingCache.city | Berlin | optional | |
| Sublocality | to be freely defined | buildingCache.sublocality | Mitte | optional | If you do not populate this field, EMPPLAN automatically enriches the data using Google Places. |
| Country | country | No mapping required | CH | optional | If you do not assign a value to this field, the address record will be set to the country where your company is headquartered, as specified in your EMPPLAN settings. Please use the ISO 3166-2 standard here. For more information, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-2 |
| Mobile | to be freely defined | mobile | +49 12233 123123 | optional | |
| Landline | to be freely defined | tel | +49 12233 123123 | optional | |
| to be freely defined | john@doe.com | optional | |||
| Project | project | No mapping required | Sales Power 1000 | optional | A data delivery or an assignment in the field mapping view is required. If the project is not present in the data, it can be assigned in the field mapping view of the import. |
| Labels | labels | No mapping required | Interest in solar panels, single-family home, existing customer of Brand Y | optional | The labels must already exist in EMPPLAN and be activated on the project for CRM use. Note: The import uses the “Description” field to import your labels. As a result, the label name may differ from the import data. |
| Residential units | to be freely defined | buildingCache.units.residentialUnits | 3 | optional | If a value is missing, the value “1” is set. |
| Business units | to be freely defined | buildingCache.units.businessUnits | 2 | optional | If a value is missing, the value “0” is set. |
| Lead status | to be freely defined | status | NotYetVisited | optional | Possible values:
|
| Created by | createdBy | No mapping required | backoffice@agency.com | optional | The user must already exist in EMPPLAN. Identification is based on the user's email address. |
| Associated to | associatedTo | No mapping required | promoter-nick@gmail.com | optional | The user must already exist in EMPPLAN. Identification is based on the user's email address. |
| Count of existing clients | to be freely defined | clientsAlready | 3 | optional | Does your data include the number of existing customers at this address? If so, enter the numerical value here. EMPPLAN will then create exactly that many CRM records with the lead status Existing Customer. |
| Name of existing clients | to be freely defined | existingClientsName | Miller,Johnson,Mandela | optional | Do your data include, for example, a last name to identify existing customers? EMPPLAN can save this information in the “Last Name” field when creating existing customer records. This allows your door-to-door consultants to work more efficiently. |
| More data fields (on CRM level) | to be freely defined, but only letters without spaces | No mapping required | Qualification characteristic 1 | optional | You can import as many additional data fields as you like. These do not need to be assigned. Always use the custom technical field name in the column header. EMPPLAN will then automatically assign the field correctly. We recommend creating the field in advance so that you can specify the field type yourself. Otherwise, a text field will be created by default. You cannot change the field type later. For the Date field type, the following data format is required: YYYY-MM-DD. |
| More data fields (on building level) | starting with _building. z.B. _building.My-ID-123 | No mapping required | 978628687698922143 | optional | Data with “_building.” in the column header is automatically saved at the building level. This allows you to create as many additional fields as you like. The standard CRM export returns this data (e.g., a house's connection point ID, a sub-location for an address, etc.). |
Once all the data has been entered, save the file as a CSV in UTF-8 format with a semicolon as the field separator. If you’re using Google Sheets, you can also use the CSV format available there with a comma as the field separator. In that case, please select the “Use comma as separator” option in the import settings (e.g., CSV from Google Sheets).
Your data is now ready to be imported into EMPPLAN.
- Click on the CRM module.
- Click on the double arrow icon in the gray area at the top right.
- Select the file you want to import and click on CHECK DATA.
- Perform a field mapping or field assignment. Of course, you can save the mapping as a profile so that the next time you import, you simply have to select the profile. Please note, however, that the column names in your source file must not change. During mapping, you specify which fields in your file should correspond to which data in EMPPLAN.
- Optional / Recommended: Configure additional mapping criteria under the SETTINGS tab
On this settings tab, you can configure additional specific settings related to CRM record recognition.- CRM Record Recognition Settings
Here, you can customize the import logic and select a field to match your import data with the existing EMPPLAN data. To do this, click OPEN ASSIGNMENT and select the field (e.g., ImportID) of your choice, such as one you created yourself for an Import ID.
- CRM Record Recognition Settings
- Now start the import by clicking the button and review the import log.
Notes & Tips
Keep an eye on your data limit
Please make sure you do not import more than 10,000 records in a single step or in a single file. If you need a higher limit, please contact the EMPPLAN Support Team.
More data
Of course, you can add additional columns. This allows you to enter additional data at any time, which you can then view using custom fields in the Additional Data tab. Please make sure to give the column headers meaningful names and use only letters or the “_” character, e.g., SAP_Customer_Number. Numbers are allowed, but not at the end of the (technical) field name.
To make the data visible in EMPPLAN after import, you can simply create the fields under “Locations” in the Additional Data tab. For the technical field name, use the exact column name from the import, e.g., SAP_Customer_Number. Once you’ve created the field, the imported data will automatically appear in the CRM records.