Importing and Exporting customer data

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Note: For importing/exporting contacts on Freshdesk Omni, refer to this article.

Importing Data

You can import contact and company information from a CSV to your account. Importing customer data allows you to make bulk updates and additions to your database with ease.

You can also import all the custom fields you have in both contacts and companies.

Before you import data, make sure that the CSV file follows these guidelines: 

• The first line of the CSV file is the column header which contains the fields names like Name, Email, Title, etc.
• The CSV file must contain Name and Email address or Name and Phone number, without which the contacts will not be imported.
• The email address and URL should be in the correct format. (Example - sample@freshdesk.com and http://freshdesk.com/ or https://freshdesk.com/)
  • Please note that the email address is the unique identifier. This allows you to have multiple contacts with the same name as long the email address provided is different. Also please note that if the CSV file contains an email address of an existing contact in Freshdesk, the import will overwrite the existing contact.
  • If you have more than one email address associated with a contact, please use the format given in the screenshot below to make sure data import is completed properly. You can add upto 9 secondary emails for one contact apart from the 1 primary email, allowing a contact to have 10 emails associated with it.

• In order for the phone channel in Freshdesk to recognize your phone numbers, you should have the country code clearly specified. For example, 4088481234 or 408-848-1234 should be written as +14088481234 in your CSV file before you import into Freshdesk.
• If you need to associate a contact with a company, and have the contact view all tickets pertaining to that company (through the 'Allow this contact to view all this company's tickets' field), ensure that this field and its value is passed on the import file.

• If you have more than one company associated with a contact, kindly use the format given in the screenshot below to make sure data import is completed properly. Customers can now send yes || no || yes for each company to see all tickets from the company. (This feature is available only if you have enabled one contact multiple companies feature.)
• Value of a dropdown field should only be the choices available for that particular field in the helpdesk.
• The existing details of contacts and companies will be overwritten/updated after an import.
• A checkbox field only accepts yes or no. Any other value encountered during the import will be considered as no. 
• If you have a tag field with multiple tags, every tag should be separated by a comma.
• Please ensure that your CSV file is in UTF-8 format and the first row has the header information (example: name, email, phone etc.)

Note: The first company in the company column in the CSV will be made the primary company for that contact.

To import customer:

• Go to the Contacts > Import button. To import Companies, use the same button in the Companies page (accessible via the hamburger icon in the upper-left corner of the page).

• Click on Upload a File. Navigate to where the CSV file is located on your computer and select it. 
• If you have custom fields in your CSV file, ensure that those fields are first added to Freshdesk before you import. Go to Admin > Support Operations > Customer Fields to add custom fields.

• After you map the information, click on the Import button and wait for Freshdesk to finish importing the data. It will not take more than a few moments.

• If you want to import company information of the customer, you will have to add a company column in your CSV. If the company name in the CSV does not exist in your helpdesk, a new company will be created.

• If you are trying to import contacts in bulk, you can refer to this article for the various timezones and languages that you can use in your CSV for the configuration.

• Once you are done, you will receive an email about the status of the import. The import of fields which does not follow the guidelines listed above will fail. The failed rows will be attached to the status email as a CSV file and it will contain the reason for the failure. 

Note: You need to have at least 10 tickets in your Freshdesk account to import your contacts successfully.

Exporting Data

You can export your customer data as a CSV file at any time. To start exporting:

• Go to the Contacts tab in your helpdesk.
• Click on Export.
• Select the fields you wish to export. (Custom fields that you've created will also be seen.)
• Click on the Export button.
• A file containing all the data that you selected can be downloaded from Admin> Accounts exports

To view previously exported data from your helpdesk, please navigate to Admin> Accounts exports. From here, you can see the export history. 

You can also see the progress of downloads and directly download the file from this page.

A window pops up when you click on the Details button which provides details about the export. The agent can easily see information like the selected time period, ticket fields, contact fields, company fields, and other information from here.

You can export company information by clicking on the Companies option from the left corner of the Contact page (using the hamburger icon) and then following the same procedure.

Note: Exporting based on the tags added for each contact is currently not an option. It can be filtered through the UI but, upon exporting, the entire contact list will be exported and not just the contacts associated with the chosen tag.

Generating a sample file: In order to make sure all the fields (default and custom) are available in your CSV import file, you can trigger a sample Contacts/Companies export, edit the file and then use this file for your import.