Potential duplication of constituents with import functionality

Stephen Gouws

Hey!


I'm running some list cleaning externally(programmatically), specifically to correct potential issues in our hard bounce list.

Specifically what I'm looking for is incorrect email addresses, and general typos, such as @gml.com instead of @gmail.com(as a very basic example)


I'm looking to correct these externally and then reimport any corrected emails back into Luminate.


My question has a few levels.

1. Using the import/export functionality, how does Luminate handle the import of almost identical records(only email address changes)?
   1. Will the records be merged, will it create duplicate constituents or something else entirely?
   2. Will this process have any potential negative side effects?
2. Since Luminate will always suppress hard-bounced addresses, is this even feasible? Meaning if I reimport those constituents with fixed addresses, will I even be able to send to the corrected addresses? - this assumes that the fixed address is still attached to a 'hard bounce' constituent
3. Generally, what are the best practices here?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!


Thanks and Regards,

Stephen

Brian Mucha

I'd use the Custom Constituent Import, which allows you to update existing records. Hopefully you have the cons_id with your data. This import gives you some control about how existing records are updated. Overwrite blank fields with values from the import file, Overwrite fields with non-blank values from the import file, or Overwrite all fields with values from the import file


I'd expect the hard bounce status to reset when the email address is changed, but I'm not sure about that. Should be easy to test.

Stephen Gouws

Hey Brian,


Thanks so much!

This helps a ton!


Have yourself an awesome day!


Stephen