Customer.io: Getting Started your customer data

Exporting your customer data from previous POS, Loyalty and/or CRM solutions.

Step 1: Export your customer data as a CSV file from your previous POS, Loyalty and/or CRM solutions.

Step 2: Once you have that data, open the Lunchbox-Customerio-Import-Template and make a copy or download it as a CSV to edit. To make a copy, click on File, then Make a copy

Step 3: Download the Google sheet as a CSV

Click File > Download > Comma Separate Values (.csv)

Your file will then be downloaded to the specified location on your computer to upload to Customer.io next.

Important: Avoid mixing data sources

When importing data from multiple platforms, keep their attributes separate.

For example:

Data source	Attribute name
Resy	`last_visit_resi`
Resy	`completed_reservations_resi`
Resy	`tags_resi`
Toast	`first_visit_date_toast`
Toast	`last_visit_date_toast`
Toast	`total_visits_toast`
Toast	`lifetime_spend_toast`
Toast	`average_spend_toast`

This makes it easier to filter customers and create segments based on the platform that provided the information.

Preparing the CSV Before Importing

Before uploading anything into Customer.io, review and clean the spreadsheet and remove columns that are not relevant to the import.
If a customer is missing a first or last name, leave the field blank.

Dashboard | Customer.io

Uploading your customer data into Customer.io

Follow the steps to upload your CSV customer data file to Customer.io.

Step 1. Navigate to your Customer.io workspace and click on People

Step 2. Click on Add People

Step 3. Click on Import a CSV

Step 4. Drag and Drop -or- Choose your CSV file to import

Make sure People is selected for "Choose what to import"

Step 5. Review the file upload and click Next

Make sure your file is correct, confirm "email" as you people identifier, "ignore" empty values and click Next to proceed to the next step.

Step 6. Confirm that fields are mapped correctly

This is to ensure that the data fields used in column headers match data fields in Customer.io . If anything is off, you will see it and be able to correct it here.

Step 7. Once you confirm the Map Fields, click Next

Step 8. Review your Import and Complete Import

This example found 1 new person to add from your CSV. You'll see existing people merged by the email identifier in "Existing People" if you have any.

Step 9. Review Import Summary

Once the Import is complete, you will be able to review it and navigate to people who have been added or edited and create actions right for the segment of users that you recently imported (Broadcasts, Campaigns, etc.)

Troubleshooting: Common Import Issues

Multiple Profiles

What happens?

A customer might have multiple profiles with different email addresses but the same phone number.

For example:

Profile A: [email protected]
Profile B: [email protected]
Profile C: [email protected]

All three profiles might contain the same phone number.

This becomes an issue when attempting to enable phone as an identifier because Customer.io requires phone numbers to be unique when used this way.

How to troubleshoot:

Navigate to People and export the existing customer data.
Review the phone number column.
Identify duplicate phone numbers.
Compare the associated customer profiles and emails.
Determine whether the records actually belong to the same customer.
Do not automatically delete or merge profiles.

Customer.io provides options for handling duplicate phone numbers when enabling phone identification, including keeping the oldest profile as primary, keeping the newest profile as primary, or not merging profiles.

Important: Do not automatically select an option without reviewing the data.

This is especially important because merging profiles can affect customer information and campaign recipients.

Customer.io: User Import