This area allows you to import memberships into TicketSearch from a previous system or from another external source. On import, TicketSearch creates a transaction and the membership(s) will be viewable against a customer’s record in the customer account membership summary and in the Membership reports.
How does it work?
Once you’ve clicked into ‘Customer Database Import’ and selected ‘Membership Import’, you will be presented with a list of your membership programs to assign the data import to. Only 1 membership type can be imported at a time, e.g. 2021 Membership that has type Gold and Silver will need to be imported via Gold Members first and then Silver Members second.
Important Rules
You must first ensure that all of your customers are uploaded in the first tab, ‘Customer Data Import’, before attempting to import memberships. The system requires the unique customer id to then match the membership to a relevant customer.
Step 1: Select the Membership that you would like import. You can import memberships against one campaign at a time. Click ‘Download CSV File’.
Step 2: Download the CSV, open the spreadsheet, leave all columns and heading names intact and copy your data across from your previous system or anywhere else where you are importing the data from.
The following fields are represented in the spreadsheet:
- Customer ID: The customer ID that was previously imported into the system and is the unique identifier to ensure that the membership is matched to the correct customer on import.
- Campaign name e.g. Membership – Gold: This is the name of the membership and type. It is not mandatory to enter anything into this field.
- Custom amount: This is the amount paid by the customer for the membership which can be different to the current price of the membership type. If this field is left blank, the system will allocate the current price of the membership type.
- Membership Number: This is the membership number from your previous system or external system. If no number is allocated, our system will allocate the barcode as the membership number.
- Confirmation Number: This is the confirmation number from your previous or external system. When searching for a confirmation number for a membership on TicketSearch, you will be able to enter this number and the system will reference it against the transaction. This is particularly useful if the customer contacts you with a query about their membership. If you don’t enter a confirmation number, we’ll generate a new one for you on import.
- Transaction Date: Enter the transaction date that the membership was purchased as dd/mm/yyyy. Dates in the past are accepted e.g. 12/04/2015.
- Date joined: This is the first date that the member joined which will assist in calculating how long the customer has been a member for.
- Expiry Date: When does the membership expire? Enter the date in dd/mm/yyyy. No other format will be accepted. If you don’t enter a date, the system will use the date assigned against the membership build to allocate an expiry date (or no expiry if no expiry date has been listed).
- Renewal Date: When is the membership due to renew? Enter your date in dd/mm/yyyy format.
- Order Note: You may have order notes against this membership from your previous system. Simply enter them into the field provided. You should not exceed 255 characters as the file will be rejected on import.
Step 3: Select a File to Upload
Once you have entered all of the relevant information into the spreadsheet, you then choose ‘Select A File To Upload’ on the membership import page and upload it. Please ensure that you do not exceed more than 200 records to be uploaded at a time.
You will be presented with the subsequent page where you need to action the following:
- Select a sales channel to assign: Select a sales channel such as walk-up, telephone, internet or a manually created sales channel. Only one sales channel can be assigned per upload. If you are wanting to maintain the original order purchase channel, you can simply import the memberships in multiple uploads selecting the correct sales channel.
- Select a Delivery Method: Select a delivery method by default for the memberships being imported such as e-ticket, box office collection or anything else. You can also break down the memberships into various import types to match the original membership distribution.
- Select Payment Method: Select a payment type to record the transactions in the system. You may also decide to create a custom payment type to easily identify these transactions in reports.
Tip: As your data is loading, this process can take up to 5 minutes. Please do not close the page or take any actions on the page. You will see the below message, ‘Please wait while we upload your data’.
If there is an error what should I do?
With any error, you will get the following message if the data has been manipulated and doesn’t correctly represent the headings that were downloaded. For example, you moved column 1 to column 3.
There has been an error while importing your data. Please ensure your data is in the correct format and try again.
Simply review the original spreadsheet to ensure that the headings are maintained. If there are other errors, such as date formats that are incorrect, the system will import the correct data and provide you with a successful message.
Step 4: Upload History
Failed and completed transactions are listed in the upload history table. The date/time/user who uploaded the data is also recorded. If any records have failed to upload, you can click on the error message which may say “1 error(s)”, download the CSV, correct the errors and re-upload the data.
Above: The date format was incorrect. The system states ‘Invalid Transaction Date format has passed;’.
Key tips once data is uploaded
- The customer record will have the membership name updated to represent the imported membership for quick reference.
Under the customer record, ‘Membership’ tab, the system will display the previous membership number, original date joined, expiry date, renewal date, right down to the renewal process and all emails/letters (depending on the timing that you’ve setup for these emails/letters to be distributed).
- Transaction Update
When searching for a transaction that has been imported with a previous confirmation number, TicketSearch will reference the imported confirmation number with an i info tip to remind any staff what the imported reference refers to.
- Reports
The Membership report is your key report. It’s important to note that if you enter a transaction date in the past, the imported transaction will be found against that date e.g. 10 March 2015.