Overview
This article walks how you can import contacts to assign the right person to them as an "owner", and auto-share them with your agency.
If you haven't imported contacts before, we suggest starting with Using Tern's Contact Import Tool.
Before getting started
1. If you have existing contacts, make sure these are already shared with your agency. Otherwise you could end up creating duplicates. To be safe, use the menu option in Contacts and select "Share all contacts with agency".
2. Make sure every agent you need to assign to a contact has an active Tern membership under your agency.
3. Know that we treat import ID at the agency level as a unique ID.
So if you have previously imported contacts to your personal account, and you use the same import ID, it will NOT match on import ID.
However if a second administrator uploads contacts at the agency level, we DO match on import ID.
And don't worry! We have secondary matching logic to match on email, last name, and first name OR preferred first name, so import ID is not required to prevent duplicates. Learn more in our articles on using Tern's Contact Import Tool.
Importing Agency Contacts
First, go to "Contacts", click the menu option, and select "Import Contacts"
If you are an agency owner or administrator, you'll see an initial step to "Choose import destination". Your default agency will be auto-selected.
To get started, select Import Basic Details
From here, you'll be prompted to enter data manually or upload a CSV. The main difference from a regular contact import is that you'll be required to add a "Contact Owner Email Address" in order to upload. If you should be the primary owner, add your own email.
Once you complete the import
Contacts will be imported:
All contacts will be shared with your agency (meaning agency owners/admins will see them in "shared with me")
Contacts assigned to you will appear in "My Contacts"
Contacts assigned to other agents will appear in "Shared with me", with that agent designated as the owner
If the assigned agent does not have an active Tern membership under your agency, the associated contact will not be imported
You can proceed with importing any loyalty programs, relationships, and past trips as you would normally.