Contact lists may have user-defined fields so that you are not limited to predefined fields. You may create fields such as anniversary dates, pets (yes/no) or company. **UDF fields do not replace or merge PMS data.
Example: A field labeled ‘stay date’ is not the same as PMS data for stay date. You may label a field as stay data but automated emails will not be triggered based on contact list user-defined data.
How to set up user-defined fields for a contact list
- Go to the Guests and Segments Tab
- Select Contact Lists
- Click the Create Campaign button
- In the pop-up module select the “I have a CSV” option and name the contact list
- Click NEXT and choose your CSV file
- A sample csv is provided. Files must not exceed 1MB
- Tick the box to confirm that you have permission to send promotional emails to all members of the list.
- Click UPLOAD
- Map the data fields
- Select from the top bar the field to identify its contents
- For user-defined fields select the ADD NEW PROFILE FIELD option to create the field
- This will open a new pop up where you will name the field and select additional identifying criteria.
- Identify if this is a date field or if you plan to use the information entered in a campaign as a merge tag.
- Click ADD when you are done.
- Test the mapping or Select to COMPLETE LIST IMPORT
Your UDF Contact List is now added.
Types of data to set up in User Defined Fields
Remember that some fields in your PMS will make more since to pull in via a UDF, but you should keep in mind the dat format so that the field is actually sable during segmentation. Some common fields that should be normalized before uploading include:
- Gender: uploaded value needs to be for example [male] or [female]
- Date format for adding profile field section needs to be M-D- Y or Y-M-D depending on your region
- Country (code) needs to be the 2 or 3 letter code according to the ISO standard. Full country name needs to be the English name or in the primary language of your PMS.
Segmenting by User Defined Fields
Note that asterisks when selecting segmentation options will denote what fields are user-defined fields and can be part of the segment builder. This way when making segments it will be simple to understand what you can segment on.
Contacts List via API
When using an API connection to upload contact list note that the API code is defining fields as an open text. For example: If you have a newsletter signup where guests tick checkboxes for subjects they are interested in learning more about the system will initially not recognize the 'tick box' field as it will want to search for an open text field. In this case, it is recommended that someone with coding knowledge update the types of fields in your form.
Example of open text fields in an online form: Let us know which newsletter you're interested in by typing Y in the boxes below.
Restaurant
[______]
Spa
[______]
Hotel
[______]
Vacation
[______]
Segmenting by User Defined Fields
Note that asterisks when selecting segmentation options will denote what fields are user-defined fields and can be part of the segment builder. This way when making segments it will be simple to understand what you can segment on.
For more information on setting up a contact list see our related article: Setting up a Contact List and Contact list API