Guide

How to clean a contact list before CRM import

If the file is messy before import, the CRM just stores that mess more permanently. The goal is to remove the kinds of noise that create bad records later.

Prepare your import fileSee other guides

Why CRM imports fail

Most imports do not fail because the CRM is complicated. They fail because the source file already has duplicate people, mixed formatting, or blank noise that no one cleaned before upload.

Merged exports create duplicate people with slightly different fields
Email casing and extra spaces weaken exact matching
Phone punctuation hides repeated contacts
Blank rows make row counts and review less trustworthy
Manual spot checks miss small formatting errors at the bottom of the file

How to work through the file

01

Start with the columns that identify a person

Check email and phone first. Those fields usually tell you faster than names whether the same person appears twice in the file.

02

Remove obvious duplicate rows before the import

If the list already contains repeats from merged exports, importing first only makes later cleanup slower. Dedupe before the data enters the CRM.

03

Normalize the fields you will rely on later

Trim email whitespace, lowercase casing noise, and standardize phone formatting. These are small fixes, but they make matching and review much more predictable.

04

Remove blank noise and review the result once

Blank rows and half-empty records confuse review more than people expect. Clean them out, scan the result once, then export the CSV you will actually import.

Checklist

What to verify before you import or hand off the file

Email and phone columns checked first
Duplicate contacts removed before upload
Email casing and surrounding spaces cleaned
Phone formatting made more consistent
Blank rows removed before final import
Prepare your import fileExplore features
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