Address Imports: A Step-By-Step Guide

What Is An Address Import?

CrowdFiber automatically provides you with comprehensive address information based on the unique service areas on your platform. However, address imports provide you with the ability to update your existing CrowdFiber address records and even add additional or new address records to CrowdFiber from your internal database.

An address import, via a CSV, can help you bring the following data into your CrowdFiber Platform: street address, zip code, service active status, latitude & longitude coordinates. You can import data into any field/attribute that exists within a standard address record, as well as upload custom attributes by using Dynamic Fields . Custom Attributes/Dynamic fields can be uploaded to your CrowdFiber Database simply by adding additional columns to your CSV.

Why Import Addresses?

• Provide your CSRs with additional, proprietary address attributes to improve the way they manage orders.
• Provide more comprehensive address details to technicians and operational systems via exports and integrations.
• Provide additional address attributes that enhance the targeting of your direct mail campaigns sent through CrowdFiber.
• Mark Addresses to resolve to a certain zone.
• Import service status and drop information.
• Track the node of an address.
• Assign PSAP data.
• Add addresses that do not exist in address databases to your platform, such as:
  • Extremely rural that have not been kept up to date in address databases.
  • New housing development addresses that have not yet been added to address databases.

Here's how to perform an address import.

Step 1: Prepare Your CSV

Please review all of the details in this step to avoid receiving upload errors.

The first step is to format the columns of your CSV so it can be successfully imported into CrowdFiber. There are two required columns and

• To make your Address import as easy as possible:

  Click here to download our Address Import Template.

Required Columns

1. Street Address (Including Unit Numbers)

   • Make sure all of your street addresses are in the same format (e.g. 123 Main Street NE Apt. 1).

     • Do not include a city and/or state in the Street Address Column.
       • All unit numbers for any address must be included in the Street Address column.
     • Do not include a separate column for units.
       • If you're uploading multi-dwelling unit addresses to CrowdFiber, you can choose only to upload the root address (e.g. "123 Main Street" rather than 123 Main Street Apt. 1)

     As your customers and pre-registrants complete orders and pre-registrations, they will be able to add their unit number to the root address in their initial address search (at the beginning of the process).

     Once the customer or pre-registrant enters a unit number into their address search, a new address with an apartment number will instantly be created in your platform; this process WILL NOT create duplicate addresses.

     Any addresses imported with a unique unit number will create a new address record in your CrowdFiber database.

2. Zip Code

   • A five-digit zip code.

Recommended/Optional Columns

1. Tag

   • While not required, this column creates a unique identifier for all address records associated with a specific import. After your addresses are uploaded, you'll be able to view all address records brought into your system by a specific import simply by entering its tag in the Tags filter located in the Filter section of your Address Page.

   • To utilize a Tag column simply add the same set of characters into each row of the Tag column in your CSV.

     Best Practices:

     • No spaces can be used in the name of a tag; spaces will create import errors. Use underscores or dashes to create space between words.
     • Include the date of your import in the tag column to make data associated with every address import easy to find in the future.
     • You can use the same tag for multiple imports to keep your past and present data organized.

2. Service Active

   • Addresses that have active service should have a value of "TRUE" in this column.
   • Addresses that do not have active service should have a value of "FALSE" in this column.
3. Latitude & Longitude
   • If your CSV file contains latitude and longitude columns, your import will overwrite the current latitude and longitude values in an address record with your imported geocoordinates.

   • If your CSV file does not contain latitude and longitude columns, CrowdFiber will automatically geocode each address for you.

     Best Practices:

     • Rural Addresses: 

       search for an address' precise geo-coordinates and add these latitude and longitude values to your CSV.

     • New housing developments:

       include geo-coordinates that exist in the center of the new neighborhood.

     • In the first step of your registration process, on the Address Verification page, your registrants will have the opportunity to drag and drop a map pin to a more precise location of their home; this action of dragging and dropping the map pin will update an address record's geo-coordinates in real-time.

Importing Custom Attributes

If you're uploading columns/attributes that do not exist as attributes/fields in your CrowdFiber records, it is critical that you create Dynamic Fields for each of the custom columns/attributes/fields in your CSV before you import your CSV.

Once a custom attribute exists within your CrowdFiber platform as a Dynamic Field, custom attributes can be uploaded to CrowdFiber by adding an additional, unique column to your CSV for each piece of custom data.

Preventing Duplicate Records

To prevent duplicate address records, the address in your Street Address Column and the zip code in your Zip Code column of your imported CSV must exactly match the Street Address and the Zip Code of the existing CrowdFiber address record.

An imported address that has the identical street address and zip code values as an existing CrowdFiber address record will not create a new address record; the imported data associated with this address will add new data or overwrite existing data in the pre-existing address record.

You can use address imports to update your existing CrowdFiber address records in bulk.

Step 2: Upload Your CSV

1. Click the Address link located in the left-hand rail of your Admin Dashboard.
2. On the following page, click the blue Import Addresses button located above the upper right-hand corner of your table of addresses. You will be taken to the Imports page which displays a list of all of the files you have imported to your CrowdFiber platform.
3. On the Imports page, click the blue Start Import button located in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
4. Next, you'll be asked, "What kind of import is this?" Make sure to select the green Address button.
5. The last step is to choose and upload your CSV.

Step 3: Map Your CSV Columns to Address Record Fields

Once your CSV has been uploaded to the platform, you will need to "map your fields." This is how you'll get the data in each column of your CSV into the correct attributes of your address records.

To do this, simply use the drop-down menus to select the CrowdFiber property/address attribute that you'd like to assign to each column in your CSV.

How Mapping Affects Existing Data

• If no CSV column is mapped/passed in the import, the value of that attribute in your platform will remain unchanged.
• If data is re-imported and data is mapped to any attribute (like "zone_override_id"), that data will overwrite the existing value of the current attribute.

• If you map an empty column in your import to fields that contain an existing attribute in CrowdFiber, the blank column is going to update the mapped attribute with an empty field (it will appear as if the attribute's data has been erased).

  Do not map the values in the Required Fields a second time in the Optional Fields section.

Step 4: Start Your Import

After your fields have been mapped, click the blue Start Import button.

Step 5: Import Processing & Completion

The time it takes to import your addresses will vary based on the number of addresses and the number of address attributes that are being imported. Larger files will naturally take longer to process and complete.

You'll be able to monitor your import's progress from Pending, to Processing, to Completion by watching the Status Column on your Imports page.

Once your import is complete your data will be readily accessible in your contact records.