Once you've sent over your patron import file and it has been successfully imported by our team, you'll want to send over your Order History Import file. There are a few things to keep in mind as you prepare this file, so we want to provide a breakdown of best practices.
The sole purpose of an order import is to give you a feeling for how many times a patron has done business with you and how much they have spent over time.
Though the imported Order ID number will not be searchable in ThunderTix (because it was created in another system and does not exist within ThunderTix), order items will be searchable via the CRM based on the date of the order, the number of tickets, or the amount spent on tickets/donations.
File formatting:
There are two options for importing your order history data, as follows:
Option one:
Import one row per Order ID where the description of the Order ID includes the associated events, products, etc. purchased under that Order ID. This Order ID will have the total amount associated with the order. This will create one single Order ID within ThunderTix. That said, the Order ID, because it is not considered a real order within ThunderTix, does not have tickets assigned and will not be searchable from the Orders tab later.
Option two:
Import multiple rows per Order ID. Each row would include a portion of the order. Such as one ticket and the cost of that ticket. Or one product and the cost of that product. This will create multiple of that Order ID. This also will not be searchable from the Orders tab later.
Examples:
Now let's look at some examples. Let's say you have the following 2 previously purchased orders.
Example 1: Order 33345: 2 Seniors @ $50 each for $100 1 Child @ $25 for $25
Example 2: Order 65432: 3 General Admission @ $20 each for $60
Example 1: For Order 33345, you may want to break it into 2 separate rows for the same Order ID each (Option two), which would allow you to separate each of the ticket types from that order into 2 separate orders with the same ID. Perhaps you would break the order amount into $100 for the 2 Senior tickets and $25 for the 1 Child ticket.
When you input this scenario into the template, you would want to do the following. You'll notice that the order ID (33345) has been entered in two subsequent rows, and the "order_amount" column shows the total value of that particular ticket type. Additionally, the email address associated with the patron has been entered in each of the two rows (an email address is required for the order to be imported, so it must be included with each row, even if there are multiple rows in one order):
Once imported, the above order would display as the following on the patron profile (note that the text included in the "notes" column above shows up in the bubble next to the description):
However, if this order included a donation, you might consider adding the donation only on one of the rows and include it in the total order value with just that one row. As seen in the screenshot below, the donation amount of $10 has been added into the "order_amount" for the 1st row of order 33345. We can deduce that the Senior tickets are each $50, since there are 2 that total $100 ($110 - the $10 donation). We also can see that the email address was included for both rows on this order, enabling both rows to be imported.
Example 2:
For Order 65432, you would quite easily be able to show the total tickets and value in a single row because only 1 ticket type was purchased, so this would be a good case for Option one. As seen in this example here, order 65432 takes up just one row and we see the total order value of $60 in the "order_amount" column.
Once imported, the above order would display as follows on the patron profile:
Template inputs:
It's helpful to note that the columns included in the order history template are not all required, but can be valuable. Here is a breakdown of what each means:
order_date: This is the date that the order was purchased, not the date of the event or performance.
email: We must have email addresses included in this import file in order to connect previous orders to patrons. old_customer_id: This is simply the ID from your previous system. external_order_id: This is the order ID from your previous system.
tickets: This is best used as "ticket type". As an example, you may want to input "Adult" or "Child" here.
value: This is the total number of tickets of that ticket type included in the "tickets" column.
order_amount: This is the total amount for that order, or for that particular part (line) of the order. This would include a donation amount, if applicable.
description: This is a good place to include the event or performance name and/or date/time.
notes: This can be used to enter which seats the patron had, or anything else of value.
Things of note:
Orders will be imported, as long as an email address is associated.
An Order ID is not needed in order to import orders.
If more than one row is used per Order, the email address will need to be included in each row; otherwise only the row with the email address included will be imported.
Once you've sent over your patron import file and it has been successfully imported by our team, you'll want to send over your Order History Import file. There are a few things to keep in mind as you prepare this file, so we want to provide a breakdown of best practices.
