Adding past customers to ask for reviews

In this article, you'll learn how to add your past customers during onboarding so each one is queued for a review request. People who've already used you are the easiest reviews you'll ever get, and this step lets you line them up before your first new job is even done.

The step is optional. If you don't have a list handy, skip it and add people later from your dashboard. Onboarding is on the web only. There's no version of this screen in the phone app.

To get to the Contacts step:

  1. Work through onboarding until the left-hand list reaches Contacts under Reviews. It's marked optional.
  2. The screen is headed Reviews · optional with the title Past customers to ask.
  3. You'll see two cards: Add Single Contact and, below the OR line, Upload a CSV file of your contacts. Use either one, or both.

If you've already finished onboarding, you can reopen this screen from your dashboard. Open Settings, click Onboarding, then click Contacts.

The Contacts step: Add Single Contact on top, the CSV upload card below
The Contacts step: Add Single Contact on top, the CSV upload card below

Add one customer at a time

This is the quickest way if you only have a handful of people, or you're typing names in from memory.

  1. In the Add Single Contact card, type the customer's First Name. It's marked Required.
  2. Type their Phone. It's also Required, and it needs to be a full 10-digit number. A leading 1 is fine.
  3. Add a Last Name and Email if you have them. Both are Optional.
  4. Click Add Contact.

If it went through, you'll see a green line saying the person was added and queued for a review request, and the form clears so you can add the next one. If they're already waiting for a request, it says they're already in the queue instead, and nobody gets asked twice. If they couldn't be added, a red line starting Not added tells you why.

Note: The Add Contact button stays grey until there's a first name and a valid phone number. If the phone or email box turns red, check it for a typo.
Adding one past customer

Upload a CSV of your customers

If you can export a customer list from your old software or a spreadsheet, upload it here instead.

The card lists the columns your file can have:

  • Phone Number and First Name are Required.
  • Last Name, Email, Address, Last Job Date and Last Job Type are Optional.

You don't have to rename your columns to match exactly. Common headers like "Mobile", "Cell", "Given name" or "Service date" are picked up too. Rows with neither a first name nor a phone number are ignored.

  1. Drag your file onto the dashed box, or click Select File (or anywhere in the box) and choose it. It says CSV files only, and that's all it accepts.
  2. Check the line that shows your file name and how many contacts were found.
  3. Click Add followed by the number, for example Add 48 contacts. Click Cancel if you picked the wrong file.
  4. Read the summary. It tells you how many were added, how many were already queued, and how many were skipped. Each skipped row is listed with its row number and the reason.
Tip: If the file is missing a required column, the message names it and lists the column headers it did find. Fix the header row in your spreadsheet, save it as a CSV and try again.
Note: One file can hold up to 2,000 contacts. If yours is bigger, split it into smaller files.

What happens to the people you add

Every number and email is checked before anyone is contacted. Then each person becomes a customer in your CRM. If they're already there, they're matched by phone or email rather than added twice.

Each one is queued for database reactivation, the review-request sequence for past customers. Requests start going out once database reactivation is switched on for your account. You'll find that switch under Reviews, then DBR.

Some people are skipped on purpose:

  • Anyone who's asked not to be contacted.
  • Anyone who's already left you a review.
  • Anyone who's already had a review request after a job.
  • Anyone with no working way to reach them. A landline is fine as long as you also gave an email, and they'll get the email version.
Note: If you see Your account isn't set up for review requests yet, your CRM hasn't been created yet. Click Skip for now and add your list after your onboarding call.

Moving on

  • Once you've added at least one person, the button reads Continue with the count, like Continue (12 added). Click it to go to the next step.
  • If you didn't add anyone, click Skip for now. Continue only works once someone's been added.
  • Click Back to return to the previous step.

You can add more people any time after onboarding. In your dashboard, open Reviews and click Contacts. You'll find the same two cards there. One difference: people added from that page get a normal review request, the same as a customer whose job was just finished, rather than waiting for database reactivation.

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