Getting a file into your dialer without breaking it
This is unglamorous and it is where a surprising number of campaigns lose their first day.
Before you import
Open the file in something that will not mangle it. Spreadsheet software will happily strip the leading zero from an 07... ZIP code and reformat a phone number into scientific notation, and both are silent.
Check the row count against what you ordered. If the file is short, it should be short by exactly the amount that was credited back — and if those two numbers disagree, ask before you start calling.
Decide your phone format before the import rather than after. Most dialers want a consistent format across the whole file, and fixing that halfway through a campaign means reconciling two versions of the same list.
Deduplicate against your own history
The important duplicate is not inside the new file, it is between the new file and everyone you have already contacted. Public-record lists overlap heavily by design — an owner who was tax delinquent last quarter is often tax delinquent this quarter.
Calling someone twice with the same opening because two lists contained him is the single most common avoidable mistake in outbound, and it reads exactly as what it is.
The match key should be the phone number rather than the name. Names are spelled inconsistently across counties; numbers are not.
Carry your opt-outs forward
Anyone who has asked you to stop must survive every future import, from every source, forever. That list is yours and no vendor can maintain it for you, because the request was made to you.
Keep it as its own file that every import is checked against, not as a status inside one campaign that gets abandoned when the campaign does.
A scrubbed list removes known litigators and runs DNC before delivery. It cannot know that someone told you to stop last March.
Questions people ask
What format are the phone numbers in?
A consistent, plain format across the whole file, so a single import mapping works for every row. Whatever your dialer expects, you are reformatting one column once rather than cleaning row by row.
Can I get the file split by city or ZIP?
The file carries county and address fields, so splitting it after delivery is a filter rather than a re-order. The order itself is placed at county level.
What if I import the same file twice by accident?
Deduplicate on phone number rather than trusting the import to notice. It is the only field in the file that is reliably identical across two copies of the same row.
Related
Pick a county and a list type, or send your own addresses. Mobile numbers only, litigator and DNC scrubbed, and anything the county does not hold is credited back.