Data import: associating Contacts with Companies

[AmyEbit]

I know that the system automatically identifies which company people work for based on their email address, but I have a large number of Contacts without email addresses. I'm wondering about the best way to match these Contacts with their Companies.

If I were to create a new Property with an identification code and made sure that the code matched in both contact and company when I upload the data, is there any way to make the CRM recognise that they're paired?

I hope that question makes sense! For context, I am moving data from Salesforce to HubSpot, and am working from the exported salesforce .csv files.

[Phil_Vallender]

Hi @AmyEbit

HubSpot can only associate contacts and companies by domain name at the moment - and you can't import company associations. 

Do you still have the salesforce instance available? If so, and the contacts are associated to accounts in there, then I believe the HubSpot Salesforce integration may be able to bring those associations across. 

[bradmin]

@Phil_Vallender is correct that if contact-account associations exist in Salesforce, then the connector can create those same associations for you in HubSpot. If this applies, first go to the Salesforce integration settings page in-app in HubSpot, then enable account sync. Once that's complete, navigate to the imports screen, and import all contacts from Salesforce - with account sync enabled, any associated account data in Salesforce is created in HubSpot, and associated with the appropriate contacts.

[AmyEbit]

Thanks @bradmin and @Phil_Vallender for your suggestions - looks like manual is the way forward!

I'm sure I'll get there eventually. 

Thanks again!

[AmyEbit]

Thanks Phil. I was really hoping that there would be a way of doing it for free, as I believe Salesforce integration is only available for paid accounts. 

If not it's not the end of the world, it just means more manual data entry from my end! 

Best wishes,

Amy

[Phil_Vallender]

Hi @AmyEbit

Oh yes, I'm sorry I overlooks that you might be on the free platform.  

In that case, I'm afraid there is not much you can do. 

Best of luck!

P.S. Thanks for your input @bradmin

[rc1]

Is this still true? It's totally insane to not associate a compny with a contact.  I'm looking for ways to do it via workflows, but I can't seem to find the 'Associated Company' as a target anywhere.

Goal: to have a Contact list where a Contact is associated with a Company. 

I am fine with any workaround. Automated workflow, re-import my data using a different method- whatever it takes. This is nuts! 

[Phil_Vallender]

Hi @rc1

If you turn off and then on HubSpot's contact/company association setting, I believe it will recrawl the database and associate and existing contats and companies that share the same domain name. 

Hope this helps.

[rc1]

Hi Phil, 

Thanks, but no that does not help. Our contacts are largely usign personal email addresses and occasionally have parent company emails and so get associated to the wrong account.

Are you pretending that there's no problem here? This is a giant gap in the product of Hubspot, and is currently being filled by third parties via API integration, as you can clearly see by the other comenters in the thread, or by searching in the comunity. 

We are fans of hubspot software, but feel totally misled regarding the (paid) 'implementation' fees, which we obviouly assumed would maintain relationship between human and company.

[bradmin]

@rc1, are you asking for help, or editorials? We're trying to assist with what's possible, not whether it's any good or not. Your CSM would probably want to hear that, or the salespeople you work with, or the ideas board. If you think you got a raw deal, we can sympathize, but there are few actionable things forum regulars will be able to help with, when it comes to a user thinking they've been misled.

It's not that we don't feel for you, it's that we can't do anything about it.

[rc1]

I was originally replying to the first post from 8 months ago, and askign if this was still not yet a feature of importing contacts whilst maintaining links to their companies.

But yes, I was venting frustration (and disbelief) in the wrong place.

I ended up solving my issue via a paid third party service (I still think its cheeky that hubspot employees use referral links to recommend the third party for help with migration).

For others in the same situation,  we ended up using import2 which worked fine, although I'd recommend data2CRM instead because you are able to leverage their UI to use yoru existing crm and hubspots, without getting a developer involved.

[Swaabi]

Thanks @bradmin. 

I think @rc1 and I (and the many others complaining about this) are looking for HubSpot to fix something so fundamentally flawed.   My CSM and implementation specialists are great and have provided me with another 3rd party integration that for a cost solves my problem, however, no one at HubSpot will even acknowledge this is an issue, let alone show a plan to resolve it. The more this hits their radar, the better the chance they will see it is important.  Every part of the HubSpot training talks about the importance of customer feedback and what disappoints me the most is how little acknowledgement there has been that this is an issue.  Hubspot, for all of its benefits at a marketing level, can not be taken seriously as a CRM when it can't do the most basic and fundamentally important actions required to be called a CRM.

I hope HubSpot reads their own community posts and can understand the frustration of customers like @rc1, @AmyEbit and I.  Once again, why can I bulk update any field associated with a contact except the most important one.  "Where do they work?"

[bradmin]

That's fair, @Swaabi, and I'll rephrase: 

Don't put all your eggs in one basket. If you want to carry on conversation here, that's fine. However, these individual threads aren't necessarily where HubSpot support or product management is looking. I realize the ideas board can be an inferior or dissatisfying solution. It's also an avenue that needs to be tried. Same with reaching out to the humans responsible for the deal and your account at HubSpot. 

[Swaabi]

Thanks @bradmin

You are spot on.  I have used those other avenues too and fingers crossed something will come of it.  As I said earlier, the people I have been working with directly at HubSpot have been great in so many ways and they worked hard to find me a solution.  Disappointly however, they seemed to look everywhere else for a solution and I didn't feel like they really took it on board as a Hubspot issue.  Based on their own teachings, I should have felt like they were the most proactive channel, but sadly I didn't feel that way.

[OLukavetska]

Hello @rc1, 

Take a look at Data2CRM migration service. 

The SaaS can help you to transfer all the data you need using the mode that will suit you the best:

1. Automated Data Migration

All your information will be transferred automatically. 

It is important to notice that you will get an opportunity to provide the users and fields matching on both source and future CRM to map them in the way it is required.

Also, keep in mind that Data2CRM guarantees to save all the relations between migrated records as it was on your source platform.
You can try the service in action for free. To that point, launch Demo Migration and switch some amount of the real data to the chosen CRM solution and see how it will look like.

2. Custom Data migration

That mode gives you advanced migration possibilities. That is, the technicians will transfer the data between CRMs in accordance to your requirements and insights.

The relations between migrated records will be preserved, of course.

In case you are interested, learn more about Custom Migration.

Please, keep in mind that Data2CRM service can migrate any Custom field as well as set the connections between modules it the way you wish to.

For more in-depth information do not hesitate to get in touch with Data2CRM experts.

Hope that you find my advice helpful.

Best regards

[ashley_milne]

@AmyEbit If you are working from CSV file, you can do the association between Contacts & Companies using any field (not just domain) with the Import Wizard, by Import2. We use the API to set the links, which is the same used in migrating directly from Salesforce. This way you can bypass the domain-limitation. 

Hope this helps!

[AmyEbit]

Hi @ashley_milne, thanks for the info! Is Import2 a free tool? 

Many thanks

Amy

[ashley_milne]

@AmyEbit

The Import Wizard has both a free and paid option, just depending on how much data you have to import at once. If you'd like to give it a try, you can do so for free with files up to 1,000 rows here: https://wizard.import2.com

Hope this helps!

[DSS-Gary]

Import2 no longer has a free trial (well, it's only 10 records). But I did get it to work after paying my $10. You have to import the companies first (use exact domain name, remove any leading "https://www"), then import the contacts second using the domain as the company lookup. Note that it doesn't create a Hubspot Import record, so you probably want to add a special field to indicate the records imported by this process.

[OLukavetska]

Hi there!
In case you want to establish a connection between the contact and its company, you may take a look at data2crm service. It uses API for the data import process. That’s how your data transfer can be implemented. As well as the manual information transfer to a new platform can be a long and laborious process, It is worth paying attention to the possibility of carrying out this operation in automatic mode.
So, in this way you are free to run Demo Migration. As well, you can see how your data will look on HubSpot CRM. Also, if you will have some questions, please mail me directly.
I hope, my advice is useful to you.
Regards, Olexandra

[AmyEbit]

Thanks @OLukavetska! Is it a free tool?

Many thanks

Amy

[OLukavetska]

Thank you for your question, AmiEbit!

You can try Demo Migration, it’s absolutely free. In case you want to make any changes, you have an opportunity to carry out the free test transfer again and adjust the mapping on your own. By the help of this transfer, you will be able to move a certain number of contacts (including their notes and other data) into the new CRM and see how will it look like.

If you will still have some questions or any issues with your migration, there is a form to contact the Data2CRM specialists and get useful insights.

[Swaabi]

I am having a similar issue, although it is less about importing contacts.  I have contacts coming into the HubSpot CRM via the Forms API.  I have 2 specific scenarios that leave the contact with no or incorrect company association and with the volume of data, I need to be able to bulk update the company association.

1. A contact uses a freemail email address and therefore they have no company association

2. I work with large organisations and government departments where every contact has a "parent" email domain in their address, yet they work for a "child" company within the larger organisation.  They all get associated with the parent company and I have the need to bulk update those contacts to associate with the child organisation.

I don't understand why I can bulk update any contact field except the associated company.  Associated company is one of the most important contact attributes and a central piece of the HubSpot sales and marketing system.  I can't imagine my situation is unique and bulk company association seems a fundamental activity.  It is certainly available in other CRMs I have worked with.

[ashley_milne]

@Swaabi

Since your request is about updating existing, rather than importing new, I'll post an update here for you. 

You can bulk-update/edit existing contact's related companies using Import2 Wizard. It's free for files up to 1k. You would just need the following data in a CSV to peform the update:

- your contact IDs of the records you want to update (you can export the IDs from Hubspot contact export - include all properties)

- the company you want to link to (can be the name, address, website, etc. - we can use any data from the company record to find the match)

If you need help with the specific steps, feel free to reach out direct: ashley@import2.com

But meanwhile, here's a quick video to show how to do it: 

[heidiperry]

Totally agree. We work in education and we also have the need for parent companies (i.e. a School District) and child companies (ie. a school).  We used to hand-associate company with every lead coming into our app- but now we can no longer keep up. We don't want to turn on the manual association based on domain because all our hand classified (and valuable) data will be lost- and "wiped out" by what Hubspot associated companies will say.  I wish there was a way to ignore companies in a certain list or workflow and not auto-associate them based on domain.  

[MFrankJohnson · Accepted solution]

Q: Can we import notes into HubSpot contact records? And can we build associations between HubSpot contacts and companies?

Short A: Yes. And, yes.

Longer A:

Beginning in December, the ability to import notes into HubSpot is now built-in fuctionality. And we may now build associations between contacts and companies (without regard to company domain). Yay!

- see Everything You Need to Know About the New HubSpot Import

14-Dec-2018: HubSpot Import Notes 

[vladimirten]

You showed how to import notes into HubSpot, but can we EXPORT notes from here?