Attention: if you would like information on how to use the VAN integration to upload lists directly click on this Guide.
The next step of building your call campaign is to add the contacts that you want to dial. This is the list of the hundreds, thousands, or even millions of voters, supporters, or other contacts with whom you want your callers to talk.
There are two options to adding contacts:
Via VAN integration upload
Manually by uploading a .CSV file
Uploading a list through NGP VAN Integration
If you would prefer to upload your list through your VAN integration, all you have to do is ensure you’ve chosen the correct integration in Step 2: Integration, select the option “Import from NGP VAN,” and choose your contact list from the drop down menu. If you’ve correctly configured your integration, all lists shared with the Scale to Win API user will appear in your dialer.
Click on the "import from NGP VAN" option to view the drop down menu of VAN lists shared with the Scale to Win Dialer.
If you’re certain your list is shared and don’t see it appearing in the drop down, select the refresh button to the far right of the screen to reload your dialer lists.
Attention: if you would like information on how to use the VAN integration to upload lists directly check out this guide.
Create Your Contact Spreadsheet
To add your contact list into the Scale to Win Dialer manually, you will need to organize it as a spreadsheet and upload it as a CSV file.
Below are the detailed steps for setting up your CSV, uploading it into the Dialer, and mapping the data fields contained within it to your calling campaign:
Create a spreadsheet that contains the phone number, name, and any additional information about each of the contacts you wish to call. Format your spreadsheet so that each of these categories of information is organized into its own column, with each contact listed on an individual row.
Make sure that the first row of the spreadsheet is comprised of your “column headers”: that is, the label for each column (e.g., “phone_number,” “first_name,” “last_name,” “age,” et cetera).
UPDATE: You are not required to write the phone number column header in any particular format. The dialer will recognize variations of “phone number” in your spreadsheet. If the dialer cannot determine which column corresponds to phone numbers, you will be prompted to map that field before continuing.
If you are using an NGP VAN integration, you are required to include VANids for all contacts on a particular list. Having contacts without a VANid will result in an error and you will not be able to continue. For more information about setting up your NGP VAN integration, read the “Using Your NGP VAN Integration” guide.
For the rest of the column headers, it doesn’t matter if they are written in lower or upper case, with or without an underscore or space, as long as they are clear and identifiable to you.
Depending on the purpose and content of your call campaign, you might wish to include some or all of the following fields as columns in your spreadsheet. As mentioned in Step 3, these are the default “Contact Fields” in the STW Dialer:
phone_number (*required) [note: valid phone numbers will be accepted regardless of whether they contain only digits or also punctuation marks]
First Name (*required)
Last Name
Address Line 1
Address Line 2
City
State
Zip
Email
Polling Place Address Line 1
Polling Place City
Polling Place State
You can also include additional information about the contacts on your list, which you can insert as new “Contact Fields” into the relevant sections of your call script. For example, you might choose to include:
Age
Voter Registration Status
Political Party Affiliation
Support Score
District
Event Attendance
Include Data for Desired Contact Fields
As discussed above, as well as in “Step 3: Write Questions,” you can insert “Contact Fields” into your call script that will automatically populate with information about the contacts you’re dialing (e.g., “Hi, is [First Name] available?”), based on the data you include in your contact list.
Therefore, if there are any particular “Contact Fields” that you want to include in your script and have your callers be able to reference about the contacts with whom they’re speaking, be sure to include that data as columns in your contact list.
For example, if you want your callers to remind the voters they’re calling about their polling places, you should include a list of the voters’ polling places as a column in your contact list spreadsheet. Then, in your script, insert that Contact Field into the relevant questions (e.g., “Our records show that your polling place is [location]. Have you been there or voted there before?”).
Later in this step (Step 4), you’ll “map” these columns to the Contact Fields you include in your script.
Accepted List Size
The Scale to Win Dialer allows you to upload large lists of contacts. You’re welcome to go ahead and upload a list of one million or more contacts!
Ensure Your Spreadsheet is a CSV File
Your contacts spreadsheet must be saved as a CSV (comma-separated values) file. If you created the spreadsheet as a different file type, you simply need to save/export it as a CSV, which you’ll then be able to upload into the dialer.
If you created your spreadsheet in the following applications, here’s how to save/export it as a CSV:
GoogleSheets: With your spreadsheet opened, go to “File” > “Download” > “Comma-separated values (.csv).” This will save the current sheet as a CSV to the downloads folder on your computer.
Numbers: With your spreadsheet opened, go to “File” > “Export To” > “CSV.” You’ll be prompted to name the file and choose where on your computer to save it. Then click “Export.”
Excel: With your spreadsheet opened, go to “File” > “Save As” > name the file and choose where you want to save it on your computer > select “Comma-separated values (.csv)” from the “File format” drop-down list > “Save.”
Upload Your CSV
Once you’ve finalized your CSV, it’s time to upload it into the Scale to Win Dialer. You’ll see on your screen a box that says “Drop a CSV here or click to select a file.” You can either: 1) drag and drop your CSV into that box or 2) click anywhere inside the box, select the CSV within your computer files, and then click “Open.” The uploading of your file will start immediately.
The “Add Contacts'' step in the campaign creation process, where you can drag and drop a CSV or click to select a file from your computer.
If your upload was successful, you will see a summary of your contact list appear in the box on the screen. Your file name will appear at the top of the box, followed by bullet points listing the number of contacts contained within your list and the number and names of the “fields” (that is, your column headers) contained within your file, as well.
The summary of your successfully uploaded list.
From there, click the “IMPORT CONTACTS” button. The system will then start importing your list:
The loading screen while your contacts are being imported.
While waiting for your import to complete, you are welcome to navigate away from this browser window. The import process will continue in the background.
Once the import is complete, you will see a new summary of your list appear in the box on the screen.
An overview of your successfully imported contacts, including the valid contacts and the reasons any others were skipped.
Your file name will appear at the top of the box, followed by bullet points listing the following:
Valid contacts: The number of contacts from your list that were successfully uploaded and you will be able to dial.
Contacts that need to be loaded in the clicker: The number of cell phone numbers included on your list, which will need to be “clicked” in order to be eligible to call. (Read more about this in the “Clicking” section of “Step 8: Start/Run the Campaign.”)
Contacts that were skipped: The number of contacts that were not imported into the dialer, for the reasons enumerated below.
Contacts skipped due to invalid phone numbers: The phone numbers of these contacts were determined to be invalid, and therefore were not imported.
Duplicates skipped: Contacts that were included twice or more on your list were only imported once. (The CSV import process will import the contact associated with the first time a phone number appears on your list and skip subsequent contacts associated with that phone number on this list.)
“Map” Your Columns
Scroll down the page and you will see a table containing multiple columns, as shown in the image below. The “Name” column is comprised of a list of the STW Dialer’s default “Contact Fields” (e.g., First Name, Last Name, City, Email). There’s a column next to it that says “Map to CSV column”:
The screen where you ‘map’ the Contact Fields to the columns from your uploaded CSV.
You now simply need to ‘match up’ the column headers that you included in your contact list and which you’d like to insert as Contact Fields into your call script with the corresponding default Contact Fields listed on your screen.
To do this ‘mapping,’ find a default Contact Field on the screen that you included as a column in your CSV, such as “First Name.” Click the “EDIT” button to the left of “First Name.”
A dropdown menu titled “CSV column” will then appear in the spot that previously said “Not mapped to a column.” This dropdown menu contains a list of all the column headers from the CSV you uploaded. Select the column header that corresponds to this field (e.g., “First Name”):
The dropdown menu to select which column in the CSV should be mapped to the Contact Field.
Then, click “Save.” You’ll notice that this will cause this row to move up to the top of the table on your screen.
The “Save” button after you’ve selected the correct column to map to.
Continue doing so until you have paired the column headers from your CSV that you’d like to insert as Contact Fields into your call script with the corresponding default Contact Fields listed on your screen.
*Important: you do not need to map every column header from the CSV you uploaded to a Contact Field, but rather just the “First Name” field (which is required for all call campaigns) and any fields you’d like to insert as Contact Fields into your script.
A few notes and tips:
You will notice that “phone number” is not one of the listed fields. That is because the dialer system automatically detects which one of the columns in your contact list is the phone number column; thus, you don’t have to manually map that column.
You are required to map a “First Name” field for all call campaigns.
An alert reminds you that it’s always required to map a “First Name” field.
When you wrote your call script in the previous step (“Step 3”), if you inserted any Contact Fields (i.e., the blue rounded buttons for fields including “First Name” and “Last Name”) into any part of your script, then you’ll notice that the table in “Step 4” will require you to map those column headers.
An alert reminds you that some fields are required to map if you’ve used them in your script.
If there are fields you did not include in your contact list (e.g., Address, Email, Polling Place Name), simply don’t map them to one of your column headers. The row on which these fields are listed will continue to say “Not mapped to a column.”
A message to indicate some fields weren’t mapped, but they aren’t required.
Once you have finished setting up your call campaign and have launched it, if you wish to go back and insert additional Contact Fields into your call script, you will be required to first map these additional Contact Fields to their corresponding CSV column header in this step (Step 4) before you will be able to return to Step 3 and insert these Contact Fields into your script.
Add and “Map” New Contact Fields During List Upload
What if you included columns in your CSV that aren't among the default Contact Fields listed in the table on your screen? No problem! You can still map these column headers and insert them as Contact Fields into your call script, and it’s easy to do so.
Start by clicking the “+ ADD” button near the top of the table:
The ‘+ Add’ button to add a Contact Field if there is a column in your CSV that’s not a default Contact Field and that you wish to insert as a Contact Field into your script.
You’ll then be prompted to give your new Contact Field a name, in the space designated “Field name.” Then, select the correct column header from the “CSV column” dropdown menu, as you did when mapping your other fields. Once you’re done, click “Save.”
An example of adding a new Contact Field — “Age” — in the column mapping step of contact upload.
You’ll now see this newly-mapped Contact Field appear at the top of the table, along with your others.
If you make a mistake at any point, simply click the “DELETE” button on the row with the error.
Once you’ve successfully mapped your column headers, you can click the “CONTINUE” button on the bottom right corner of your screen, to move to the next step of the campaign creation process.
Troubleshooting
If you encounter any errors when uploading your contact list to the dialer, check if it may be due to one of these common mistakes:
Non-CSV Files
When you upload your contact list to the dialer, if the upload fails, first double check to make sure your file is a CSV and not another file type. Uploading a non-CSV file (such an a GoogleSheet, Excel, or Numbers file) will produce an error similar to the one below:
An example of an error message if you’ve attempted to upload a non-CSV file.
To delete this failed file upload, click the trashcan icon in the top right corner of the box, and then upload the correct file.
Mislabelled “phone_number” Column Header
If you encounter an error similar to the one below, it may be because the column header on the phone number column in your spreadsheet is not written in this format: “phone_number”. Be sure to write it in all lowercase, with an underscore between the words.
An example of the error message if the CSV you’ve attempted to upload doesn’t have a properly named ‘phone_number’ column.
To delete this failed upload, click the trashcan icon in the top right corner of the box. Then, correct your spreadsheet and try uploading it again.
Next, read about Step 5, which is choosing a caller ID for your call campaign!