Create a contact list to import – Zenchef : Help Center

When importing your contacts to Zenchef, certain data, such as email addresses and phone numbers, need to be in a specific format to be imported correctly. Therefore, before importing your contacts, we recommend following this article to properly set up the file that contains your contacts' information.

📂 File Requirements

Accepted File Format: CSV only
Number of Contacts: You can import up to 10,000 contacts in a single file
Encoding: Save your file with UTF-8 encoding to ensure special characters are read correctly

🛠️ Create Your File

In this article, for illustration purposes, we will create a CSV file from scratch to import contacts with the required attributes for Zenchef. Follow these requirements and guidelines to set up your file correctly.

Step 1: Set Up Your File with Contact Attributes

Open your spreadsheet program (Excel, Google Sheets) to create a new file. You have 3 options to get started:

Download our sample CSV file.
Export contacts you already have in Zenchef or another app.
Start from scratch with Excel or Google Sheets

In the header row of your file, add the information you want to import about your contacts. Each cell represents a piece of information that will be mapped to a Zenchef contact attribute and imported.

For Zenchef, headers can include:

Title
Last Name
First Name
Email
Phone
Language

Step 2: Add Your Contacts' Information to the File

You can now fill up the file with your contacts' information:

Copy the data from another program or an exported file, or
Type it directly into the file.

Ensure each column contains information corresponding to the attribute in the header row and that each row contains information about a single contact.

Example Data Rows:

Mr,Moore,Josh,josh.moore@example.com,+11234567890,EN
Ms,Curry,Marie,marie.curry@example.com,+33612345678,FR

Step 3: Verify the Format of Your Data

Now that your file contains all the data you want to import, take some time to ensure that it is correctly formatted. Incorrectly formatted data can result in errors or missing information during the import.

Things to Check:

Email Addresses: Ensure all email addresses are valid and properly formatted.
- ✅ josh.moore@example.com
Phone Numbers: Ensure all phone numbers include the + sign and country code, with no special characters separating the digits.
- ✅ +11234567890

The "+" sign for phone numbers disappears when I add it to my file. How can I make it stay?

Ensure the phone number column is formatted as text in your spreadsheet program to retain the + sign. You can also use ‘+ to make sure it’s understood as a text.

Titles: Ensure titles match one of the following: Mr, Ms, Mrs, Miss, Mx.
- ✅ Mr

Language Codes: Ensure language codes match the ISO 639-1 standard.

EN for English
ES for Spanish
IT for Italian
DE for German
FR for French
PT for Portuguese
NL for Dutch
SV for Swedish (Svenska)
NO for Norwegian (Norsk)
DA for Danish (Dansk)

Step 4: Save Your File

Once you have completed and properly formatted your file, save it in CSV format using UTF-8 encoding.

Microsoft Excel: Select File > Save As > Choose CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) (*.csv) from the dropdown menu.
Google Sheets: Select File > Download > Choose Comma-separated values (.csv, current sheet).

Step 5: Import Your File into Zenchef

It's now time to import your contacts' details into Zenchef! Follow these steps:

Navigate to the Lists:
- Go to Marketing section, then click on Lists.
Import:
- Click on the 'Import contacts' button.
Upload File:
- Choose the prepared CSV file from your computer.
Map Fields:
- Match the columns from your file to Zenchef’s contact fields (Title, Last Name, First Name, Email, Phone, and Language).
Review and Confirm:
- Check for any errors.
- Confirm the import.

❓ FAQs