Uploading Business Data

Introduction

Loqiva allows you to bulk upload your existing business data in a way that makes business onboarding easy.

You can do this via:

• a CSV upload (if you are using MS Excel or similar)
• an API connection with Solomon CRM

Accelerating Onboarding With Existing Business Data

Loqiva provides customers with the option to upload existing business data to the digital town hub to:

• send personalised email invites to businesses
• display a personalised sign-up page with pre-filled information
• determine which businesses receive a free subscription and which businesses need to pay for a subscription
• switch businesses between different kinds of subscription
• update app and hub content based on the business subscription status

When should you upload business data?

Organisations promoting town centres usually create a record of member businesses. This data might be kept in a spreadsheet or held in more sophisticated CRM software.

It usually contains business details, (e.g. contact name, email, business name and address) and records their membership status (i.e. whether they are current members or not).

If your organisation has a database like this, you can export your data and synch it with Loqiva. Within a few seconds, you can batch upload all your latest business data and provide free access to the hub for member business.

Even better, if you’re a BID and use Solomon CRM, you can use an API to do this automatically. Loqiva will work in the background to make sure your data is always up-to-date and access to the hub is managed based on the business’ membership status.

Subscription Model

Loqiva has been developed on the basis that:

• organisations that have members may want to provide members with free access to the hub.
• some organisations may want to provide non-members with the opportunity to pay a monthly subscription fee (priced at the organisation’s discretion, to help offset the license fee).
• some organisations may want to limit access to the hub to members only.
• organisations that don’t have an existing membership structure may wish to charge all business users a monthly subscription fee.

The way you wish to use the hub can be configured in Subscription Model in Settings. The data synched with the hub will be handled in line with your Subscription Model selection.

Data Source Option 1: CSV Upload

Uploading a CSV

Most database software will allow you to download a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file. Spreadsheet software like MS Excel and Apple’s Numbers allows you to export CSV files.

If you wish to upload a CSV, go to Subscription Model in Settings, select Download CSV as the Data Source and download the example file. 

If you open this in spreadsheet software, you can then add your data to the required columns, save it again as a CSV and upload it to Loqiva.

It’s as easy as that!

Data Source Option 2: Solomon API

Creating the connection between Solomon and Loqiva

To use the Solomon-Loqiva data synch, Loqiva will request the three API Endpoints from Solomon for your organisation’s CRM. These are:

• Solomon Login Endpoint
• Solomon Business Endpoint
• Solomon People Endpoint

The endpoints take the form of a long URL. Each endpoint should have a unique address.

Once received from Solomon, they will be added by us and saved in the relevant fields in API Keys in Settings.

Configuring the Solomon API

Go through the following steps in Settings > Subscription Model:

• Select Solomon CRM and configure how you would like your subscription model to work.
• Decide how and when you would like to automatically synchronise your data. (Loqiva needs to set-up the exact time, e.g. every Sunday at 11pm, you would like to pull your data). Alternatively you can use the button to synch manually.
• After the first synch, you will be able to manually select whether you want to send one-off invitation emails to all new live accounts. You can also choose to send a reminder email to live accounts which remain unclaimed. Make your selection and click on the ‘Send Email’ button.
• Finally, once you are happy with everything, you can automatically invite new businesses after each data synch.

Handling Exceptions

Understanding Exceptions

When business data is imported into Loqiva, it must conform to certain rules. If the data prevents Loqiva from functioning correctly then it is classed as an exception.

The main exceptions are:

On the first import:

1. PostCode Exception – The business must have an address that matches a post code in the Service Area in Settings. This prevents businesses outside of the Service Area being able to register. The business will remain an exception until the postcode is changed in  either Solomon or the Service Area  so there is a match.
2. Email Exception – The email address attached to a business must appear only once in the entire database. Loqiva doesn’t allow the same email address to have multiple business accounts. The business will remain an exception until the email address is changed in data source, or the account with the existing duplicate email address is deleted.

NB: All other data provided by the data source (e.g. address, account name etc) will be updated by Loqiva automatically as it defers to the data source as the official record.

Hints & Tips

Using the data synch in practise

Checking the personalised sign-up page for each business

You may find a business contacts you to say they haven’t received the sign-up email for some reason. If they do, you can provide them with their personalised sign-up link directly by going to Users > Business, selecting the business and looking for the clipboard icon (next to the pencil and bin). If you click on this it will open a box asking you whether you want to copy the link to your clipboard (so you can cut and paste into a browser), or send another email invite to the business.

Addressing exceptions and actioning changes

If you update the postcode in the Service Area to address a PostcodeException for instance, you must go back to Settings > Subscription Model and do a manual synch for the system to change the exception status.

Quickly updating businesses with wrong data

It’s common for business records to be imported with data that’s wrong (e.g. misspelt email addresses) but this is only noticed once it’s displaying on the hub. If you’ve got a number of businesses like this,  it might be easier for you to delete these (by clicking on the bin icon for each business), updating your data source and then re-importing the businesses again through another synch. Alternatively, you can easily update the business info for each business.