Get in the VAN: Syncing your data!
Trying to collect the right data in VAN can be tricky at times! This conversation is going to go over the common mistakes to avoid when you are using your VAN integration to sync data.
First off, you want to make sure all your contacts have VAN IDs that match the integration you are currently using. The easiest way to make sure is to push the list from the same integration you set up for both of your instances (such as MyCampaign and MyVoters). Sounds easy, but lots of clients have fairly complicated VAN instances which can make this process seem as hard as opening a pickle jar with chopsticks.
To get started, look at the name of your integration in Hustle and make sure it’s as clear as possible for any of your Admins to use (to learn a little more about how to name things in Hustle and save yourself some trouble later see this blog post: Naming Conventions). To see the name of your integrations as it is now, click ‘Integrations’ on the left side in the Admin panel.
You’ll notice when you click on the contacts tab, and look at the contacts in your groups, they should have VAN IDs under the names.
You’ll see that it lists the VAN instance that the ID comes from. These contacts are integrated with 2018 HD 041 — CTE MyVoters. When you create a VAN survey goal, or otherwise integrate the goal, you will need to select the integration that matches the VAN IDs your contacts have.
If you select, for example, the yellow integration (VAN) instead of the green that the majority of your contacts have, you will not get all the results back in VAN. The IDs are the passports that allow VAN to see the contacts and to have them travel between VAN and Hustle. Without the correct passport the contact will be denied travel across the integration and will stay only in Hustle.
Another common mistake that leads to results not syncing back to VAN in the way you expect is when data is incorrectly integrated in a non-VAN survey type goal. The only way to integrate a non-VAN survey type goal is after it is launched. This means you will need to integrate it after it’s launched, but before any agents mark actions. Integrating the goal after agents mark actions, they will not sync and the integration does not backfill.
If you would like to use a VAN Survey Question within your goal, the easiest way to do this in the product would be with a VAN Survey goal. You can find out more about how to setup a VAN Survey goal here: (Goal Creation: VAN Survey). But if you do use another type, make sure you integrate it with the correct integration, before your agents start hustling!
Mistakes happen! If you started hustling before you were completely setup and need to get the information back into VAN, you can do it manually. Just export the goal data (learn how here: How do I access my Goal-level data export?), and then upload that CSV directly into VAN.
Hope these tips help you get all your data syncing back into VAN! If you have any other questions please visit help.hustle.com or email us at support@hustle.com.
