Cordwainer — Professional Contacts List Hygiene & Integration

Overview

Cordwainer's professional referral contact list is currently split across two systems: a Professionals module inside Eldermark and a legacy Excel spreadsheet inherited from a previous staff member. This fragmentation forces Bodo to manually merge both sources every time an email blast goes out to professional referrers (case managers, real estate agents, hospital discharge planners, etc.), with no unified view, no deduplication, and incomplete contact records in the Excel file.

This article documents the problem, the planned remediation approach, and the integration strategy for consolidating everything into Eldermark.

The Problem

Split Data Sources

When Bodo needs to send a professional e-blast, she exports the Eldermark list and manually combines it with the Excel sheet before sending to the agency. This process:

• Is time-consuming and error-prone
• Produces duplicate sends (no deduplication step)
• Prevents consistent segmentation (e.g., targeting only case managers vs. real estate agents)
• Leaves the Excel contacts outside any CRM tracking or opt-out management

Data Quality Issues in the Excel List

The legacy Excel file contains entries with only an email address — no first name, last name, organization, or contact type. Examples like p.smith@hospitalname.org exist with no way to identify the individual without manual research. This makes bulk import into Eldermark impractical without enrichment first.

No Visibility Into What's Been Sent

Because the professional list is assembled ad hoc and sent through the agency's tools (previously MailChimp or Constant Contact), Bodo has no visibility inside Eldermark into:

• Which contacts received which emails
• Bounce or unsubscribe status
• Whether a professional who calls in has already received a recent communication

Remediation Plan

Step 1 — Export & Deliver the Excel List

Owner: Bodo Liesenfeld
Action: Send the professionals CSV/Excel file to Karly Oykhman and Mark Hope.

This is the prerequisite for all downstream work.

Step 2 — Data Hygiene

Owner: Karly Oykhman (Asymmetric)
Actions:
- Validate all email addresses (identify invalid, bounced, or malformed addresses)
- Flag duplicates between the Excel list and existing Eldermark professionals
- Identify records with missing fields (name, organization, contact type)

Step 3 — List Enrichment

Owner: Asymmetric Applications Group
Actions:
- For records with email only, attempt enrichment via available tools (e.g., reverse email lookup, LinkedIn, organization domain research) to recover first name, last name, title, and organization
- Flag records that cannot be enriched for manual review or discard

Step 4 — Import into Eldermark

Owner: Asymmetric Applications Group (with Bodo review)
Actions:
- Map enriched fields to Eldermark's Professionals schema (contact type, organization, name, email, phone)
- Bulk import cleaned records into the Eldermark Professionals tab
- Ensure all imported contacts are tagged with appropriate professional type (case manager, real estate agent, discharge planner, etc.) to enable future segmentation
- Retire the Excel sheet as a source of record once import is validated

Step 5 — Ongoing Maintenance Process

Once consolidated, establish a process so new professional contacts are entered directly into Eldermark at the point of collection (e.g., after a networking event or receiving a business card), rather than accumulating in a separate spreadsheet.

Segmentation Considerations

Bodo noted that professional type matters for targeting — she sometimes wants to reach only case managers, or only real estate agents. The Eldermark Professionals tab supports contact type tagging, but this only works if records are correctly categorized on entry. The import process should enforce type assignment as a required field.

Email Visibility Gap

A related issue surfaced in the discovery call: when the agency sends emails to the professional list (or any automated sequence), Bodo has no visibility inside Eldermark into what was sent or to whom. If a professional calls referencing an email, Bodo has no way to look it up in the CRM.

Resolving the list consolidation is a prerequisite for addressing this — once all contacts live in Eldermark, there is a foundation for logging or syncing outbound email activity back to contact records.

Related

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