Migrate from Cliniko to Mailchimp

Cliniko patients map directly to Mailchimp contacts using email address as the join key. First name, last name, phone, and address fields migrate as standard Mailchimp contact fields. Medical information (DOB, conditions, insurance) migrates as custom merge fields. Contacts without an email address cannot be created in Mailchimp and are flagged for manual review before the migration runs.

Cliniko locations do not have a direct Mailchimp equivalent — Mailchimp has no location object on contacts. We apply a location-based tag to each contact during migration (e.g., TAG: Location — Downtown Clinic) so you can filter and segment by clinic in Mailchimp's audience view. For multi-location clinics with separate audience requirements, we can create one Mailchimp audience per location using location-scoped email queries from Cliniko.

Cliniko appointments (with type, date, status, and practitioner) have no native equivalent in Mailchimp's contact model. The most recent appointment date migrates as a DATE merge field (e.g., LASTVISIT). Appointment type names (Initial Consultation, Follow-up, New Patient Exam) migrate as tags on the contact. Next appointment dates are stored as a separate DATE merge field (NEXTAPT). Full appointment history remains in Cliniko and is not loaded into Mailchimp.

Cliniko practitioners have names, titles, specialties, and email addresses but Mailchimp has no practitioner object for internal staff. We migrate practitioner name and specialty as text merge fields on the patient contact (e.g., MERGE5: Primary Practitioner, MERGE6: Specialty). Practitioners who are also patients get their practitioner role tagged. Practitioners who are not patients are exported as a separate reference list for your Mailchimp admin.

Cliniko invoices track amounts, line items, payment statuses, and taxes — none of these have a place in Mailchimp's contact model. We preserve the most recent invoice total and payment status as optional merge fields (e.g., LASTINVOICE, PAYMENTSTATUS) for segmentation purposes (e.g., tag contacts with outstanding balances). Full invoice history stays in Cliniko.

Cliniko products and services (catalog items sold or used during appointments) have no native equivalent in Mailchimp. We tag contacts with the names of products or services they have received (e.g., TAG: Acupuncture — Initial Session) so you can segment for cross-sell campaigns in Mailchimp based on service history. Full product catalog data remains in Cliniko.

Cliniko custom fields for intake forms, clinical notes, and patient preferences require Mailchimp merge fields to be created before migration. Mailchimp enforces a 40-character field name limit and supports TYPE: text, number, date, phone, or address. Multi-select or array-type custom fields in Cliniko are flattened to a text merge field with pipe-delimited values. We handle field-type mapping and naming compliance during Mailchimp audience setup before the batch load runs.

Cliniko patient notes are encrypted at rest and attached to patient records. Mailchimp contact notes are plain text visible to all account users. Sensitive clinical notes (treatment details, diagnoses, clinical flags) must remain in Cliniko for HIPAA compliance. Non-sensitive administrative notes migrate as Mailchimp contact notes during the batch load. We flag any note containing clinical keywords and route it to a Cliniko-only reference rather than the Mailchimp contact note field.

Cliniko tracks patient communication preferences for email, SMS, and phone. Mailchimp only has native email subscription status (subscribed / unsubscribed / cleaned). SMS and phone preferences migrate as custom merge fields (SMS_PREF, PHONE_PREF). Patients who are marked as email-subscribed in Cliniko are added to the Mailchimp audience with status: subscribed. We validate that the email subscription flag in Cliniko reflects genuine marketing consent before setting Mailchimp status.

Cliniko patient tags (e.g., Referral — GP, Insurance — Private, VIP) map directly to Mailchimp tags since both platforms use a string-label tagging model on contacts. We preserve all Cliniko tags as Mailchimp tags during migration. Note: Mailchimp's tag limit per contact is 60 — if a Cliniko patient has more than 60 tags, we keep the 60 most-recently-applied and log the overflow for manual consolidation.

Cliniko appointment types (e.g., Initial Consultation, Massage Therapy 60min, Physiotherapy Follow-up) define the service delivered at each booking. Mailchimp has no appointment-type object. Each unique appointment type from Cliniko becomes a Mailchimp tag applied to contacts who have had that appointment type (e.g., TAG: Appointment Type — Massage Therapy 60min). This lets you segment by service type for targeted re-booking campaigns in Mailchimp.

Cliniko stores insurance provider and policy details per patient. Mailchimp has no native insurance field. Insurance provider name migrates as a text merge field (INSURANCE_PROVIDER). Policy number migrates as a separate text merge field (POLICY_NUMBER) if present. Policy expiration dates migrate as DATE merge fields. Full insurance records stay in Cliniko; Mailchimp merge fields serve as reference only for campaign targeting.