Migrate from Daffodil CRM to Mailchimp

Discovery and export method confirmation

We audit the source Daffodil CRM environment by requesting a field inventory from the customer (all custom field names, types, and sample values) and clarifying the available export method. If Daffodil Software provides a CSV export directly, we confirm the field headers and relational fields (contact-company linking, deal-contact linking). If no export is available, we work with the customer to request one from Daffodil Software or identify an alternative extraction method. We also audit the Mailchimp destination audience and confirm which merge tags and groups already exist versus need to be created.

Field map design and merge tag provisioning

We build a custom field map for the migration based on the Daffodil CRM field inventory. Text, number, date, and email fields map to Mailchimp merge tags. Multi-select picklist fields map to Mailchimp Groups with individual options. Contact-to-Company relationships are captured as a custom text merge tag holding the company name. We pre-create all required merge tags and groups in the destination Mailchimp audience before any data load begins. Deal data is mapped to Tags and custom text fields as described in the object mapping.

Data extraction and transformation

We extract data from Daffodil CRM via the confirmed export method. For CSV exports, we parse relational fields (company name on contact, owner name, deal stage) and flatten them into individual contact rows with denormalized company and deal fields. We clean data quality issues including duplicate emails, malformed phone numbers, and inconsistent date formats during this phase. Tags are split from comma-separated strings into individual tag records per contact.

Sandbox load and reconciliation

We perform a test load into a new Mailchimp audience (acting as a sandbox equivalent) using a subset of records. We verify that merge tags populate correctly, Groups are created with the right options, Tags appear on the right contacts, and the company name field links to the expected contacts. We reconcile the test load record count against the source export and resolve any mapping issues before the production load.

Production load and final reconciliation

We run the production migration into the live Mailchimp audience. Contacts are loaded via Mailchimp's API with batch chunking and rate-limit handling. We reconcile record counts (total contacts in, contacts with each tag, contacts with each group, contacts with company name populated) against the source export. We flag any records that failed to load and identify the reason (duplicate email on dedupe, missing required field, API error) for customer review.

Delivery and automation handoff

We deliver a migration completion report including record counts, tag assignments, merge tag coverage, and a list of any records that did not migrate. We deliver a written inventory of Daffodil CRM workflows or automations (if any were in use) that require manual rebuild in Mailchimp's automation builder. We do not rebuild automations as part of the migration scope. We offer a one-week post-migration support window for reconciliation questions.