You can now sync your customer list in Punchpass with your marketing list in your Mailchimp account, allowing new Punchpass customers to be automatically added to Mailchimp. Here's how it works and some important considerations to keep in mind.
How to Connect Mailchimp to Punchpass
From Manage > Settings > Integrations, click the Connect To Mailchimp button.
You'll then need to authorize Punchpass. You can create a new account here, though we recommend you do that beforehand. You'll be asked to confirm the authorization.
Almost done! You'll be redirected back to Punchpass.
The last step is to choose which audience list in Mailchimp that you'd like your customers from Punchpass to be added to; you can only choose one.
Choose an audience list from the dropdown and click Save, that's it!
Your customer list will be sync'd automatically.
Important Considerations for the Mailchimp Integration
1. The customer sync is only ONE WAY
When a new customer is added to Punchpass, or a customer's email address is changed, they will be added to your Mailchimp account to the selected audience list.
If a customer is DELETED from Punchpass, they are not deleted from Mailchimp;
Modifying an email address in Mailchimp will NOT modify their email address in Punchpass;
Adding a new subscriber to Mailchimp will NOT add them to Punchpass.
2. Punchpass does not sync the subscribed/unsubscribed status of customers
If a customer is marked Do Not Email or Unsubscribed in Punchpass, that will not affect their status in Mailchimp. (Or vise versa - Mailchimp unsubscribes do not impact Punchpass.)
Why? Your Marketing List is not the same thing as your Customer list.
You may have lots of other sources of emails in Mailchimp - for example signup forms on your website. This means you should use Mailchimp for marketing emails like an email newsletter.
Once connected to Mailchimp, you should only use the Punchpass email functionality for emails specific to your customer base. For example....
a change that affects where every parks
a change to your scheduled hours or locations
In general, we expect that if you are syncing your customer list with Mailchimp, there are very few reasons you would use the Punchpass functionality to email all customers.
3. You cannot pick & choose who is synced and you cannot 'force' a sync
Punchpass syncs all active (not archived) customers who have an email address. The first sync occurs immediately after you integrate. Due to the one-way nature of the sync, there is no 'undo'.
4. Only the name and email address are synced. Address/Phone/Birthday are not synced.
5. Archived customers are not synced.
However, archiving an active customer will not remove them from your Mailchimp list.
6. Customers are added to your list as 'subscribed'
This means they will NOT be sent any double opt-in notification, regardless of your settings.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why don't I see an option for Mailchimp in my integration settings?
The Mailchimp integration is available on our Banyan and Redwood plans. However, you can still import customer data manually!
Or consider an upgrade to our Banyan plan to get access to the direct integration (and some additional features!) https://punchpass.com/pricing
I'm switching from another email service provider. If I connect Mailchimp today, will it immediately import my existing active customers?
Yes, when you connect to Mailchimp through our integration, all the contacts from Punchpass will sync! Then new customers will also sync moving forward.
Will the Mailchimp integration import customer phone numbers?
At this stage, our Mailchimp integration only pulls the name and email address across.
If you do need the phone numbers on the Mailchimp side then you could definitely keep the Mailchimp automation in place and then add customer phone numbers periodically by exporting your New Customers list from Punchpass and importing it into Mailchimp.
That process will just overlay their existing Mailchimp account to add the phone number.