Bulk Actions on Contacts

Contacts 4 min read

Bulk actions let you apply changes to dozens, hundreds, or even your entire patient list at once, saving you from clicking through individual records one by one. This article walks you through how to select contacts and what you can do with them in a single batch.

When to Use Bulk Actions

Bulk actions are useful any time you need to make the same change across a group of patients. Common situations include:

Adding a tag to every patient who came in for a specific procedure
Sending a one-time text or email to a group of patients (for example, a scheduling push when you have open chairs)
Removing an outdated tag from a large segment of your list
Moving a group of patients into a different stage in your pipeline
Deleting test contacts or old duplicate records you have already cleaned up

If you find yourself doing the same thing repeatedly across individual records, bulk actions are the faster path. Pair them with smart lists and filters to target exactly the right group before you act.

Selecting Contacts

Open the Contacts tab from the main menu. Your full patient list appears in a table view.

Use the search bar or the Filters button to narrow the list to the group you want to act on. For example, filter by tag, last activity date, or any custom field you have set up.
Check the box at the top of the list to select every contact currently shown, or check individual boxes next to specific patients.
If your filter returned more contacts than fit on one page, a banner will appear asking if you want to select all matching contacts across every page. Click Select all [number] contacts to include the full group.

Once at least one contact is checked, the bulk action toolbar appears at the top of the list.

Available Bulk Actions

Add or Remove Tags

Click Add Tag or Remove Tag in the toolbar, then choose the tag from the dropdown. The change applies to every selected contact immediately. This is one of the fastest ways to organize a large group after an event or campaign. See Organizing Patients with Tags for more on how tags work.

Send a Message

Click Send Message to send a text or email to everyone in your selection. You can type a message from scratch or choose a saved template. The platform will queue the messages and send them out. Keep in mind that patients who have opted out of texts will be skipped automatically to keep your practice compliant.

Heads up Double-check your filter before sending a bulk message. Once a batch send starts, individual messages cannot be recalled. It is good practice to preview the recipient count in the toolbar and confirm it looks right before hitting send.

Update a Field

You can overwrite a standard field or a custom field for all selected contacts at once. Click Update Field, choose the field you want to change, and enter the new value. This is helpful for correcting a value that was imported incorrectly across a large batch of records.

Add to a Campaign or Workflow

If you have an automated follow-up sequence set up, you can enroll a group of patients into it from here. Click Add to Campaign, choose the campaign, and the selected contacts will enter the sequence at the first step.

Export Selected Contacts

Need a spreadsheet of just this group? Click Export to download a CSV file of the selected records. For more options on exporting your full list, see Exporting Your Contacts.

Delete Contacts

Select the contacts you want to remove and click Delete. The platform will ask you to confirm before anything is removed. Deleted contacts cannot be recovered, so use this option only for records you are certain you no longer need, such as test entries or duplicates you have already merged.

Tip Before deleting, consider whether a tag or a pipeline stage change would serve you better. Deleted records are gone permanently, but a tag like "Inactive" keeps the history intact while keeping your active list clean.

Tips for Working Efficiently

Build your filter first, confirm the count, then select all. This avoids accidentally including patients who should not be in the batch.
Save filters you use often as a smart list so you can jump back to the same segment without rebuilding it each time.
For large batches of more than a few hundred contacts, give the platform a moment after you confirm the action. The system processes records in the background and will notify you when the job is complete.

Note Some bulk actions, such as sending messages, draw from your account's messaging balance. If you are sending to a very large group, check your wallet balance first under Billing to avoid interruptions mid-send.

Next Steps

Now that you know how to act on groups of patients at once, you may want to explore Building Smart Lists and Filters to create saved segments you can reuse, or head over to Sending a Text (SMS) Campaign if your goal is a broader outreach push to your patient base.

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