How to Bulk-Update Contacts Using Workflows
Why Bulk-Update Matters
When you manage a large contact list — for example many leads or clients — sometimes you need to make the same update to many records at once: change office location, re-assign owners, update status, tags, or other fields. Doing this manually one by one is time-consuming and error-prone. Using bulk-update with workflows saves time, ensures consistency, and helps you manage contacts at scale.
With LeadCenter.AI you can bulk-update common contact fields directly — and for custom or less common fields, use “Workflows” to automate the update across multiple contacts at once.
What You Can Bulk-Update in LeadCenter
From the contact or pipeline dashboard, you can use bulk-actions to update common fields such as: stage, source, owner, pipeline, spam status, client status, category, tags — or delete contacts entirely.
For other fields (e.g. “office location”, custom fields, or other metadata), you can create a workflow that will update these fields for multiple contacts at once.
Step-by-Step: How to Bulk Update Contacts via Workflow
Here’s how to set up a workflow in LeadCenter to bulk update a field — for example “Office Location” — and apply it to many contacts:
1. Go to Workflows
- From your LeadCenter menu, navigate to the Workflows section.
- Click “New Workflow”.
2. Configure the Workflow
- Give the workflow a name — e.g. Bulk update office location.
- Choose the Trigger: for bulk manual updates, select Manual Trigger (so you run it when needed).
- (Recommended) Optionally set a Filter — this safeguards against accidentally updating too many contacts. For example, only contacts from a certain region, source, or tag.
3. Add the Update Action
- Add an action of type “Update Contact”.
- Select the field you want to update — e.g. “Office Location”.
- Enter the value you want to assign — e.g. “Dallas, TX”.
- (Optional) Add additional update actions if you need to update multiple fields at once.
4. Save and Publish the Workflow
- Click Save, then Save & Publish (or equivalent) to make the workflow active.
5. Run the Workflow on Selected Contacts
- Go to your Contacts or Pipeline dashboard.
- Use the checkboxes to select the contacts you want to update. You can select just a few, a batch, or — after filters — all matching contacts.
- From the bulk actions menu, choose Run Workflow, then select the workflow you created (e.g. “Bulk update office location”) and confirm.
- The workflow will run in the background. Once it completes, you can refresh the dashboard and verify that the specified field(s) have been updated.
When to Use Bulk Update vs Workflow vs Manual / Built-in Bulk Actions
| Use case / Need | Recommended approach |
|---|---|
| Simple common fields (status, owner, pipeline, tags) | Use built-in bulk update via Contacts or Sales Pipeline dashboard |
| Custom field or uncommon field (office location, custom metadata) | Create a custom workflow for bulk update as described above |
| Repetitive updates or scheduled updates (when new contacts added, or periodic cleanups) | Use automated workflows (triggered on create/update or based on filters) |
Why This Matters for Your Advisory Firm
- Enables scalable operations — useful as your firm grows and contacts accumulate.
- Ensures consistency across your contact database — no manual mistakes.
- Saves time — updating 100s or 1000s of contacts with a few clicks instead of manual edits.
- Helps maintain clean data (e.g. updating office locations, assigning new owners, standardizing fields).
