Bulk assign owners CRM data

How to Identify Ownerless Contacts and Assign in Bulk

Ensuring the contacts in your CRM are all assigned to owners helps your sales and support teams run smoothly. You just need a reliable way to catch contacts that don't have owners assigned yet and get them to the right resource.

With Insycle, there are several tools that can help you find records without owners and assign the appropriate team members in bulk:

  • If you know what items need to be assigned to whom, you can use the Bulk Operations module to assign owners by segment. Then you can save and automate the process for each segment.
  • When you aren't quite sure what properties items that need owners have, you can use the Group & Update module to analyze and assign each group to the appropriate owner.
  • To assign items to your team in a balanced way, taking existing workload into account, you can use the Assign app from the RevOps Acceleration suite. This can be saved and automated for each segment.

Bulk Assign Owners with the Bulk Operations Module

With the Bulk Operations module, you can find items with the same attributes and set up templates to automatically assign them to a specific owner on an ongoing basis.

Process Summary

  1. Create a segment of items that need owners.
  2. Assign the owner of those records using rules.
  3. Preview the results and apply the changes to your CRM.
  4. Save a template and set up automation.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Segment Records that Need Owner

Navigate to Data Management > Bulk Operations.

Select the database and record type in the top menu. Then explore the templates for an existing solution that may be close to what you need.

In Step 1, under the Filter tab, choose fields and criteria the field values must meet. With this filter, you're telling Insycle what records you would like to update. 

In the example below, Insycle will look for contact records from a specific State/Region (California) that also have a blank Contact Owner field. 

If you want to reassign contacts that already have an owner, remove the “Contact owner doesn’t exist” row from the filter.

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If you want to expand the filter and find contacts in California, or Oregon, or Washington, return to the filter under Step 1 and use the pipe “|” character (located just above the Enter key on your keyboard) to separate the values. This would look like, “CA|OR|WA.”

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When you click Search, Insycle will list matching records in the Record Viewer at the bottom of the page. Add columns from the Layout tab under Step 1.

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Whenever you make changes to the filter, click the Search button again to refresh the results in the Record Viewer.

Step 2: Select New Contact Owner

Under Step 2 in the Update tab, tell Insycle what changes to make to the records found in Step 1.

Select the Contact Owner field from the Field Name dropdown, and under New Value, select a new owner to assign these contacts to.

The Field Meta value provides information about the field type and is automatically populated by Insycle. This information will vary depending on the chosen field. The Contact Owner field is a “Reference” field, which means the field refers to another record in the database.

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To make additional updates to these records, click the + Field button and add another field. 

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Step 3: Preview and Apply Changes in Your CRM

Preview Changes in the CSV Report

With the filters and functions set up, you can preview the changes in a CSV file. It's important to verify that your changes are working as expected before those changes are pushed to your live database.

Under Step 3, click the Review button, then select Preview in the popup.

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On the Notify tab, add any additional recipients who should receive the CSV (and make sure to hit Enter after each address). You can also provide additional context in the message subject or body.

On the When tab, click Run Now and select which records to apply the change to (in most cases this will be All), then click the Run Now button.

Open the CSV file from your email in a spreadsheet application and review the (Before) and (After) values for each field. If the results don't look the way you expected, go back to your filters and functions and try making some adjustments before previewing again.

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Apply Changes to the CRM

If everything in your CSV preview looks correct, return to Insycle and move forward with applying the changes to the live CRM data.

Under Step 3, click the Review button, this time select Update mode.

On the When tab, you should use Run Now the first time you apply these changes to the CRM.

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Save as a Template and Set Up Automation

After you've seen the results in the CRM and are satisfied with how the operation runs, you can save all of the configurations as a template. This will save you time and provide consistent results in the future.

Return to the Template menu at the top of the page and click Copy to save your configurations as a new version of whatever template you started with. Then click the pencil to edit your new template name.

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Then, set up automation so this operation runs on a set schedule.

Under Step 3, click the Review button, and select Update mode.

On the When tab, select Automate, and configure the frequency you'd like the template to run. When finished, click Schedule.

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Create a template for each segment and owner then you can create a Recipe to automatically run them together. HubSpot users can also integrate Insycle Recipes into Workflows.

Bulk Assign Owners with the Group & Update Module

With the Group & Update module, you can group and analyze records by field values such as industry or region, and assign each segment to an owner.

Process Summary

  1. Select a field that you would like to analyze.
  2. Review the results and select a group in the Record Viewer.
  3. Select the owner for the segment and update records.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Select Fields to Analyze

In the Data Management > Group & Update module, select one or more fields to group by. 

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Click the Analyze button and a preview of the value groups that match this filter will load in the Record Viewer at the bottom of the page.

To view only records that currently do not have an owner, on the Filter tab, add the record Owner field and the condition "doesn't exist."

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Review Data and Select Records to Update

The Record Viewer lists all of the unique values for the fields selected in Step 1 with a count of how many times each value is found. If you included a second field in your filter, all of the different values for the first field will also be broken out into groups based on the second field.

In the example below, companies have been grouped by Industry values, and subgrouped by State/Region.

Click the checkbox to view the details for a group of records. 

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Below the Record Viewer, a secondary Viewer will show the individual records in the selected group.

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Step 2: Define Owner for Selected Group

Under Step 2 on the Update tab, select the owner field for the record type and select the CRM user who should be added as the record owner. This change will be applied to the records selected in the record viewer. 

⚠️ Note that these changes are applied to your CRM immediately, there is no preview step. 

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Bulk Assign Owners with the Assign App

With the Assign app, you can optimize assignment to ensure items reach the right representative at the right time, and set up templates to automatically route them on an ongoing basis.

Process Summary

  1. Segment the data using the filter.
  2. Choose assignees and how tickets for the segment will be assigned.
  3. Preview changes.
  4. Save the operation as a template and set up automation.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Set Up a Filter to Segment the Data

In the RevOps Acceleration > Assign app, select the Field to work with under Step 1. Use the Condition to set the rule that the data in the selected field must meet. 

In the example below, we want to segment companies without an owner, where the industry is "Computer Software" and the region is "New York."

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Step 2: Choose Assignees and the Method for Assigning

Under Step 2, select the Field you want to assign. The field options are limited to reference fields, which include owner properties. You can set rules up to automatically assign across several owners, and you can assign to more than one owner type at the same time.

The Rules give you several options for how tickets should be assigned:

  • Balanced: Looks at the potential owners and checks existing load allocation based on how many tickets are already assigned to each user, then distributes the new tickets so all users wind up with the same total number. Select the Period during which the new tickets were created- only these will be distributed, nothing older.
    For example, 24 high-priority tickets came in this month that needed to be assigned—initially, Jane was assigned 10 and John 5. When the operation ran again, the Balanced rule gave Jane 2 and John 7, so they each wound up with 12 over the course of the month.
  • Weighted: By adding multiple rules for different assignees or groups, you can manage weighted ticket distribution. The Weight value is the number of tickets to be assigned, rather than a percentage. The tickets are distributed round-robin to each assignee by the Weight number, rule by rule.
    For example, if the first rule says 2 to Joe and Josephine, and the second rule says 1 to Jane, the assignments will cycle through assigning 2 to Joe, 2 to Josephine, 1 to Jane. If there are more than 5 tickets, it will then cycle back to assign 2 to Joe and Josephine and so on.
  • Even: Assigns in a cycle, round-robin style through the names in the order listed, 123, 123, 123. So for the assignees Jane, John, and Josephine, it will cycle through starting with Jane. With a saved template Insycle will remember where it left off and continuously distribute tickets evenly among available assignees.
    For example, if there are 19 high-priority tickets and you want to assign them evenly across your three assignees, the Even rule will split it as equally as possible and Jane will wind up with 7 tickets, John with 6, and Josephine with 6.
  • Random: Without looking at availability or workload, this will assign tickets randomly, like rolling a dice.

When using the Even or Random assignment rules, you can set limits to prevent overloading team members using Assign Per Rep and/or Cap Per Rep in the Advanced tab. Learn more about lead assignment limits in the Assign app overview.

In the example below, the Company Owner will be distributed across the two assignees so they both wind up with the same number of tickets for the month.

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⚠️ Once you have this configured and you are satisfied with the preview, it's important to save a template so new items can be assigned in a measured way on an ongoing basis.

Availability

The Availability feature lets you enter work schedule info for each team member, so items are only routed to team members who are currently open and able to respond promptly. For example, if three users are selected as potential assignees—Jane, John, and Josephine—but John's work schedule indicates he is not available today, tickets will only be allocated to Jane and Josephine.

No matter which rule you use—balanced, weighted, even, or random—each user's availability is taken into account. If needed, you can temporarily make an assignee unavailable.

Note that if no availability info is entered for a user, they will be considered available at all times.

Learn more about Insycle's Availability feature.

Step 3: Preview Assignments and Update CRM

Preview Changes in the CSV Report

With the filters and assign action set up, you can preview the changes in a CSV file. It's important to verify that your items will be assigned as expected before they are assigned in your CRM.

Under Step 3, click the Review button, then select Preview in the popup.

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On the When tab, click Run Now and select which records to apply the change to (if you have a large number of items, you may just want to do a chunk for a test), then click the Run Now button.

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Open the CSV file from your email in a spreadsheet application. The columns include (Before) and (After) values for the selected assign fields; (Assignees) shows the users chosen; (Available) indicates which assignees are currently available according to the availability settings.

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If the results don't look the way you expected, go back to your filters and assignment rules and try making some adjustments, then preview again.

Apply Changes to the CRM

If everything in your CSV preview looks correct, return to Insycle and move forward with applying the assignments to the live CRM data.

Under Step 3, click the Review button again, and this time select Update mode.

On the When tab, you should use Run Now the first time you apply these changes to the CRM.

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Save as a Template and Set Up Automation

After you've seen the results in the CRM and are satisfied with how the operation runs, you need to save your configuration as a template. This will let Insycle keep track of the assignment history and availability.

Return to the Template menu at the top of the page and click Copy to save your configurations as a new version of whatever template you started with. Then click the pencil to edit your new template name.

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To set up automation so this routing operation runs on a set schedule:

Under Step 3, click the Review button, and select Update mode.

On the When tab, select Automate, and configure the frequency you'd like the template to run. When finished, click Schedule.

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By automating with a template, you'll save time and ensure that your items are assigned in a consistent way on an ongoing basis. 

Create a template for every segment and combine them all into a recipe for routing and assigning.

 

Advanced How-Tos

Set Up Automation to Send Email When Ownerless Contacts Found

In the Bulk Operations module and Assign app, you can save the configuration as a template. This will save you time and provide consistent results in the future.

Next, set up automation so this template runs on a set schedule and acts as an alert system when a contact record with an empty Contact Owner field is found. When the automation runs, Insycle will send you an email with the CSV report of unassigned records.

Click the Review button under the Preview and Update step.

You can select Preview mode if you just want to be notified of the issue, or use Update mode to be notified and change all the records in the CRM.

On the Notify tab, you can tailor the alert message to get your attention. Enter a subject line like “[ALERT] New Contact Needs Owner.” Add recipients who should follow up, and add additional instructions or context to the message. The CSV export will be attached to the email whenever it is generated and delivered to the emails you provided.

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On the When tab under Automate, select the frequency and schedule for the process to run.

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Viewing More Columns in the Record Viewer

If you'd like to see more information for each of the resulting records, you can alter the fields in the Record Viewer by using the Layout tab in Step 1. To view a field, drag it to the left column.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can I undo bulk owner assignment?

Yes, but not from within the modules themselves. Go to OperationsActivity Tracker. There you can access the CSV that shows the before-and-after data for bulk updates and re-import the changed data if needed.

Can I bulk assign owners to a specific segment?

Yes, in Step 1, you can add criteria to work only with matching records. For example, you could assign owners to contacts or accounts located in a specific state, or at a specific lifecycle stage.

Additional Resources

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