Sending Bulk Communications - Clients and Clients' Personal Contacts
The Client Search is a useful tool for generating a list of emails, mobile numbers or postal addresses for Clients and/or their Personal Contacts, for the purpose of sending external bulk communications.
The 'email all clients in this list' functionality automatically populates the Clients' email addresses in your usual email program for sending communications external to SupportAbility. This functionality is suitable for groups of Clients up to 100 in number.
If your organisation wishes to communicate with Client groups greater than 100, or specifically with Clients' Primary or Billing Contacts, be this the Client themself or a nominated Personal Contact, the relevant exports can be utilised for this purpose.
This article provides detailed information relating to sending Bulk Communications to Clients and Clients' Personal Contacts.
There are also two videos available in the ‘Search, Exports and Reports’ section of the Client Management tab in the Learning Centre that covers this functionality, which we recommend viewing:
- Searching for Client Records
- Exporting Client Records :
N.B. SupportAbility has evolved since these videos were created, however, they will provide guidance on how to search for Client records and how to export Client records, for those who prefer visual learning.
Prerequisites: The 'Edit Client Records Across ALL Services' or the 'Team Leader for ALL Services' Security privileges provide access to all Client Records across the organisation, and both the Clients' email and postal addresses in the CSV download files.
Audience: All
Summary
The following list summarises the content of this article. Click on the links below to take you to the relevant sections:
- What do I need to know about sending bulk communications?
- Client Search
- Using the 'Email all clients in this list' functionality
- Using the Client List Exports
What do I need to know about sending bulk communications
The Client Search is a useful tool for generating a list of Clients or Clients' Personal Contacts to whom your organisation wishes to send bulk communications.
The intended recipients of the communication may be organisation-wide in which instance all search filters may be left set to the default, or the Search may be filtered by specific Site/Services as required.
The List results returned are based on the privileges and subsequent access to Client information that the Staff Member generating the Search has been granted. If a list for all Clients across the organisation is required, the Staff Member will need the 'Edit Client Records Across ALL Services' or the 'Team Leader for ALL Services' privilege.
The Search results data can then be managed in several ways depending on the mail list size, the intended recipients i.e. Clients or Primary/Billing Contacts, and the method of communication being used i.e. via email or postal mail.
Communicating with Clients
When the intended recipient is the Client and not a nominated Personal Contact, either the 'Email all clients in this list' functionality or the 'Download Client List' export may be utilised.
'Email all Clients in this list'
The 'Email all Clients in this list' button located at the bottom of the search results is appropriate for groups up to 100 Clients in number.
This will automatically open your email program (such as Microsoft Outlook, Gmail etc), create a new email and pre-populate all of the Clients' email addresses in the Bcc field.
While the notification message in SupportAbility suggests emailing group sizes of no more than 20 to avoid being blocked as spam, group sizes up to 100 should be fine when using the 'Email all Clients in this list' functionality:
All communications will be sent outside of SupportAbility.
'Download Client List' export
For email groups larger than 100 Clients in number, the search results will need to be downloaded into a CSV export and the data managed differently.
The 'Download Client List' export available from the 'Actions' menu, contains both the email and postal addresses of the Clients in the Client List. The email data can be imported into a bulk email program such as MailChimp, or the postal addresses can be linked to a label producing program such as Microsoft Word.
Communicating with Clients' Primary or Billing Contacts
Many Clients have a nominated person who acts as their 'Primary Contact' for general communications or as their 'Billing Contact' for financial communications.
If an organisation is using this functionality and marking Clients' Personal Contacts accordingly on the Contacts tab of a Client's record e.g. Linda Swanston is the Primary and Billing Contact for Client Tim:
the 'Download Primary Contact Data' or 'Download Billing Contact Data' exports respectively provide the email and postal addresses for the person noted as managing these communications, be it the Client themself or their nominated Contact.
Similarly to the Client List, the email data from these exports can be imported into a bulk email program such as MailChimp, or the postal addresses can be linked to a label producing program such as Microsoft Word.
Client Search
From the Dashboard, a Client Search may be performed to generate a list of Clients:
Selecting the search icon opens up the available search criteria where you can enter the relevant parameters for your search:
Once you have entered your search criteria requirements, select the Search icon:
Once the Client List has been generated, you can now choose one of the bulk email/mail options depending on your mail list size, method of communication, and intended recipients. This can be completed either directly from the onscreen results, or by exporting the data to source email or postal addresses as required.
Using the 'Email all clients in this list' functionality
N.B. The 'Email all clients in this list' functionality utilises the Client's email address. If your organisation wishes to communicate with the Client's Personal Contacts who have been nominated as the Primary Contact or Billing Contact, we recommend using the relevant export files.
For less than 100 results in the list
Select the 'Email all clients in this list' button at the bottom of the page:
This will automatically open your email program (such as Microsoft Outlook, Gmail etc), create a new email and pre-populate all of the Clients' email addresses in the Bcc field:
All communications will be sent outside of SupportAbility.
For more than 100 results in the list
If your Search results return more than 100 Contacts, you will need to download the Client List CSV file and import the data into a bulk email service such as MailChimp or another application.
Information on the export files is outlined in the following section.
Using the Client List Exports
Once the Client Search results have been generated the relevant export that contains the target audience for the intended communication, may be selected from the 'Actions' menu.
These export files are best utilised when emailing larger sized groups (i.e. over 100), or when postal addresses are required.
The Client List exports are suitable when communicating with the Client, or the Client and their Personal Contacts.
If your organisation wishes to communicate specifically with Clients' Primary Contacts or Billing Contacts, including instances where the Client is acting as their own Primary or Billing Contact, the relevant export files may be used:
Information contained in the export files
The following contact information is contained in these exports, along with additional Client data (not shown here) that has been entered on the Client Details tab of the Client record:
- Download Client List - contains the contact details for Clients only
- Download Client List including Personal Contacts - contains all of the information in the Client List export including the contact details for Clients along with the contact details for all of their Personal Contacts:
N.B. The information in the 'Record Type' column identifies the person as either a 'Client' or 'Personal Contact' with a Client's Personal Contacts appearing in the rows directly below them:
Therefore, it is important to be mindful when filtering or sorting the list that the data may become reordered making it difficult to identify which Personal Contacts are associated with which Clients. - Download Primary Contact Data - contains the contact details for the person selected as the Client's 'Primary Contact' only, be it the Client themself or their Nominee, assuming an organisation is using this functionality:
- Download Billing Contact Data - contains the contact details for the person selected as the Client's 'Billing Contact' only, be it the Client themself or their Nominee, assuming an organisation is using this functionality:
N.B. The information in the 'Record Type' column identifies the person as either a 'Client' or 'Personal Contact' with a Client's Personal Contacts appearing in the rows directly below them:
Therefore, it is important to be mindful when filtering or sorting the list that the data may become reordered making it difficult to identify which Personal Contacts are associated with which Clients. 
Once the required export file has been downloaded, the email data can be imported into a bulk email program such as MailChimp, or the postal addresses can be linked to a label producing program such as Microsoft Word.