How to Reassign Contacts to Another Team Member
Why This Matters
As your team grows or territories shift, you'll need to transfer contact ownership from one team member to another. Reassigning contacts ensures the right person manages each relationship and maintains accountability across your organization. Whether you're redistributing workload, onboarding new team members, or restructuring territories, reassignment keeps your database organized and ensures no contacts fall through the cracks.
You can reassign contacts individually or in bulk, giving you flexibility to handle both one-off changes and large-scale territory transfers efficiently.
Before You Begin
Understand User Types and Database Ownership: Only certain user types can have contacts assigned to them. Power Users and Independent Users maintain their own separate databases and can receive contact assignments. The Account Owner also has their own database. However, Team Players and Administrators share a common database and cannot have individual contact assignments.
Decide on Bulk or Individual Reassignment: If you're reassigning many contacts at once (for example, all contacts with last names starting with A-M), use Group Actions for bulk reassignment. For single contacts, use the individual contact edit method.
Watch & Learn
🎥 Video: How to Reassign Contacts to Another Team Member
Step-by-Step Instructions
Method 1: Bulk Reassignment Using Group Actions
Use this method when reassigning multiple contacts at once.
1. Build Your Workgroup
Navigate to Contacts and use Advanced Search or category filters to find the contacts you want to reassign. For example, search for all contacts with last names starting with a specific letter, or filter by territory, source, or any other criteria.
This creates a filtered list of exactly the contacts you want to transfer.
2. Send Contacts to Group Actions
After filtering your contact list, click Send to Group Actions to move these contacts into your workgroup.
Your workgroup now contains only the contacts you want to reassign, ready for bulk editing.
3. Open Group Edit
In Group Actions, click Group Edit to access the bulk editing panel.
This allows you to change information for all contacts in your workgroup simultaneously.
4. Change the Team Database
In the Group Edit panel, locate the Team Database dropdown at the top of the page. Select the team member you want to assign these contacts to from the dropdown menu.
Remember that you can only assign contacts to Power Users, Independent Users, or the Account Owner—these are the only user types with individual databases.
5. Apply Changes
Click Apply Changes to complete the reassignment.
All contacts in your workgroup are now assigned to the selected team member's database. The transfer happens immediately.
Method 2: Individual Contact Reassignment
Use this method when reassigning a single contact.
1. Open the Contact Record
Navigate to the specific contact you want to reassign and open their contact record.
This displays all the contact's information and editing options.
2. Click Edit Contact
Click the Edit Contact button at the top of the contact record.
This opens the contact editing interface.
3. Change the Team Database
Locate the Team Database dropdown at the top of the editing page and select the new team member who should own this contact.
The contact will be transferred to the selected team member's database.
4. Save Changes
Click Save to complete the reassignment.
The contact now appears in the new team member's database and is removed from the previous owner's view.
Questions and Answers
Q: Can I reassign contacts to Team Players or Administrators?
A: No, Team Players and Administrators share a common database rather than having individual databases. You can only reassign contacts to Power Users, Independent Users, or the Account Owner.
Q: What happens to the contact's history when I reassign them?
A: All contact history—notes, emails, appointments, tags, and custom field data—stays with the contact during reassignment. Nothing is lost in the transfer.
Q: Can the previous owner still see contacts after reassignment?
A: No, once contacts are reassigned to another team member's database, the previous owner loses access unless they have administrative privileges that allow viewing all databases.
Q: Can I reassign contacts back to the Account Owner's database?
A: Yes, the Account Owner's database is a valid reassignment destination. You can move contacts back to the Account Owner using the same process.
Q: How do I reassign contacts based on territory or region?
A: Use Advanced Search to filter contacts by location, territory, or any custom field that indicates region. Then use Group Actions to bulk reassign the filtered results to the appropriate team member.
Q: Will the new owner be notified when contacts are assigned to them?
A: No, the system doesn't send automatic notifications. It's best practice to communicate directly with team members when reassigning contacts to them so they're aware of their new responsibilities.
Q: Can I undo a contact reassignment?
A: Yes, simply repeat the reassignment process and select the original owner's database. The contact will be transferred back with all their history intact.
Guide Type: How-To Guide
Estimated Time: 5 minutes
Video Transcript
This video will teach you how to re-assign contacts from one database to another.
Let's say you want to give your power user, Margaret, all of your Contacts whose last names start with A.
Go to the Contact List and select Advanced Search.
Now find all of your contacts with the last name starting with the letter A.
Next, we’ll send these contacts to Group Actions, and then go to ‘Group Edit’.
Change the database here, and that's it.
Now all of the contacts that were in the account owners database with the last name starting with A, have been re-assigned to the power user.