---
title: Bulk Actions
description: "Bulk actions on the Customers list let you operate on many customers at once — block, unblock, allowlist, remove from allowlist, add or remove a tag, recalculate, or delete in bulk. They're the workflow for cohort-level moderation and for cleanup…"
url: "https://webstepper.io/docs/trustlens/customer-management/bulk-customer-actions/"
updated: "2026-10-18"
category: Customer Management
---

# Bulk Actions

Bulk actions on the Customers list let you operate on many customers at once — block, unblock, allowlist, remove from allowlist, add or remove a tag, recalculate, or delete in bulk. They're the workflow for cohort-level moderation and for cleanup tasks. This page covers each bulk action, how it executes, and when to use it.

---

## How to Run a Bulk Action

1. Apply filters to narrow the list to the cohort you want to act on
2. Select rows using the checkbox column (or the header checkbox to select every row on this page)
3. Choose an action from the bulk-action dropdown (above the list, and below it when there's more than one page)
4. Click **Apply**
5. Answer the prompt if the action has one: Block asks for a reason, Add Tag and Remove Tag ask for the tag name, and Delete asks you to confirm. The other actions run straight away
6. The result appears next to the button ("12 customers processed, 0 failed.") and the page reloads

Selection is limited to the page you're on — 20 customers. There's no "select all matching" option; for a larger cohort, repeat the action page by page.

---

## Available Bulk Actions

| Action | Effect | Reversible |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Block | Sets `is_blocked = true` on all selected customers and saves the reason to their notes | Yes (Bulk Unblock) |
| Unblock | Sets `is_blocked = false` | Yes (Bulk Block) |
| Add to Allowlist | Sets `is_allowlisted = true`; locks score at 100, segment VIP; clears any block and review flag | Yes (Bulk Remove from Allowlist) |
| Remove from Allowlist | Sets `is_allowlisted = false`; queues a score recalculation | Yes |
| Add Tag | Adds the tag you enter to each selected customer | Yes (Bulk Remove Tag) |
| Remove Tag | Removes the tag you enter from each selected customer | Yes (Bulk Add Tag) |
| Recalculate Score | Recalculates each selected customer's score immediately | N/A — recalc is idempotent |
| Delete | Removes the TrustLens data for selected customers | No — permanent |

Exporting isn't a bulk action — use the **Export CSV** button in the page header (see below).

---

## How Bulk Actions Run

A bulk action runs in a single request: each selected customer is processed in turn, and the message reports how many succeeded and how many failed. There's no background queue or progress bar — with at most 20 customers per page, the request finishes quickly.

Bulk Block, Unblock, Allowlist and Remove from Allowlist go through the same functions as the single-customer buttons, so they fire the same Customer Blocked / Unblocked / Allowlisted / Allowlist Removed events — Pro automation rules and webhooks on those triggers run once per customer.

---

## Common Bulk Workflows

### Allowlisting Your Top Customers

1. Open the VIP or Trusted tab
2. Sort by Orders (click the column header until the largest come first)
3. Select the customers you've vetted on the page
4. Bulk Add to Allowlist, and repeat on the next pages as needed

One-time setup that locks your top customers at score 100, immune to future signal noise.

### Mass Block After a Fraud Ring Detection

1. Open one confirmed fraud-ring member's profile
2. Note the accounts in the Linked accounts panel
3. On the Customers list, search for each email (there's no "linked to" filter) and select them
4. Bulk Block

### Cleanup After a False-Positive Wave

1. If a recent change produced wrong blocks, set Status to **Blocked** and click Apply
2. Open profiles as needed — the block reason is in each customer's notes
3. Select the false-positive cohort
4. Bulk Unblock

### Quarterly Allowlist Audit

1. Set Status to **Allowlisted**
2. Review each — are they still active customers worth allowlisting? (The profile shows their orders and recent activity)
3. Select the dormant ones
4. Bulk Remove from Allowlist

### Forced Recalculation After Setting Changes

1. After significantly changing scoring settings (e.g. lowering return-rate thresholds), open the segment tab you want to refresh
2. Select all rows on the page
3. Bulk Recalculate Score, then move to the next page
4. Lets you see the impact of the setting change without waiting for organic recalculation triggers

---

## Bulk Delete

The most dangerous bulk action. Removes the TrustLens data for selected customers:

- Customer record from `{prefix}trustlens_customers` — including admin notes and tags
- All signals from `{prefix}trustlens_signals`
- All events from `{prefix}trustlens_events`
- All fingerprints from `{prefix}trustlens_fingerprints` (the linked-account data)
- Category stats and product facts
- The customer's automation log rows

Dispute worklist rows, the refund ledger and refund cases aren't removed by Delete. The WooCommerce customer record is *not* deleted — only the TrustLens data. The customer continues to exist as a WooCommerce customer, and a new TrustLens record is created if they place another order.

Use cases:

- Wiping test customer data
- Cleaning up after a migration
- For GDPR erasure requests, prefer WordPress's **Tools → Erase Personal Data** — TrustLens registers an eraser there that also removes the refund ledger and refund cases

The confirmation dialog states how many customers will be deleted and that it can't be undone; you must click **Delete** to proceed.

---

## Export CSV

The **Export CSV** button in the page header downloads:

- Email (or "Guest")
- Score
- Segment
- Orders
- Refunds
- Return Rate
- Refund Value
- Blocked, Allowlisted and Flagged (Yes/No)

Use for offline analysis, importing into CRM, or building custom dashboards. The export covers up to 10,000 customers and respects the current segment tab and search box; the score, return-rate and status filters aren't applied to it, and it ignores row selection.

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## Permissions

Bulk actions require the `manage_woocommerce` capability. The same admin users who can manage individual customers can run bulk operations.

Consider establishing internal protocols for bulk actions affecting many customers — e.g. require a second team member's approval before bulk-blocking more than 100 customers. There's no built-in two-person approval mechanism; build the discipline organizationally.

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## Audit Trail

Bulk Block, Unblock, Allowlist and Remove from Allowlist are logged once per affected customer (not as a single bulk event). So if you bulk-block 20 customers, each customer's event timeline gets a `customer_blocked` entry with the reason. Events don't record which admin ran the action.

This makes per-customer auditability work the same as for individual actions — no special-case handling for bulk-originated state changes. Tag changes and recalculations don't add timeline events. Developers can observe every bulk run through the `trustlens/bulk_action_completed` action.
