As part of your ongoing Site maintenance, there may be occasions where it’s necessary to monitor and manage the number of Active Panelists on your Site.
Analysts can control the number of Active Panelists on a Site for the purposes of limiting panelist access or managing Site Limits. In these instances, we recommend you Bulk Deactivate Panelists. A deactivated panelist account cannot log into your Recollective site and will not count towards the Panelist Site Limit.
This process allows for independent panel management without intervention from Recollective Support, and also allows for the preservation of response data associated with the accounts. A deactivated panelist can also be reactivated at a later time—affording the flexibility to pull these panelists into future research engagements.
Analysts can bulk deactivate panelists by following this two-step procedure:
Step 1: Create a Smart Segment
Step 2: Process the Bulk Deactivation
Step 1: Create a Smart Segment
ℹ️ Note:
📍 Go to Site Administration > Panelists > Segments
Click New Segment > Smart Segment and give that Segment a unique name that you can easily recognize (e.g. “Panelists to Deactivate”)
Under the Smart Segment Criteria header, choose the criteria by which to filter panelists
Ensure Match All criteria is selected
Optional: Test Filter to ensure the criteria match your intended outcome
Click Save
📌 Note:
Note: Smart Segment Criteria will be case-specific, depending on which panelists are to be deactivated. Examples could include “‘Last Visit’ before January 1, 2023”, “‘Account Added’ more than 100 days ago”, or could narrow on multiple attributes at once.
Step 2: Process the Bulk Deactivation
There are two ways to process the Bulk Deactivation:
Option 1: Bulk Action
Option 2: Bulk Update
Option 1: Bulk Action
Bulk Action can be performed within the platform and may be best suited to smaller batches of panelists, as it is limited to 25 panelists per page and must be repeated for each page of panelists in the Smart segment.
To deactivate panelist in bulk via Bulk Action:
ℹ️ Note:
📍 Go to Site Administration > Panelists > Segments
Locate the Smart Segment you just created
On the far right-hand side of the Segment row, click the Panelists total
Use the Select All box to highlight all panelists on the Segment page
Scroll down and use the Bulk Action dropdown menu to select Deactivate
Click Apply
Repeat steps 3-5 for each page of Panelists as required
Option 2: Bulk Update
Bulk Update involves exporting panelists to a spreadsheet, editing the spreadsheet, and then Bulk Updating panelists profiles by importing the spreadsheet back into Recollective. This option may be best suited to larger batches of panelists.
ℹ️ Note:
📍 Go to Site Administration > Panelists > Segments
Locate the Smart Segment you just created
On the far right-hand side of the Segment row, click the Panelists total
Click Export
Using the Standard Attributes dropdown, include at least a unique identifier column for the selected accounts (Email address or External ID) and Account Status
Click Export
Click Download Export
Open your Excel spreadsheet for editing
Delete the first row of the spreadsheet labeled Profile
Ensure the column headers are the first row of your spreadsheet
Edit the Account Status column to read ‘0’ for all panelists you wish to deactivate
Save the spreadsheet as an Excel file
Click Select File to upload the prepared spreadsheet
Review and verify the column data
Once you are ready to proceed, click Start Import
Once imported, the platform will automatically deactivate all accounts included in the file. To reference deactivated accounts, you can toggle Only deactivated within the Site Administration > Search Panelists menu.
⚠️ Warning:
Note: While viewing deactivated accounts, you will be able to reactivate panelists, if necessary, by selecting Reactivate with the Bulk Action dropdown menu.
⚠️ Warning:
📌 Note:
🗣️: Still have questions or want to leave feedback on how we can do better? Contact us at [email protected].