It would be helpful to have the ability to retain special characters, such as parentheses, when performing bulk updates to contact fields like first name.

Currently, when attempting to bulk update contacts (for example, adding “(Deceased)” next to a first name), the system removes the parentheses, which requires manual updates instead. This becomes time-consuming, especially when managing a large number of contacts.

Additionally, there is no built-in way to mark a contact as deceased without archiving or deleting them. This makes it difficult for organizations that want to retain contact records for historical or reporting purposes while clearly indicating their status.

Use case:

Organizations often need to label contacts for internal visibility, such as marking individuals as “(Deceased),” without removing them from their database. Being able to bulk update names with formatting intact or apply a dedicated “Deceased” status would greatly improve workflow efficiency.

Impact: