Adding multiple contacts to VIP list

I like the VIP list option, however, when I recently was told by tech support to set up my phone as new I lost all the contacts that were previously set as VIP and had to start over.

Adding each VIP contact is an onerous process of selecting each contact individually.

I heard there was a way to add multiple addresses through a gmail group list, but couldn't figure out how this was done.

What would be ideal is to have all the addresses in my contact address list default to being included in this VIP list and then letting me delete the ones as time goes on that I don't want.

If it automatically added new contacts then I wouldn't have to spend time doing it every time I meet someone new and don't want to miss their email.

Does anyone have any insights or suggestions.

Thanks