Contact-Based Automations

• What is a contact based automation
• Create new automation
• Set automation for manual assignment
• Set automation for automatic assignment
• Build the 'actions' in an automation
• Publish/activate an automation

What is a Contact Based Automations

A contact based automation affects only contacts, not transactions. You will have two types of these automations, automatically assigned and manually assigned.

An automatically assigned automation are for things you want to happen based on Contact Status, details, lead source and many others. Additionally, these will be used for date based events, like birthday greeting and loan anniversary check-ins. An automatic assignment is managed by 'Entrance Conditions'. These are contact based filters that will use the details from the contact record to add the automation.

A manually assigned automation are for situational events or when a user is to decide the next best course of action. These are commonly used for drip (nurture) campaigns, lead nurture and your teams custom lead management and follow-up procedures.

Either of these types can include the following 'Actions':

• Delays – Add a pause in the workflow by a specific amount of time, day of the week, or date.

• Email – Send a templated email using merge fields to inform, educate, or follow up with your contact.

• SMS (Text Message) – Send a short-form update or notification from your team’s CRM number.

• Task – Create a task assigned to a specific user or user type, to be completed after a set delay.

• Tags – Apply one or more tags to help organize and segment your contacts for better tracking.

• Assign to Automation – When relevant, assign the contact to another contact-based automation to keep workflows connected.

• Update Status – Change the status of the current entity (like a transaction) or any related contact (borrower/co-borrower, for example).

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Create New Automation

1. To create a new automation, choose 'Automations' in the menu group on the left side.
   
   
2. Click the '+ Create Automation' button in the upper-right corner.
   
   
3. At this point, the automation builder will load on the screen. The next step is to name your automation. It's incredibly important that you have a consistent, logical and recognizable naming convention. This is especially important when creating a Manually added automation, however, it is also important for automatically assigned automations when viewing what automations are currently assigned to a contact, as well as, viewing completed automations.
   
   Initially, it will say, 'Untitled Automation' - click in that text box to edit.
   
   
   
   Edit the text to name your new automation - You can change the name later, at any time, without affecting the automation or it's assignments.
   
   
4. The last step to create the automation, before customizing, you will chose the 'Automation Purpose'. In this case, we will choose, "Contact-based automation" by clicking that option and then clicking the 'Continue' button, in yellow.
   
   

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Set automation for manual assignment

Setting an automation for manual assignment/add only, simply leave the 'Entrance Conditions' empty. There is nothing to do in this section.

 

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Set automation for automatic assignment

When you want an automation to assign to a contact automatically based on the source, contact details or tags contained within the contact record, you can use 'Entrance Conditions'. You can add a single condition or multiple conditions to determine when and how an automation is assigned automatically.

For example, a birthday greeting can use the following entrance conditions:

1. Date of birth happens on the anniversary of this date
2. The contact type is CLIENT

The completed entrance conditions will look like this:

To build these entrance conditions, watch the animated GIF below:

You can also add Condition Groups to expand the reach of your entrance conditions while also narrowing them down. By adding a condition group, you can provide more than one way for a contact to enter an automation.  For example, we want to trigger based on a contact that is in either the state of AZ or GA and have a tag, "Credit Issues". To do so, we will want the following condition groups.

1. Mailing State = AZ and Tag = "Credit Issues"
2. Mailing State = GA and Tag = "Credit Issues"

The completed entrance conditions will look like this:



To build these entrance conditions, watch the animated GIF below:

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Build the 'actions' in an automation

Actions are added one at a time and you can choose to whom outbound actions are sent, emails and SMS. You can also assign tasks to specific users with delayed due dates. Tags can be added to the assigned contact to assist with keeping your contacts organized and potentially triggering future automations. Finally, you can also assign existing automations to continue follow-up or nurturing.

Adding Actions is effectively the same no matter the Entrance Conditions added to your automation. After you do or do not setup your entrance conditions, you will look for the following in the automation builder.

After clicking the '+ Add Action' button, a slide-out will appear on the right. From there we will choose the action we want to add. To begin, it's best to add a 'Delay' action. Even if the delay is just a few seconds, by adding a delay first, it will always be available provide flexibility for future automation edits.

Next we will set the delay to 10 minutes and click, 'Apply' at the bottom-right.


Now, we have our first action complete and it will look like this:

Next, we will add a SMS (text message) action by clicking the '+' button, in yellow, below the previous action.

A SMS will always be from the Team CRM number and in this case we will make the To = Client (this contact). There are additional 'send to' options, including the following 'Linked' contacts: Spouse, Referred By and Business Partner. Also, when creating automation SMS' or emails, it is recommended to utilize merge fields to give the messages a very custom and familiar feel.


Now that we are happy with our SMS message, we click, 'Apply' at the bottom-right. This is now what our automation actions look - Noting that it will display the action type (SMS), to whom the SMS will be delivered, as well as a truncated version of the message itself.


Emails are built in a similar way to a SMS action. Simply choose Email when adding a new action. For more information on how to create emails, see this article.

In addition to a delay action, SMS action and Email action, the final section of actions are 'In-app actions'.  You will see 3 action options in this section, Add to Automation(s), Apply Tags and Create Task. Next, we will choose, Add to Automation(s).


After we chose, 'Add to Automation(s)', the slide-out will allow us to choose 1 or more Contact based automations. It's important to be very careful which and how many automations you use this method to assign. The following image will show how easy it is to add an existing automation. It may be helpful to find the automation we're looking for by typing out the automation name in the 'Filter Automations' box. Once we choose the automation to add, we will click the 'Apply' button on the lower-right.


Next, we will choose 'Apply Tags' action to add one or more tags to the contact. Just like the Add to Automation(s) action we just added, the Apply Tags action will allow you to add one or more tags to this contact.


The last Action type is 'Create Task'. For this, we will assign a follow-up task to a member of our team. We will be provided with the following options to edit: Status, Subject, Task Type, Assigned User and Description. To learn more about tasks, see this video walk-through.

To demonstrate adding a task action, see the animated GIF below.


At this point, we are completed with this Contact Based Automation and are ready to review and activate it for automatic assignment based on the entrance conditions we set. First, let's review all that we added to the automation and view it together in the animated GIF below.

1. Entrance Conditions: Mailing State = AZ & Tag = Credit Issues  -OR- Mailing State = GA & Tag = Credit Issues
2. Action 1: Delay by 10 minutes
3. Action 2: Send SMS to Client
4. Action 3: Add to another Automation = Lead Follow-up Campaign
5. Action 4: Apply Tags: Consumer Newsletter & Español
6. Action 5: Create Task: Assigned to the Contact Assignee & Status = To Do & Subject

Now that we're happy with the automation, it's time to activate it. It's important that you click the 'Save Changes' button at the top-right before activating or 'turning-on' an automation, if you have made any changes, edits or additions. In the next article section, we show how to activate and other options when publishing your automation.

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Publish an automation and additional options

When you're ready to publish or turn-on an automation, it's very important that you have saved any changes or additions you have made. To do so, click the 'Save Changes' button at the top.

Before we publish or turn-on this automation, we will look at the 'Automation Behavior' section to view a few additional (optional) settings for this automation.

1. Stop on reply - Turn this on, only if you want the automation to STOP running when the contact sends you an email or SMS using the same email address or phone number in their contact record. This can be handy for new lead campaign automations or check-in automations, where once they have made reciprocal contact, you do not want an automation to continue.
2. Enroll existing records - This option should be used with caution, as it will enroll any existing contact that meets the Entrance Conditions you set in the automation. The system will automatically inform you of the number of contacts that currently meet the criteria, giving you the opportunity to understand the impact of your decision, before it happens. You can always come back and do it later.
   
   In the below image, based on the current Entrance Conditions, 892 contacts are eligible. After turning 'Enroll existing records' on, then saving and turning on the automation - all 892 contacts that are eligible, will be assigned the automation.
   
   
3. Do not enroll records after - This will allow you to expire the auto-enrollment of any contacts that meet the Entrance Conditions in the future. Any contact that meets the conditions will continue to be assigned the automation, but not after the date entered.
   
   

Once you are satisfied with you automation, it's entrance conditions and all actions, we're now ready to activate (turn-on) the automation. It's very simple, just click the off/on toggle in the upper-right and wait for the system feedback letting you know the automation is now active.

From this point forward, when any contact meets the entrance conditions you set for the automation, it will be automatically added/assigned to the contact.