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The value of AskNicely begins with your survey, but it doesn't end there. Our most successful users always make sure to "Close the Loop" by replying to the survey responses they receive. We can automate this process with Workflows.
Workflows are also very flexible; any data fields that you track within a survey or your Contacts can be a trigger for a workflow. So if you want to send a message or get an alert automatically when a customer from a specific segment responds, no problem. Want to ask those respondents with blank comments for some more information? You can do that, too. Custom Alerts harness the power of your data to dive deep and reach out to exactly who you want to.
Quick Start
To get there, click the Workflows icon (lightning bolt) in your Navigation Bar.
For your convenience, we have a set of pre-built Workflows that you can plug-and-play to quickly start closing that loop.
These workflow templates offer best practices for general follow up. Adjust the sender email address to yourself or the responsible user and you're set! You can use Workflows to get more reviews, follow up on blank comments or low scores, send an alert to your team, send information to Slack, and much more with just a few clicks.
Custom Alerts
Here is where you can really target your audience further, based off of the feedback that the give you. The New Workflows page will open. Let's take a look at some of the parts.
Name: Give this Workflow a distinctive name.
Trigger: Choose whether this Workflow will run automatically, or will be triggered manually from within the Responses page. Custom Alerts default to Automatic.
Workflow Rules
Run this Workflow
Set limits on when this response will be sent. The sending cadence of each Custom Workflow has three options:
Only once per any Contact
Based off of email address, the specific Workflow will only run once ever. Great for Promoter Workflows to "Get More Reviews" on external sites.
Only once per survey
Based off of each survey sent, the specific Workflow will run once per Response. This is the best option for most use case scenarios.
Everytime a survey is answered or updated
This option is best suited for internal Workflows that are meant to notify team members of scores, updates, and replies.
Rules
When your Workflow is first created and set to automatic, it will run on any responses. Adding rules allows you to set specific trigger conditions. Click Add A Rule to open your options.
When you do, you'll be given the option to add in and customize your conditional logic, as illustrated below. To add more conditions, click the +And or +Or buttons to add those types of statements. Click X to remove a condition line.
Like Send Schedulers, you can combine multiple data points within a field's rule. For example, selecting multiple segments. Use a vertical bar | to separate each value.
Remember:
- AND statements are inclusive. When combined with other AND statements, they will ask the system to look for those conditions together as a unit
- OR statements are exclusive. Each rule is isolated separately to qualify for the Workflow
Personalizing the Workflow email body
To Email/To Name
By default, the "To Email" and "To Name" will be populated with the {email} and {name} dynamic fields - these will automatically bring in the customer's email/name every time the Workflow is fired. If you replace the dynamic fields with an actual email address that is not a dynamic field, it will always send that workflow to that specific email. You can find a list of supported dynamic fields on the left side of the New Workflow screen.
- If sending Workflows to more than one person, email addresses should be separated by a comma.
You can have up to five email addresses in the To Email fields.
You can have only one email address in the CC+ Email
field
Show Replies in AskNicely
Allows you to have replies attached to the survey response in AskNicely. This keeps all communication in one place, and you can follow up with more communication there if you choose. We recommend activating this option for most contact-facing/external Workflows.From Name
This is the name that will display on the email that AskNicely sends for you.
If the From email address is monitored, customers and that individual may correspond with each other via email and all communication will also live under the contact's Response card.
Reply-To Email/User to be Notified of Replies
If you do not have replies sent to AskNicely, this will be the email that replies will be sent to. If you do have replies sent to AskNicely, this field will turn to "User to be Notified of Replies", and you'll be given a dropdown to select a user, instead of a free text field. The selected user will be notified of replies in accordance with their notification settings.
Subject & Body
These fields will comprise the subject and body of the email that is sent, including "signatures". In both of these fields, you can use call fields to fill in personal data. Available call fields will be listed on the left side of the screen. Templates: You can have a list of templates that will be rotated through, round-robin style, as the Workflow is triggered. This is most commonly used to direct customers to one of several review sites. In order to balance the requests evenly, multiple rotating templates would be used.
Note: Templates only change the body and subject of your email; no other elements are changed.
Send After ____ Minutes:
For a more natural, less automated feel, you can choose to delay the response to a certain number of minutes after the Workflow is triggered.
Note: While this is measured in minutes, you can still delay your response by days if you choose; simply calculate how many minutes your preferred delay is.
Show Logo at the Bottom of the Email
If you have a logo uploaded that you'd like to attach, you can choose between the logo for your company and the logo used on the triggering survey. You may also opt to omit a logo entirely.
When you've customized your Workflow to your satisfaction, click Save to save but leave it inactive, or Save and Activate to start using it immediately.
And you're set! The information from designing this Workflow will help you a ton when you start creating other Workflows.
Testing Workflows
Workflows can only be triggered by real Survey Responses.
Testing them for accuracy is simple and easy:
1. Add your Contact information on the Contacts Page using the manual Add Contact button found near the top of the page
2. Click on the "Email" or "SMS" button on the right side of your Contact record and select the specific Survey Template that corresponds with the Workflow you're testing (if applicable)
3. Complete the survey to match your Workflow ruleset
4. Confirm with your Workflow recipient(s) that they received the alert
Pro Tip: Email-based Workflows that has been triggered will display a banner on Response cards
Follow up Blank Comments Workflow
To set these up, from the Workflows screen, simply select Follow Up Blank Comments, complete your custom fields, and select how soon after receiving the customers feedback you want these to be sent out. To take things one step further, you can even decide how soon after a score is received that a survey is triggered. Once done, click Save & Activate and you're all set! This can be done for Promoters, Detractors, and Passive responses, but each one will need its own Workflow.
Note: If you have a survey that uses Conversations, it won't allow the comments field to be totally empty, so we recommend in that case you set your second rule to allow for the fact that contacts might put in "N/A" or "no" to skip the comment field.
You might choose something like Comment | Length is shorter than | 3 , as this will capture comments of fewer than 3 characters, like "N/A". Or, to be more specific, you might use comment | is | N/A .
Don't forget to customize the subject and body of your email, and of course make sure that they are appropriate for the sentiment. Empathize with your detractors, and cheer your promoters!
Once these are saved and applied, just sit back, relax, and watch the feedback roll in. 😎