Why is workflow automation only working for manually created leads and not imported ones?

Afternoon all,

I am trying to create an automated workflow which will automatically send a templated email and then generate a follow-up call activity a few days later. For some reason I can only get the automated email activity to work (and not the creation of the follow-up call activity). However, the automation only works when leads are added manually as opposed to imported into the system via spreadsheet...

99% of the leads will be imported via spreadsheet so this is pretty frustrating!

If anyone has any suggestions as to what might be the issue, please do let me know!

Many thanks,


Dave

Answers

  • Leonardo Zimmermann
    Leonardo Zimmermann Pipedrive Team Posts: 90 PIPEDRIVE TEAM
    First Answer 5 Likes Name Dropper First Comment

    Hey, David!

    Workflow automations are not supposed to work with imported items, which is a system's behaviour to prevent unwanted bulk actions.

    When it comes to the difficulties you are having with the automation itself, please reach out to our support team via in-app chat or via email at support@pipedrive.com, so that we can investigate and assist you further.

    Thank you.

  • YM
    YM Member Posts: 4
    First Comment Photogenic

    Oh lord! But Why?? I am having the same issue David is having, and now I have to create all 100 persons manually?? how is that going to save us time? What about if we change the trigger to "Person Updated" and change the status of the person to Lead? Will that work on an imported list? I cant imagine that I have to add 100 leads manually! Is there any other work around please? Will the work around I suggested work?

    Thank you.

    Yarina

  • MattM
    MattM Member Posts: 2
    First Comment

    I'm also having this problem. What if I DO want bulk actions from imports. Is there a workaround to enable automations from imports?

  • Sophie
    Sophie Pipedrive Team Posts: 118 PIPEDRIVE TEAM
    First Answer First Comment 5 Likes First Anniversary

    Hi all, I would be happy to give some further context into this!

    Triggering an automation via import is not supported because it would violate our Frequency limits. You can read more here! These limits are put in place to protect the database your company is hosted in and we can not make any exceptions to this security measure. Adding on to this, bulk actions to trigger automations are also not supported for the same reason, updating the items in bulk (To trigger the automation) once they are imported is not suggested. However, there are usually some workarounds so you do not have to manually add hundreds of items to your account.

    @YM, I see you mention "I have to create all 100 persons manually??" I am not sure of your exact setup but you should be able to import leads and person contacts at the same time, in the same import sheet. Perhaps I don't have the full picture of your desired result here but you can complete other actions in bulk, separate from an automation.

    For example, if your automation is set up to: Trigger when a lead is created-> send an email-> create an activity. Instead, you can import the lead/contact with the activity information already added to the import sheet (an activity will be created when the lead is created- read more here!) and then you can use the filter feature to isolate these contacts and send a group email (More on group emailing here!)! The same goes for other actions such as adding a field or a label- can be done on the original import sheet!

    I hope this helps!

  • MattM
    MattM Member Posts: 2
    First Comment
    edited January 10 #6

    Thanks for the help Sophie. Rather than exporting/re-importing with added activity, I'm going to use an alternative field to run the automation off of (lead status) instead of the imported contact as the trigger. Will be limiting usage of that field overall, but we'll see how it goes. Def less work than what you suggested, although I can see how that will also work. Appreciate the response!