Multi-Level Follow-up with different tools and timeframes.
Hey, we are a real estate wholesaling company and I need a follow-up automation with pipedrive. What we have is the following situation: People are inquiring for a property. They already get an auto email that we will contact them with the possibility of making an appointment with calendly.
What I need is an automated follow up with Text, Email and VM when we can't reach them during the first two days after they inquired. It will be a sequence over 2 weeks, with using different tools (Ringcentral, Slybroadcast, Gmail) on different days. Any idea how to setup this?
Comments
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Look at Zapier to connect the pieces together.
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We implemented a follow-up process by using Pipeline stages, activities, PD-templated emails with minimal user interaction.
(my response a little too much info .. but it might help when considering alternative approaches using Zapier/PD automations)
#1 F/U executed after completing the processing of free sample order. > Fired off an email and SMS then moved it into the next f/u stage and schedule a f/u activity.
#2 FU executed after checking for any correspondence from customers who may have replied but we just didn't see it at the time. > Same actions.
#3 FU executed same as #2 FU but instead of moving the deal, it scheduled a 'LOSE' activity which would be performed manually.
We get so much inbound mail from leads, customers and suppliers that it is easy to miss a response to a F/U email ...and the PD interface notifications area just doesn't work for us (we have so much inbound correspondence that it gets lost in the notifications tab).
The above worked... but complex to troubleshoot/tweak 6 months after you have pulled it together. You have to put detailed instructions explaining 'where' and 'what' the automations do, so that staff don't manually send deals between PD stages. .. but it kinda worked. We also had crowded out the Pipeline with the additional stages. (It wasn't a process deserving of its own PL)
v2 which I can't get to work (yet) uses zapier and zapier paths to resolve some complexity we have with the forward scheduling each deal initially receives at the start of the process (but this is not relevant in your context).
V2 however leaves the deal in a single F/U stage and uses activities to do the same work with emails. (much more elegant and the way I should have implemented the process in the first place)
In your context, I would agree with Boris. The use of third party SAAS providers in your equation will necessitate it. I used Zapier exclusively before PD introduced automation and am migrating process automations over from Zapier, over time and as the PD automation engine continues to mature. Generally, use a combination of both Zapier and PD to complete your f/u automation. Do as much of it as you can using PD and rely on Zapier for the rest. Unfortunately, in our context, any process automation with f/u's still needs several human touchpoints. .. you just never know what leads/customers are going to come back within their correspondence but you need to fully detail out what is happening on the activity notes that are created along the way so that your users know what 'has happened (trigger),' what they need to do (and not do), and what will happen as a result of them ticking the activity completion.
Ensure you have a 'user' notification routine built-in if you are using external providers. We have both slack and an SMS gateway provider and use them extensively. Slack to let us know once a complex process that uses an external provider has completed. .. and SMS's sent to reps etc as a replacement for a piece of 4x2 we used to have to clobber them with to get their attention. Zapier driven Slack notifications with Giffys are extremely effective internal notification methods. (much more noticeable than the slack integration and notifications within PD).
It sounds all too hard if you have not had much exposure to automations with PD/Zapier. .. but I had our system up and going within a couple of hours. .. which isn't bad given that I'm a business user and NOT a programmer by a long shot. Zapier is pretty fun and pretty easy generally and for what you have in mind.
For me a logical extension to our F/U process is to add in Jotform to survey users re their free samples and use their responses to trigger actions (via zapier) within PD. This would funnel responses appropriately and perhaps reduce the human touchpoints somewhat, or at least create custom workflows based on survey qualification of the inbound responses (rather than freeform email responses from leads/customers).
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