Automate Your Welcome Messages

Welcome messages are crucial in building a relationship with new customers. They are one of the first touchpoints between your brand and the customer. These messages should be sent automatically at the right moment; for example, right after a customer fills out a form. They should be also clear, informative, and actionable.

This use case covers an example of sending an automated welcome message when your customer registers. It includes additional steps to encourage your new customer to perform their first purchase.

Process Workflow

 

Execution Steps

 

1. Start by creating a flow with Flow API as the starting point. This starting point enables you to automatically add customers to your Flow based on external triggers such as form submissions on your website.

2. Use the unique link from Flow API to connect the form on your website to our platform. This will enable you to:

• Save the customers who fill the form to People module
• Trigger automated messages after filling the form.

Learn more by visiting our API documentation.

3. Set up the next step by choosing a channel. For this flow, we'll use the Email. Select the Send email element, and fill in the data required for the selected channel:

• sender name
• sender email
• reply-to-email address
• subject
• Add placeholders

4. Create a custom email using our email design editor or import your HTML.

5. Add Pause element and define wait time, for example, three days.

6. Add Call API element. Fill in the data required for Call API and Flow variables.

Call API is used to communicate with a third-party system like CRM or any other system that holds the data about your customers. It enables Flow to receive information whether a purchase has been made or not, and to adjust customer journey based on the retrieved information.

To fill in everything necessary for the Call API element follow these steps:

1. Enter the HTTP(S) URL – this should be a URL to the API service on your platform where loyalty points are stored, such as https://api.webshop.com/paid. 
2. Choose a Method – for most cases, POST and GET will do. For this example, use POST.
3. Click ADD KEY VALUE PAIR to set HEADER - be sure to include a user ID. You can use the phone number for the user ID; any external ID that you store in the People module for each of your customers; or any unique identifier that can be used to distinguish your clients. You can use USER_ID as key and choose a value for it. 

• Make sure that WAIT UNTIL RESPONSE IS RECEIVED is checked – this means the flow will wait until your platform returns the info about purchases. 

• Check SAVE TO VARIABLE – this will save the response your system returns whether the purchase was made or not.
• Set the VARIABLE - temporary value holder for the specific customer within one flow. It can be used to branch the flow based on the value it holds. Also, the variable value can be used in messages (all channels) and sent to customers. For the case described in this section, variables were used to hold values fetched with Call API. Based on the value fetched, the customers receive one of several possible emails. To set it up, follow these steps:

1. Enter the name, for example, paid
2. Select variable type boolean
3. Enter response - map the response to that variable. Start with the $ and then follow with the name of the attribute you have in the response, such as "$.paid" - this depends on the response that is returned from your platform’s API.

• Set CONDITIONS, in this case, where you expect purchase confirmation, it should be set like this:
  • IF... response is RECEIVED.

7. Add element Evaluate data after “If response is received”.

8. Use Variable that you previously set up in Call API element:

• If Variable “paid” is true – which means that a specific user made a purchase

9. Set up the next steps according to conditions:

• If a customer made a purchase “paid is true” – you can either pause for three days or immediately send a post-purchase email to re-engage them and keep your brand in their mind. Use it as an opportunity for a cross-sell or an upsell.
• If a customer didn’t purchase anything – send another email with some suggestions, emphasize the benefits of your web shop (like free delivery, payment options, links to guides, etc.).

10. VALIDATE your flow, and at the summary screen press LAUNCH NOW to launch your flow. 

11. After launching the campaign, you can track the results directly on the Flow canvas, or create a report to analyze it further.

Here's an example of how a welcome email can look like: