Trigger Blocks
An automation trigger block is a fundamental component within an automation or workflow platform, serving as the initial catalyst that activates or starts an automated sequence or process.
These triggers are defined by specific conditions or events, and when these conditions are met or events occur, the automation trigger block initiates the predefined automation workflow. Trigger blocks allow you to specify not only which event should trigger an automation but also how frequently this event should occur and from which point to start counting. This level of detail ensures your automations are triggered exactly when you need them to be, aligning perfectly with your operational workflows or engagement strategies.
In the context of various platforms, automation trigger blocks can be incredibly versatile, covering a wide range of events such as:
- User Actions: Actions taken by users, like submitting a form, completing a survey, or clicking a link, can trigger automated responses or processes.
- System Events: Events within a system, such as a new user registration, a purchase order completion, or a ticket closure, can serve as triggers.
- Time-Based Triggers: These triggers are activated based on the passage of time, such as sending a follow-up email a week after an initial inquiry or generating monthly reports.
- External Events: Integration with external APIs or services can enable triggers based on events outside the primary system, like receiving a webhook from a payment gateway confirming a transaction.
Note: At least one trigger block must exist on the canvas to enable the Automation and multiple trigger blocks can be used within the same customer journey map.
This article is meant to walk you through each of the Automation trigger blocks. Each trigger block will include information about what causes it to trigger an automation, how it can be customized to fit your customer journey mapping needs, and examples of when to use it.
Automation Overview
Patch’s Automation builder makes it simple to automate tasks for your business with customer flows that fit all of your needs. From abandoned carts to goals hit, completed purchases, and newly created contacts, you can create custom and personalized Automations that drive customers back time and time again. Not all customers are the same, use Automations to start targeting them that way.
Contact RFM
How it is triggered:
The Contact RFM trigger block is an event-triggered block. The Patch system tracks each Contact's behavior and places them into RFM Buckets based on their Recency, Frequency, and Monetary scores. RFM values help you identify your database segments and label them according to their shopping trends. Recency tells you how long it has been since a Contact has made a purchase. Frequency tells you how many purchases they have made within a timeframe. Monetary is based on the total dollar spent for each Contact.
You can target your Customer Journeys based on a Contact going to and from specific buckets.
Note: If there are filter options on the trigger block the customer will need to match those filter settings to trigger the customer journey map.
When to use:
Contact Jane Smith has made their 5th purchase moving her from the Promising RFM bucket to Loyal. You set up an Automated Customer Journey that triggers anytime a contact goes from any subsequent bucket to Loyal. The journey is built to create a one-time discount assigned to Jane Smith to use on her next purchase. You then send her a message via Email and SMS informing her of this reward and thanking her for her loyalty to your company.
This automation would start with the Contact RFM trigger block with the Filter rules set for ‘RFM Segment Previous = Promising’ and ‘RFM Segment = Loyal’. Then you place a Discount Code block onto the canvas and complete the settings of the discount accordingly. Then include a Send Email and a Send SMS block and use the Discount Code SmartText within the copy. Connect your blocks on Enable your automation.
Filter Rules
It’s that easy! As always if you need any assistance setting this up or would like one of our Retention Specialists to review your automation please reach out to us via the TextChat widget in the bottom left corner of your account or email our Success Team at success@patchretention.com.
Abandoned Cart (Shopify users only)
How it is triggered:
Summary
The Abandoned Cart trigger block is an event-triggered block. The Patch system receives a notification from Shopify that a customer has abandoned their cart Patch system sends a notification along with the customer information to the Automation block to trigger the customer journey map for the customer who just abandoned the cart. Note: If there are filter options on the trigger block the customer will need to match those filter settings to trigger the customer journey map.
Features:
Cart Link URL SmartLink
Copy the Abandoned Cart SmartText from here and paste it into the content editor of the Send SMS or Send Email trigger block within the same automation.
Filter Rules
Use the filter to choose which customers should participate in the journey. The filter can be used to segment customers based on their data. When the Abandoned Cart trigger block receives a notification that a cart has been abandoned it receives the contact information associated with the abandoned cart event and uses this filter to decide whether the customer fits the journey.
Note: By default, all contacts that pass into the block will be included in the customer journey.
When to use:
The Abandonded Cart trigger block should be used when you would like to start a customer journey map for your customers. Abandoned cart trigger blocks can be followed by a delay action block to ensure that the customer has finished shopping before triggering the campaign.
For a quick start use the Abandonded Cart Wizard by clicking on the create new, purple plus button, in the bottom right-hand corner of the main screen.
At Time
How it is triggered:
This is a user-created event. This means that the settings set by the creator dictate the date and time an automation should be started.
Note: As soon as the Automation is enabled the Automation will trigger. This is especially important to know when the Right Now option is selected.
Features:
Run Immediately
Select this option to set the Automation to run immediately after it is enabled.
Scheduled Time
Select this option to set a time in the future for this trigger block to run.
Repeating
Select this option to set up an Automation that is expected to run repeatedly at a specified time interval
Filter Rules
There are no filter rules available for this trigger block. Instead, use the Select Contacts action block to segment which contacts you would like to target.
Note: By default, all contacts that pass into the block will be included in the customer journey.
When to use:
If you want to start any automation at a given time, use this trigger. This is good for anything you want to go out regularly. Many businesses use this trigger to run an automation every morning to check for customers whose birthday it is and send them a message — perhaps even a few days before their birthday. Check out the Birthday Wizard from the options for creating a new Automation.
Chat Completed (Messenger addon)
Note: Conversation finished events are available only for SMS and MMS messaging. Email messages are excluded from this trigger at this time.
How it is triggered:
Summary
The Chat Completed trigger block is an event-triggered block. When a conversation is marked completed within Messenger or TextChat the Patch system sends a notification and the contact information to the Chat Completed trigger block.
Triggers when a conversation is marked as "completed" for the very first time
EXAMPLE: Trigger "How did we do?" messages whenever a conversation is completed
Features:
Filter Rules
Use the filter to choose which customers should participate in the journey. The filter can be used to segment customers based on their data. When the Chat Completed trigger block receives a notification that a conversation has been marked complete it receives the contact information associated with the conversation complete event and uses this filter to decide whether the customer fits the journey. Note: By default, all contacts that pass into the block will be included in the customer journey.
When to use:
Use the Chat Finished trigger block in a customer journey map that should be triggered when a conversation is marked complete in Messenger or TextChat. Some popular examples of this would be automating a “Would you like to join our text list?” message, or asking “Would you mind leaving us a review?” after every positive interaction. One company that started doing the latter began receiving great reviews 2.5X faster after setting this automation up.
Wizards
Opt-In Invitation
Social Review Invitation
Check-In Finished (Kiosk users only)
How it is triggered:
Summary
When a contact completes a check-in at a kiosk device the Patch system sends a notification and the contact information to the Check-In Finished trigger block.
Features:
Note: By default every time a contact completes a check-in the trigger block will start the customer journey for every contact.
Filter
Use the filter to choose which customers should participate in the journey. The filter can be used to segment customers based on their data. When the Check-In Finished trigger block receives a notification that a customer has completed a check-in on a kiosk device it receives the contact information associated with the event and uses this filter to decide whether the customer fits the journey.
Note: By default, all contacts that pass into the block will be included in the customer journey.
After counting all check-ins that match the above filter rules…
Run this trigger…
- One time at a certain number of check-ins
- Use this option to only trigger the Automation once at a specified number of times a contact finished a check-in
- Every X check-ins
- Use this option to trigger the Automation every 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. times a contact finishes a check-in
Number of check-ins
- available for both options above
Starting with check-in #
- only available for the Every X check-ins option above
When to use:
Use the Check-In Finished trigger to do anything based on when a contact finishes checking in at a Kiosk device. The Check-In Finished trigger block is ideal for welcome messages, email signup automations or drip campaigns, as well as email confirmations for purchases if you have contacts being created based on purchase data.
Contact Created
How it is Triggered:
When a contact is added to your account the Patch system sends a notification and the contact information to the Contact Created trigger block.
Contacts Can be created from:
- Waivers
- Webforms
- Shopify
- Order Finished
- Order Sync
- Account Creation
- Loyalty Cash Widget
- Patch Contacts - Create New Contact
- Imports
- Text Ins?
- Constant Contact
- Ncrsilver
- Revel
- Account Users
- Account Creation/Sign Up
- Kiosks
- TextChat
- Messenger
Features:
Filter
Use the filter to choose which customers should participate in the journey. The filter can be used to segment customers based on their data. When the Contact Created block receives a notification that a customer has been added to the account it receives the contact information associated with the event and uses this filter to decide whether the customer fits the journey. Note: By default, all contacts that pass into the block will be included in the customer journey.
When to use:
Use the Contact Created trigger to do anything based on when a new contact is added to the account. This trigger block is ideal for welcome messages, email signup automations, or drip campaigns, as well as email confirmations for purchases if you have contacts being created based on purchase data.
Wizards
Opt-In Invitation
Contact Updated
How it is triggered:
Summary
When a contact is updated within your account the Patch system sends a notification and the contact information to the Contact Created trigger block.
Features:
Filter Rules
Use the filter to choose which customers should participate in the journey. The filter can be used to segment customers based on their data. When the Contact updated block receives a notification that a customer has been updated within the account it receives the contact information associated with the event and uses this filter to decide whether the customer fits the journey. Note: By default, all contacts that pass in to the block will be included in the customer journey.
When to use:
Use the Contact Updated trigger block to do anything based on when a contact is updated on the account.
Incoming SMS
How it is triggered:
When a contact sends an incoming message via SMS the Patch system sends a notification to the Incoming SMS block with the contact’s information.
Features:
Note: By default every time a contact sends in an SMS message trigger block will start the customer journey for every contact.
Filter Rules
Use the filter to choose which customers should participate in the journey. The filter can be used to segment customers based on their data. When the Incoming SMS trigger block receives a notification that a customer has sent in an SMS message it receives the contact information associated with the event and uses this filter to decide whether the customer fits the journey. Note: By default, all contacts that pass in to the block will be included in the customer journey.
After counting all text-ins that match the above filter rules…
Run this trigger…
- One time at a certain number of text-ins
- Use this option to only trigger the Automation once at a specified number of times a contact sends in a message
- Every X text-ins
- Use this option to trigger the Automation every 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. times a contact sends in a message
Number of text-ins
- available for both options above
Starting with text-in #
- only available for the Every X option above
When to use:
Use the Incoming SMS trigger block to do anything based whenever a contact sends an SMS to your gateway.
Incoming TextChat (Messenger addon)
How it is triggered:
When a contact sends an incoming message via the TextChat widget the Patch system sends a notification to the Incoming TextChat block with the contact’s information.
Features:
Note: By default every time a contact sends in an SMS message trigger block will start the customer journey for every contact.
Filter Rules
Use the filter to choose which customers should participate in the journey. The filter can be used to segment customers based on their data. When the Incoming TextChat trigger block receives a notification that a customer has sent in a new TextChat message it receives the contact information associated with the event and uses this filter to decide whether the customer fits the journey. Note: By default, all contacts that pass in to the block will be included in the customer journey.
After counting all chat-ins that match the above filter rules…
Run this trigger…
- One time at a certain number of chat-ins
- Use this option to only trigger the Automation once at a specified number of times a contact sends in a message
- Every X chat-ins
- Use this option to trigger the Automation every 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. times a contact sends in a message through TextChat
Number of chat-ins
- available for both options above
Starting with chat-in #
- only available for the Every X option above
When to use:
This will be used if you’re actively using the TextChat widget, which allows two-way text communication with your customers. So you might use it if you’ve already secured permission from your customer, to automatically add them to your text list.
Wizards
Abandoned Cart
Offer Redeemed (SmartOffers addon only)
How it is triggered:
When a contact redeems a SmartOffer the Patch system sends a notification to the Offer Redeemed trigger block with the contact’s information.
Features:
Note: By default, every time a contact redeems an offer the trigger block will start the customer journey for every contact.
Filter Rules
Use the filter to choose which customers should participate in the journey. The filter can be used to segment customers based on their data. When the Offer Redeemed trigger block receives a notification that a customer has redeemed an offer it receives the contact information associated with the event and uses this filter to decide whether the customer fits the journey.
Note: By default, all contacts that pass in to the block will be included in the customer journey.
After counting all SmartOffers that match the above filter rules…
Run this trigger…
- One time at a certain number of redemptions
- Use this option to only trigger the Automation once at a specified number of times a contact sends in a message
- Every X redemptions
- Use this option to trigger the Automation every 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. times a contact sends in a message through TextChat
Number of redemptions
- available for both options above
Starting with redemption #
- only available for the Every X option above
When to use:
Need to add use cases
You’ll use this for building any automations that run off of an offer being redeemed. So if you’d like something to happen after a customer redeems an offer, perhaps at a kiosk, then choose this trigger.
Order Finished (Shopify, NCRSilver, Revel)
How it is triggered:
When a contact completes an order the Patch system sends a notification to the Order Finished trigger block with the contact’s information.
Features:
Note: By default every time a contact finishes an order the trigger block will start the customer journey for every contact.
Filter Rules
Use the filter to choose which customers should participate in the journey. The filter can be used to segment customers based on their data. When the Order Finished trigger block receives a notification that a customer has finished an order it receives the contact information associated with the event and uses this filter to decide whether the customer fits the journey. Note: By default, all contacts that pass in to the block will be included in the customer journey.
After counting all orders that match the above filter rules…
Run this trigger…
- One time at a certain number of orders
- Use this option to only trigger the Automation once at a specified number of times a contact sends in a message
- Every X orders
- Use this option to trigger the Automation every 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. times a contact sends in a message through TextChat
Number of orders
- available for both options above
Starting with order #
- only available for the Every X option above
When to use:
You’ll use this for building any automations that run off of an order being placed.
Wizards:
Abandoned Cart
Opt-In Invitation
Social Review Invitation
Post Purchase
Winback
SmartLink Clicked (SmartLinks Addon)
How it is triggered:
When a contact clicks a SmartLink the Patch system sends a notification to the SmartLink Clicked trigger block with the contact’s information.
Features:
Note: By default, every time a contact clicks a SmartLink the trigger block will start the customer journey for every contact.
Filter Rules
Use the filter to choose which customers should participate in the journey. The filter can be used to segment customers based on their data. When the SmartLink Clicked trigger block receives a notification that a customer has clicked a SmartLink it receives the contact information associated with the event and uses this filter to decide whether the customer fits the journey.
Note: By default, all contacts that pass into the block will be included in the customer journey.
After counting all clicks that match the above rules…
Run this trigger…
- One time at a certain number of clicks
- Use this option to only trigger the Automation once at a specified number of times a contact sends in a message
- Every X clicks
- Use this option to trigger the Automation every 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. times a contact sends in a message through TextChat
Number of clicks
- available for both options above
Starting with click #
- only available for the Every X option above
When to use:
You’ll use this for building any automations that run off of a Smartlink being clicked.
Webform Finished (Webforms addon only)
How it is triggered:
When a contact completes a form the Patch system sends a notification to the Webform Finished trigger block with the contact’s information.
Features:
Note: By default every time a contact completes a form the trigger block will start the customer journey for every contact.
Filter Rules
Use the filter to choose which customers should participate in the journey. The filter can be used to segment customers based on their data. When the Webform Finished trigger block receives a notification that a customer has completed a Webform it receives the contact information associated with the event and uses this filter to decide whether the customer fits the journey.
Note: By default, all contacts that pass into the block will be included in the customer journey.
After counting all clicks that match the above rules…
Run this trigger…
- One time at a certain number of completions
- Use this option to only trigger the Automation once at a specified number of times a completes a form
- Every X completions
- Use this option to trigger the Automation every 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. times a contact sends in a message through TextChat
Number of completions
- available for both options above
Starting with completions #
- only available for the Every X option above
When to use:
You’ll use this for building any automations that run off of a Webform being completed.
Automations Overview:
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