Start a workflow when someone moves stage

A workflow can start by itself the moment a contact moves to a stage. Bright Dental, for example, texts a reminder two days after a patient moves to Treatment plan sent; a fitness coach tags everyone who moves to Lost and emails them again three months later.

Before you start

• Your stages are set up.
• To send texts, your account needs a phone number; to send email from your own address, a verified sending domain.

Steps

1. Open Automations. The Workflows tab opens.
2. Press Create workflow and choose Start from scratch. A draft called Untitled workflow opens.
3. In the Starts when box, press Add a trigger.
4. Under Somebody starts this when…, choose They move to a pipeline stage.
5. Press the new trigger to open it. Under Stage, choose the stage, for example Treatment plan sent, or leave Any stage to start on every move.
6. Add the steps. Use the + buttons to add a step, for example: - Wait for 2 days; - Send a text message: Hi {{first_name}}, checking you received your treatment plan. Reply here with any questions.
7. When the steps are ready, press the switch in the top bar that reads Draft. It turns green and reads Running, and a message says Switched on. It runs from now.

What happens next

• From now on, whenever a card moves into that stage (dragged on the board, changed on the record, or moved by another workflow's Move to a pipeline stage step), the person starts the workflow.
• Someone already on the workflow is not started a second time.
• Moves made before you switched it on don't start anything.
• To move people on automatically, add a Move to a pipeline stage step to any workflow.

You can also start from a ready-made workflow: Create workflow › Start from a template.

For agencies

Workflows belong to each client's account. Open the client first (Sub-accounts › Open), then build it there.

Troubleshooting

The switch is greyed out and says "Add a step first". A workflow needs at least one step before it can be switched on.

Moving a card didn't start the workflow. Check the workflow reads Running, not Draft or Paused. Check the trigger's Stage is the stage you moved them to, or Any stage. And check the person isn't already on the workflow.

The trigger shows an amber warning. The trigger isn't finished. Open it and complete its choices.

The text step was skipped. Text steps are skipped until the account has a connected phone number, and the run carries on to the next step. Get a number under Settings › Channels.

A step started for someone who shouldn't have got it. Any stage starts on every move, including moves backwards. Choose a single stage instead.

Related

• Move contacts between stages
• Set up your pipeline stages
• Every workflow trigger explained
• Build, explain and switch on a workflow