Workflow tasks for calls - weekday vs weekend

[bcornman]

Hello

I'm trying to set up a work flow for when I type a certain phrase in my "lead comment" property. That part is easy.

My goal: when someone is enrolled it creates a set of 5 tasks for the contact. Each task will be named Call 1, Call 2 ....Call 5. I want them to be spaced out by a certain number of BUSINESS days each.

So far I've been able to create everything I just mentioned except I can only set it up so that the 2nd task's due date is say 3 days from the original task creation, the 3rd task is 7 days from original task creation (or 4 days after the 2nd task). 

The problem: In the settings, I see that enrollment can be set up to be on weekdays but I don't see an option to prevent tasks from being set on weekdays only. So if someone is enrolled on Weds, the 2nd task is now on Saturday (3 days after the initial task was setup). 

Here is a screen shot of how I set it up:

Maybe I'm not thinking about this the right way so I'd love suggestions!

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @bcornman,

Workflow actions are executed immediately, you would have to work with delays here. And yes, similar to sequences, these tasks would not be created at the same time but over time. I believe that this is the best solution.

I'm not sure your multiple workflow solution would work, at least I'm having a hard time conceptualizing what the enrollment would look like.

Have you considered either manually or automatically creating tasks based on the outcome of the previous call? You could create a workflow that only executes on business days. This first one simply creates the first call task. The second workflow again only executes on business days. It would check whether the contact is associated with an activity that has the call type "First call" and a negative call coutome. It would then create the task for the second call in three days:

You would create similar workflows for the next rounds of call.

This would let you see the next task immediately, even if it's scheduled in three days. You would not see the follow-up tasks which is great, when you think about it. After all you might successfully connect in call 2 and would then have to find and close the remaining tasks.

Hope this helps!

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @bcornman,

Workflow actions are executed immediately, you would have to work with delays here. And yes, similar to sequences, these tasks would not be created at the same time but over time. I believe that this is the best solution.

I'm not sure your multiple workflow solution would work, at least I'm having a hard time conceptualizing what the enrollment would look like.

Have you considered either manually or automatically creating tasks based on the outcome of the previous call? You could create a workflow that only executes on business days. This first one simply creates the first call task. The second workflow again only executes on business days. It would check whether the contact is associated with an activity that has the call type "First call" and a negative call coutome. It would then create the task for the second call in three days:

You would create similar workflows for the next rounds of call.

This would let you see the next task immediately, even if it's scheduled in three days. You would not see the follow-up tasks which is great, when you think about it. After all you might successfully connect in call 2 and would then have to find and close the remaining tasks.

Hope this helps!

[bcornman · Accepted solution]

What I meant was have 5 workflows named "Workflow Monday" "Workflow Tuesday" and so on until Friday for whichever day you enroll them.

So when you enroll someone on a Monday it spreads tasks out 4 days (friday), then 6 days (the next thursday), then 6 days (next wednesday from that).

The Tuesday one for people you enroll on tuesdays spreads tasks by 6 days (the next Monday), 4 days (friday) and each one has a different spacing so the tasks don't fall on weekends.

I see what you're saying about creating new tasks as we go but our answer/call back rates are very low for the prospects we target, so we just want to set up like 5 calls from the start and we can safely assume you're going to get through several before you reach someone.

[karstenkoehler]

Hi @bcornman,

Sure, that would work, it simply seems like an awful lot of work to me. When you do pursue this avenue, make sure to suppress contacts who enroll in one workflow from enrolling in the other.

Let me know if you have any follow-up questions!

If you consider this thread solved, you can mark your and my post as a solution so that other users can also find the different ways of approaching this. I'd appreciate it.

[karstenkoehler]

Hi @bcornman,

In the Settings tab of the workflow, you can set the workflow to only execute actions on weekdays:

Instead of creating all tasks immediately right after enrollment, you could work with delays in workflows to space out the task creation. This has the downside that you wouldn't be able to see all tasks immediately, only when they're being created. This would allow you however to only create tasks on weekdays.

Keep in mind that delays execute outside of working hours. If the workflow creates task 1 on a Friday and the next one is scheduled for 3 days after, it would be created for Monday, not Wednesday. There isn't any workaround to this that I'm aware of, see also this thread.

Looking at your workflow, you might also be able to achieve your goal with sequences: With the sequences tool, you can send a series of targeted, timed email templates to nurture contacts over time. You can also automatically create tasks to remind you to follow up with your contacts. When contacts reply to the email or book a meeting, they will automatically unenroll from the sequence.

Best regards!

[bcornman]

I set the workflow to be weekdays only but it seems like that's only for enrollment to the entire workflow, not each task. 

The idea here was that all the tasks would be created at once so I could see my call schedule a little while out. I originally tried with a sequence because I know they only execute on weekdays. The problem there is that you can only set it to create a task after x amount of days instead of creating immediately and remind on the due date. So I set the 2 tasks three days apart but the second doesn't appear on my task queue until the due date. Is there a better way to do that with sequences?

We're trying to create a cadence of calls for cold prospects with tasks as reminders so you can see it further out. 

It almost seems like the only workaround would be to have 5 separate workflows: one  for each weekday. So the monday work flow is separated by 3 days then 5 more then 4 more then 3 more so it doesn't hit any weekends. But the other days have different spreads between tasks.

Guess this wouldn't work with holidays and such. Think that would work?