Gloo is proud to announce the launch of Workflows! Workflows combine several old Gloo features into one seamless experience that allows you to create personalized pathways for your contacts. Each Workflow is triggered by a keyword and can be designed to send texts, add or remove people to groups, send email notifications to your Gloo Team Members, and more.
It's also important to note that free Gloo accounts are able to create unlimited Single Step Workflows, but will be limited to three Multistep Workflows. If you'd like more than three, you'll need to upgrade to our Gloo+ membership.
Creating a Workflow 🔄
Let's go through three examples of Workflows to demonstrate what they can do: a Single Step Workflow (the equivalent of an old Gloo Keyword), and 2 different Multistep Workflows (the equivalent of an old Gloo Keyword with an added Effect, and an old Gloo Series).
Single Step Workflow
Let's say you are having a church picnic next Saturday and want to set up a very simple way for people to get information. A Single Step Workflow can easily do this!
Free Gloo accounts are able to create unlimited Single Step Workflows.
Click on Workflows under Outbox, then click Create New.
Click Create from scratch. But be on the lookout soon for templated Workflows!
On this screen, let's first name our Workflow "Picnic" and enter a keyword to associate to the Workflow. This is the first step to any Workflow, and anytime someone texts that keyword into your Gloo phone number, it will trigger the Workflow. For this example, let's use the keyword "picnic." Note that keywords are not case sensitive, but in order to trigger a Workflow, they must be texted in exactly and alone.
Now that you've created the keyword to trigger your Workflow, click the Plus Icon to add a step. The currently available steps to add are: Send a text, Add or remove from Group or send an Email notification. Soon there will be new options like Menus and Branches that will let you further customize your Workflows!
For this Single Step Workflow, we'll just send a text. Type out the text you want someone to receive with information about the picnic. Note all of the format options available - inserting images, emojis, videos, data, and Memos. Once you're finished, click Save.
That's it! Your first text sent in a Workflow will always be sent immediately. Now anytime someone texts in the word "picnic" to your Gloo account, they'll automatically receive the information!
Note that all Workflows will be turned on by default when you create them. This is shown with a green toggle in the top right corner or your Workflow, as well as another green light on the main Workflows page. You can turn a Workflow off at any time by switching the toggle so that you can keep the Workflow's data around, but prevent any new people from activating it by texting in the keyword.
Multistep Workflow 1
Now, let's move on to a Multistep Workflow. Let's say you want to send out the information about the picnic, but it would also be convenient to add everyone who texts in the keyword to a Group so that you can send them all a message as the day gets closer. No problem! This would be the equivalent of an old Gloo Keyword with an added Effect.
Free Gloo accounts are able to create three Multistep Workflows. If you'd like to create more, consider upgrading to a Gloo+ account!
First, let's create a group for our picnickers. Head over to My People -> Groups and click + Create a Group.
Name your group and click Create.
Now navigate back to Messaging -> Workflows and click on your Picnic Workflow to edit it and add a step.
Underneath the first text you configured, click the Plus Icon to add a new step. Let's select "Add or remove from group."
Now just set the step to "Add to" the group "Picnic." It's that easy! Now anyone who texts in "picnic" will both receive the information AND be added to your Picnic group so that you can easily send a Broadcast at any time to the whole group with announcements and updates.
Multistep Workflow 2
Now, let's start over with a more complicated example. Maybe you'd like to invite new attendees of your church to receive a handful of texts for a week or two after they first attend, as well as add them to a group and make sure that your Connections pastor knows about them. Let's get to it! This would be the equivalent of an old Gloo Series with some added Effects.
Note: A templated version of a New Visitor Follow-Up Workflow can be found here if you don't want to create your own!
Free Gloo accounts are able to create three Multistep Workflows. If you'd like to create more, consider upgrading to a Gloo+ account!
Click on Workflows under Outbox, then click Create New.
Click Create from scratch. But be on the lookout soon for templated Workflows!
On this screen, let's first name our Workflow "New Attendees" and enter a keyword to associate to the Workflow. This is the first step to any Workflow, and anytime someone texts that keyword into your Gloo phone number, it will trigger the Workflow. For this example, let's use the keyword "new." Note that keywords are not case sensitive, but in order to trigger a Workflow, they must be texted in exactly and alone.
Now that you've created the keyword to trigger your Workflow, click the Plus Icon to add a step. The currently available steps to add are: Send a text, Add or remove from Group or send an Email notification. Soon there will be new options like Menus and Branches that will let you further customize your Workflows!
For this Workflow, let's first send a text to welcome our guest. Type out the text you want someone to receive right away when they opt into your Workflow. Note all of the format options available - inserting images, emojis, videos, data, and Memos. Once you're finished, click Save.
Now that we've sent a first response to our guest, let's get them added to a group! If you haven't already done so, head over to My People -> Groups and click + Create a Group.
Name your group and click Create.
Navigate back to your New Attendees Workflow and click on it to edit it. Underneath the first text you configured, click the Plus Icon to add a new step. Let's select "Add or remove from group." Then set the Workflow to add them to the "New Attendees" group you just created. Now, any guests texting in the "new" keyword will automatically be added into a group for easy viewing and tracking later!
Now your guest is in the Workflow and has been added to the group. But maybe you also want your Connections Pastor to be aware of them. No problem! Click that Plus Icon again to add a new step, and this time choose "Email Notification." Select your Connections Pastor to set the Workflow to automatically send them an email notification any time a guest starts the Workflow.
Note: If you haven't already added your Connections Pastor as a Gloo Team Member, check out this article for instructions!
Now that you've handled all of the administrative components, let's start building out more messages to go to our new attendee. Click the Plus Icon again and select "Send a text" to add a new message.
Let's type out a message to ask for some feedback. We can use the box on the left side to configure when that message will be sent out- we'll select one day later at noon. That way any guest who texts in the keyword on Sunday will receive the first text immediately, and this second text on Monday at noon. Or, if they attend Bible study on Wednesday and text in then, they'll receive the first text immediately and the second text on Thursday at noon! Once you have things the way you want, click Save.
Keep adding as many messages as you'd like! Note that if you want to duplicate a message for easier editing later, you can just click the copy icon on the right side. You can also use these icons to reorder or delete the steps in your Workflow.
You can add as many steps as you'd like. Make sure to set up your Workflows the way you like before people begin texting into them! If someone completes all steps in a Workflow and then you add more steps later, that contact will not receive the new steps.
Important: The scheduled time for each message to go out is relative to the previous message, not to the beginning of the Workflow. For example, it you set it to "3 Days later" at 12pm, that message will go out 3 days after the last message in the Workflow.
Performance 📈
When viewing any Workflow, click on the Performance tab to get key insights into how well your Workflow is performing. You can see things like how many people have subscribed to it, how many are in process, and how many have completed it for different, customizable timeframes.
Subscribers 📫
Your contacts can opt into a Workflow at any time by texting in the correct keyword to trigger it. Remember that in order to work, these keywords must be texted in exactly and alone. For example, if someone is trying to join the New Attendees workflow and they text in "new," they will be added. But if they text in "I'm new," it won't add them to the Workflow since the keyword wasn't texted in alone.
Gloo Team Members can also manually add contacts or whole Groups into Workflows in the Subscribers tab. Just click on the Subscribers tab, then click Add People. From the drop down, click on the name of the person or Group you'd like to add. You can add any combination of individuals and Groups, and the number displayed will add up how many total people are being added.
Under the Subscribers tab, you can also view how many people have subscribed to your Workflow and how far along they are in going through it.
Note that if someone opts into a Workflow and texts in the keyword a second time while still in progress, nothing new will happen- the system will disregard their second message and continue through the Workflow steps as normal. However, if someone finishes a Workflow, is marked "Complete," and then texts in the keyword again, they will be re-enrolled and can go through the Workflow again.
