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Workflows overview
Workflows overview

An overview of Workflows - Projects and Sequences

Carly Hammond avatar
Written by Carly Hammond
Updated over 5 months ago

Summary

  • Workflows are an easy yet sophisticated way to automate a series of actions - tasks and/or email steps

  • The two main types of Workflow are Projects and Sequences

    • Projects are designed for project management, displaying tasks in a customisable table. They can be applied to either Companies or End Users

    • Sequences are designed for automatically sending emails to End Users, but can also include tasks. They can be applied to either End Users or Companies

  • Workflows can automatically apply and activate/deactivate elements based on changes in your data in Planhat. They are a great way to respond quickly and effectively in response to data

    • Workflows can initiate and adapt in response to a wide variety of data, including usage data, revenue data, conversation data, and more

Who is this article for?

  • Everyone!

  • Specifically, anyone who would like an introduction to Workflows

Series

This article is part of a series on Workflows:

Article contents

Click below to jump to the relevant section:

What are Workflows?

A Workflow is a way of automating actions; it's a defined series of steps (tasks and/or emails). You may be familiar with the older term "Playbook".

Steps can be:

  • internal actions (e.g. hold a handover meeting between Sales and CS, or carry out an internal review),

  • actions where you interact with a customer (e.g. send an email to an End User, or hold a kick-off meeting with a Company),

  • or even actions for a customer to complete themselves (e.g. they carry out a setup step and mark it as complete in their Portal).

Once you've created a Workflow Template, defining which steps will happen and when, this can be automatically or manually applied to specific Companies or End Users, meaning that the actions will be associated with that Company or End User.

Workflows are a great way of taking action with data. As well as specific data triggering a Workflow Template to be applied, Workflows can even adjust in response to data while they are running - for example, you can have groups of steps representing goals or milestones, which activate or deactivate as an End User carries out different actions within your product. Various types of data can be used to automatically activate/deactivate a Workflow or its steps.

Workflows combine the efficiency and consistency possible with automation, together with the ability to provide a customised, bespoke service, rather than simply "one size fits all".

Workflow types

There are two main types of Workflows: Projects and Sequences. Here's quick overview:

Projects

Sequences

Model

Company or End User

End User or Company

Step type

Task on Company;

task or email* on End User

Email* or task

UI for steps

Customisable table

List

Designed particularly for

Project management

Automatically sending a sequence of emails

Typical example

Onboarding a Company

End User engagement/adoption

*Email steps are emails that are automatically scheduled/sent. You can have a task step where the task instructions are to send a specific email, but that email would not be sent automatically.

Here are some examples of what Projects and Sequences may look like:

Projects

Sequences

Workflow benefits

Workflows are a great way to automate actions in a process. This means you:

  • Reduce manual work - tasks are created for you and emails can be sent automatically - meaning you and your team have more time to focus on strategic actions where you can add more value

  • Act more quickly in response to data - instead of relying on someone manually noticing an event (such as a drop in usage, or a contract up for renewal), Workflows and their steps can be activated (and in certain circumstances deactivated) automatically

  • Improve consistency - using Workflow Templates means everyone follows the same process, rather than each person doing their own thing. This also enables faster onboarding, as new staff members can easily follow the defined process

Workflow use cases

If you're wondering when Workflows would make your life easier, here are some typical use-case examples.

Projects

  • Company onboarding

    • Containing all the tasks required to set your customers up for success, from internal tasks, to tasks you carry out with them, and even tasks that they do themselves

  • Sales handover and account setup

    • Internal tasks prior to onboarding, such as info sharing and account creation

  • Churn risk

    • Automatically applied when data in Planhat identifies a Company is a possible churn risk, and including steps such as research, discussion, training and follow-up

  • Renewals

    • Automatically applied a set number of days before the renewal date, including all the required steps for you to confirm and process (or cancel) the renewal

  • Upselling/expansions

    • Automatically applied when data indicates there is an expansion Opportunity

Sequences

  • New End Users

    • A set of emails sent automatically to new End Users, guiding them to log in and teaching them about relevant features; this can be tailored for or targeted to specific End User types (e.g. Admins)

  • Re-engagement

    • A sequence of emails automatically starting when usage of an End User drops, and stops when usage increases again

  • Promotion of new features (or courses, etc.)

    • Emails to encourage relevant End Users to carry out a specific action, such as use a new product you've just launched; the Workflow can automatically stop the promotional emails when the End User performs the desired action

  • NPS scores

    • An automated email and a follow-up task reaching out to an End User after receiving an NPS score, with a different message depending on whether they are a promotor, neutral or a detractor

  • Renewals

    • Automatically email a specific group of End Users (e.g. Main Contacts) at a Company when its renewal is due in 90 days

  • Reviews and celebrations

    • When Company Onboarding is completed, for example, automatically email a subset of End Users at that Company to mark this achievement and summarise key details

These are just some examples - we bet you can think of more!

We show a couple of typical Workflows in our illustrated examples article here.

Further reading

If you would like to dive deeper into Workflows, we recommend that you start with one of these articles.

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