The mid-January 2024 release adds four new trigger points and two new trigger action steps. These are described further below, and available to all users of Quoox Ultimate.
The Email Message action has also been extended to allow the optional selection of a template in which to send the message, overriding the default base template set in Settings. Unless selected otherwise, emails will be sent wrapped with the base template.
Also described below are some useful techniques that can be employed for “throttling” triggers (I.e. controlling how many times they fire for a given member within a period of time)
New Event Triggers
The four new event triggers included in this release are summarised below.
Membership Anniversary
This trigger occurs a configurable number of days after the start of a membership. So, for example, you could set up a trigger for 30 days after the membership starts, 6 months, or 1 year. You have total flexibility and can control which membership types the trigger fires for.
Sending our anniversary notifications is a popular activity. To date, clients have typically used the Membership added or Membership started triggers and have then specified an offset period on the action steps. Whilst this is fine in most cases, it does fall down if the membership is cancelled within the period – as the steps are already scheduled and still fire at a later time. This can cause confusion.
We recommend transferring to using the Membership Anniversary trigger for the above scenario. This is calculated on a nightly basis and, therefore, handles cancellations that have occurred in the meantime.
Important: When switching from the Membership added or Membership started triggers, ensure that you delete the previous triggers. This will ensure that any pending events are also cancelled. Simply de-activating/suspending the trigger will not cancel those events, and the member might then receive duplicate notifications from two different triggers.
Membership cancelled
This trigger occurs when a membership is marked for cancellation. You can control which membership types the trigger fires for and whether it should fire on immediate cancellations, renewal cancellations, or all.
x sessions cancelled
This trigger can be configured to fire when a member has cancelled x number of sessions of a selectable type within a selectable period of time.
This is a very good way of indicating that all might not be well with a member and enabling you to address it proactively.
x no shows
This trigger can be configured to fire when a member has failed to show up for x number of booked sessions of a selectable type within a selectable period of time.
This is a very good way of indicating that all might not be well with a member and enabling you to address it proactively.
New Action Steps
Two new event action steps are included in this release are summarised below.
Archive member
This step archives the member record. It can optionally be configured to only archive if the member does not have any current, non-cancelled memberships.
Because of the way this trigger works, it could be configured as a delayed step on a membership cancellation. For example, archive the member after 30 days but only if they don’t have any other active memberships at that time.
If you use this action, it should be a final step in a trigger – otherwise, you end up archiving the member that you try to reference in subsequent action steps.
Cancel all pending trigger events
If you use delayed actions in your triggers, a given member or lead may accrue pending trigger events. This action step cancels all pending events.
If you use this action, it should be a step that occurs before any other delayed steps – otherwise, you’ll cancel the steps you have just set up!
Throttling Member Triggers
When setting up a trigger, you should always consider the scenario you are creating. Some triggers you might set up could legitimately fire multiple times within a space of time. For example, if you setup a “session cancelled” trigger, and then a member cancelled 5 sessions in quick succession, the trigger would correctly fire 5 times.
There are a couple of techniques built into Quoox Ultimate for throttling triggers.
One shot triggers
To have a trigger fire only once for a member, the below is an example of a technique you can use.
- Setup a member tag with a suitable name. E.g., “XYZ triggered”
- Setup a dynamic member group with a corresponding name, and add to it the member trigger you created.
This will create a group of all members with that tag. - Add the group to the “exclusions” section of your trigger.
- Add an action step to the trigger that adds the tag you created to the member record.
As a result, the trigger only fires for members that aren’t in the exclusions list. When the trigger fires for a member, they have a tag applied which automatically adds them to the exclusions group. This makes them ineligible for future firings of the trigger.
Throttled triggers
To have a trigger fire only once within a given period of time for a member, the below is an example of a technique you can use. It is an extension of the above “one shot” process.
- Setup a member tag with a suitable name. E.g., “XYZ triggered”
- Setup a dynamic member group with a corresponding name, and add to it the member trigger you created.
This will create a group of all members with that tag. - Add the group to the “exclusions” section of your trigger.
- Add an action step to the trigger that adds the tag you created to the member record.
- Add an action step to the trigger delayed by a period of time (E.g. 7 days) that removes the tag you created from the member record.
As a result, the trigger only fires for members that aren’t in the exclusions list. When the trigger fires for a member, they have a tag applied which automatically adds them to the exclusions group. This makes them ineligible for future firings of the trigger whilst they have the tag. However, after the delay period you have set, the tag is removed. This removes them from the exclusions group, once more making them eligible for the trigger to fire.
