What are Triggers?

NOTE: This feature is available in the Professional and Enterprise versions of both Spectra and Stratus Desktop.

 This topic contains the following sections:

• Trigger Overview
• Setting up Triggers
• Processing Triggers
• List of Available Triggers

Trigger Overview #

Use triggers to automate some of the workflow for your studio.
Triggers are associated with a variety of statuses, types, and dates throughout
the software. You can create triggers for clients, sessions, appointments, invoices,
production/preproduction orders, and tasks. You can set up triggers to generate phone calls, printed
letters, emails, SMS text messages, tasks, or web forms (Stratus only). You can also choose a combination
that will create an email if a client has an email address in their client
record, or generate a call or printed letter if they don’t. That way,
you can be sure some form of contact will be generated for clients no
matter what.

 Note: To use invoice statuses,
you must first set the preference on the Invoicing
tab of your Company (Studio) Preferences.  See also: Company (Studio) Preferences – Invoicing

Examples #

• Create a trigger to send an email or text message
  to a client to remind them of an upcoming session a week before the
  session.

• Or, generate a call to check on a production order
  after three days if it hasn’t come back in, or send an email to the customer
  to come in and pick up their order when it is ready.

Watch the video and/or follow the instructions below to set up triggers.

Setting Up Triggers #

Tosetup triggers, we’ll look at a client status example. The screens
will be similar for other types of triggers.

1. Go to Maintenance
   > Client > Client Status Triggers. This will open your list of client triggers, organized by status.

   

2. Use the Status drop-down list to choose the status you want to create a trigger
   for. Note:A status must be set up before
   a trigger can be created for it. Set up client statuses in Maintenance > Client > Client Statuses. See also: Client Statuses

3. To create a new trigger, click New
   in the Editing group
   of the ribbon (or type a description in the top row of the table and
   press Enter) to open the Trigger
   Detail window.

   

Trigger Details #

Description
– Enter a description of what the trigger does. For example: “Email
reminder for upcoming session.”

Trigger
Type – Choose one of the following options:

Process with Control Center – If you’ve set up the Control Center to process triggers, this option allows you to choose whether or not a specific trigger should be processed automatically. When you create a new trigger, you may want to keep this box unchecked until you know the trigger is functioning as expected. 

Times – Choose processing times to prevent the Control Center from sending emails and text messages in the middle of the night.

Trigger
Date Options #

Choose the date that you would
like the trigger to activate. The trigger can be based on the associated
status itself or on the status due date. If you base the trigger
on the status, it will be activated when the item is changed to that status.
Otherwise you can choose to have the trigger activated a certain number
of days before, on, or after the status due date. Remember, the default
status due date is based on the duration you set up when you created the
status. It can, however, be modified on the record itself. The trigger
will activate based on the current due date in the record.

Trigger Exclusions #

Choose whether or not to exclude
“Do Not Market” and/or “Do Not Call” clients from
the trigger. There is also an option to exclude records if the triggered date is in the past (i.e., don’t send an appointment reminder if the appointment date was last week).

Trigger Behavior #

Enter a description for the
resulting communication or task record. When applicable, select the appropriate form letter, attachments, web form, type, department, and user.

4. Click OK
   to finish creating the trigger.

5. The software will set up the trigger for processing by filtering through your database and excluding records that may have fit the criteria in the past. This prepares the trigger for use going forward. Note: This initial processing DOES NOT actually create any communications or tasks. Triggers must be processed manually with the Process Triggers tool or automated with the Control Center.

   

Processing Triggers #

To actually process (or “run”) the triggers you’ve created,
follow these steps:

1. Go to the Tools
   menu and select Process Triggers.
   A list of triggers that are currently active (meaning they match trigger
   criteria) will be displayed.

2. Click to open each group of triggers. You have
   the option to Process, Skip, or Delete
   each triggered item. Note: You can also use the icons above the list to Process All, Skip All, or Delete All.

Note: From
this list you can also double-click on a triggered item
(i.e., client, invoice, appointment, session, etc.) to open it for preview.

3. Click Process
   to complete processing the selected items. This will generate the
   calls, letters, emails, text messages, and tasks that have been defined
   for each trigger.

Triggers List #

The following triggers are available in Spectra and Stratus Desktop:

BASED ON:	DATE OPTIONS
Appointment Type	– Appointment Date – Booked Date
Client Status	– When Changed to a Status – Status Due Date – Birthday Date (includes family members) – Anniversary Date
Invoice Status	– When Changed to a Status – Status Due Date – Payment Due Date
Production Status	– When Changed to a Status – Status Due Date
Preproduction Status	– When Changed to a Status – Status Due Date
Session Status	– When Changed to a Status – Status Due Date – Primary Session Date
Session Type	– Primary Session Date – Session Create Date
Task Status	– When Changed to a Status – Status Due Date – Task Due Date – Task Start Date – Task Complete Date
Task Type	– Task Due Date – Task Start Date – Task Complete Date