Set up rules for flows
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Set up rules for flows

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Article summary

To work with Gong Engage, an Engage seat is required. Technical and business admins can set up rules for adding people to flows automatically, but these rules apply only to company flows, not personal ones. There are two types of rules: editable and non-editable. The 'Add people' rule allows defining triggers, conditions, and actions for automatic additions to flows. The 'Unsubscribe' rule adds an unsubscribe link to all email steps in a flow. Gong also provides non-editable rules for pausing flows in certain situations. There is no limit to the number of flows or people that can be added to a flow. Contacts and leads can be assigned to flows manually or through automatic rules.

Note:

Working with Gong Engage requires an Engage seat.

Who's this for? Technical & Business admins

Where to go? Sidebar > Engage > Flows > Select the flow you want to work on

To save you time and help your teams scale their engagement efforts, technical and business admins can set up rules for adding people to flows automatically. Rules for adding people automatically can be set up for company flows only, not personal flows.

When reps duplicate a company flow and save it as their own personal flow, the rules that were set up for automatically adding people to that company flow don't carry over to the duplicated version.

There are 2 types of rules outlined below:

  • Rules you can edit

  • Non-editable rules from Gong

All rules are available for both Salesforce and HubSpot.

Gong also provides a list of best practice rules that are automatically activated for all company and personal flows. You can see them by clicking on a flow and going to the Rules tab, but you don't have to do anything to set them up.

Rules you can edit

Note:

Rules for adding people automatically can be edited by technical admins or business admins (people who can manage general business settings)

To set up a rule for a flow, open the relevant flow and go to the Rules tab.

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Configurable rules:

  • Add people: Define who should be added to a flow, based on specific triggers. This rule can be set up for company flows only.

  • Add an "unsubscribe" link to all email steps in this flow: When this rule is toggled on, any time someone clicks on the link, they're removed from the flow and labeled as "do not contact". This rule can be set up for company and personal flows.

Understanding the 'Add people' rule

This rule is made up of 3 components:

  1. When: This is the trigger of the flow

  2. If: This is a filter for the trigger

  3. Then: This specifies which flow a contact/lead should be added to automatically

Let's look at a conceptual example. Say we're a flower shop that wants to send flowers to every family that just had a child born that are residents of New York City. In this case, we would only want to trigger sending the flowers when a child is born, not when the families move to New York City. In this example, the When, or the trigger, is having a child. The If, or filtering condition, is to include only residents of New York City. The Then is to send flowers.

Our automation rule's logic would look like this:

When a child is born in New York City, If the parents live in New York City, Then send flowers.

Setting up the 'Add people' rule

To set up the Add people rule:

  1. Go to Engage > Flows , open the relevant flow and go to the Rules tab

  2. Next to Add people automatically click Set up rule

  3. Give the rule a title and description for what the rule does

     2023-08-23_13-59-12.png

  4. Click Add trigger to specify when the automation rule should fire and select the CRM entity to you want to use to trigger the flow. For Salesforce, you'll see Contact and Lead, for HubSpot you will only see Contact

     2023-08-23_14-01-00.png

  5. Select whether the trigger should be when a record of the contact/lead object is Created or is updated with. The is updated with option includes all of the fields that are being imported from your CRM into Gong for that object. If you don't see the field you need, you can import the Salesforce field / import the HubSpot field

     2023-08-23_14-02-27.png

  6. Adding conditions under the If section is optional. You can use it to set the conditions for when the rule should fire. Start by selecting the relevant field from the dropdown.
    2023-08-23_14-04-12.png

    Options in the dropdown include any imported CRM fields associated with the CRM entity you select for the trigger (the When section). For example, if the trigger you select is “Contact is created”, the fields in the dropdown in the If section are imported CRM fields associated with contacts and accounts. If the trigger you select is “Lead is created”, the fields in the dropdown in the If section are imported CRM fields associated with leads.

    When building your first condition group, you can choose whether the logic for the condition group should be OR or AND. Adjust this by switching the toggle at the top right corner of the condition group box.

    OR logic means that at least one of the conditions must be true for the overall statement to be true. For example, with the statement “Contact email is A or B or C”, if the contact email is A or B or C, the statement is true.

    AND logic means that all conditions must be true for the overall statement to be true. For example, “Contact email is A and B and C” is only true if A, B, and C are all true.

    You can also choose whether to apply OR or AND logic between condition groups, not only within an individual condition group. Once you’ve added multiple condition groups, adjust the logic between condition groups by switching the toggle at the top left under Set the operator between the condition groups.


    For free text fields, you can add multiple values. The values will be automatically separated by an “or” condition.

  7. The Then field defines what happens when the conditions of the rule are met. To specify who the to-dos for this flow will be assigned to, select the CRM field that represents the person they should be assigned to from the "And assign to" dropdown. This also determines who the sender will be for any emails in the flow.

     2023-08-23_14-04-52.png

  8. Click Save rule. The rule won't be activated immediately when you save it, it's off by default until you toggle it 'on' on the next screen

     2023-08-23_14-07-07.png

Automation rules and flow exclusivity

If a contact is in one or more non-exclusive flows and meets the criteria for another non-exclusive flow, the automation rule will add them to that flow.

If a contact isn’t in any flow but matches the criteria for both an exclusive and non-exclusive flow, the exclusive flow takes priority.

If a contact matches the criteria for multiple exclusive flows at the same time, they will be added to one randomly.

Exclusive flows won’t remove people from other flows.

Understanding the 'Unsubscribe' rule

For both company and personal flows, you have the option to toggle on an unsubscribe link to all email steps in the flow. Instead of having the option for each individual flow, you may want all flow emails being sent from your organization to contain an unsubscribe link.

When toggled on, each email in the flow has a note at the bottom:

” If you'd like to stop receiving these emails, let me know.”

Any time someone clicks on the link, they're removed from the flow and labeled as "do not contact". Learn more about what happens when someone is marked as do not contact.

Setting up the 'Unsubscribe' rule for an individual flow

  1. Go to Engage > Flows , open the relevant flow, and go to the Rules tab

  2. Toggle on the Unsubscribe rule

Adding unsubscribe links to all flow emails

  1. From the sidebar, go to Company settings

  2. Under Engage, go to Email settings

  3. Toggle on Display an unsubscribe link for all flow emails

Non-editable rules from Gong

These rules can't be edited, but they're important to be aware of. They're applied to every company and personal flow and activated automatically. They're set up according to industry best practices to ensure that you're reaching out to people at the right time without spamming them.

These are the rules from Gong that are automatically applied to every company and personal flow:

  • When someone replies via email, pause their flow

    • Does not include auto-replies or internal email responses. For example, let's say you send an email to a lead and cc your manager. If your manager replies to this email, the flow won't be paused. If the lead replies to this email, the flow will be paused.

  • When an email bounces for any reason, pause the person’s flow

    • Generates a to-do for updating the email address and resuming flow

  • When a meeting (excluding recurring meetings) is booked with the person in the flow and any rep from your company within 60 days of the person being added to the flow, whether or not the invite was accepted, pause the person’s flow

    • Generates a to-do that notifies the assigned rep about the meeting and pauses the flow

  • When someone is marked as “opt out” or “do not contact”, remove them from the flow

  • When an auto email fails to send, convert it into a manual email

    • Auto emails can fail to send if they're missing variables, missing a recipient email address, we can't find the email thread, or the email account was disconnected

  • When a recipient replies with an Out of Office message, snooze the step

    • Step will be snoozed until the recipient’s return date

    • If you get an Out of Office response from someone in a flow but Gong can't detect a date of return, that person's flow will not be snoozed. The flow will continue as planned

Flow rules FAQs

Is there a limit to how many flows I can create?

There is no limit to how many flows you can create.

Is there a limit to how many people I can add to a flow?

There is no limit to how many people you can add to a flow.

Will a flow be paused if an email reply comes from a different email address than the one the flow was initially sent to?

The flow will not be paused if the email reply comes from a different email address than the one the flow was initially sent to.

Can I assign leads to a flow when there isn't an account created in my CRM?

Yes, you can assign both contacts and leads to flows manually or via automatic rules when there isn't an account created in your CRM yet.

How do we determine the sender for automatic emails in a flow?

The sender/to-do assignee is the person who adds the contact/lead to the flow. If flow rules are set up, you can specify who the to-do assignee and the sender should be by selecting from the "And assign to" dropdown.

How do I ensure contacts and leads aren't getting spammed with an overload of emails?

You can set up flow email limits that are designed to prevent email overload. These limits prevent your domain from getting blocked, keep your team's follow-up tasks manageable, helps your team avoid raising red flags for Internet service providers. You can also learn more about the rest of Gong's email delivery strategies.

I've turned on a rule for a flow, but there are still no people in the People tab. Why?

Keep in mind that once you've turned on a rule, it might take some time before there are contacts and leads in your CRM that fit the rule's trigger and conditions.

How long does it take for a contact to be available in Gong once it's added to my CRM?

In general, it should take approximately 2-5 minutes for a contact to be available in Gong once it's added to your CRM.

How do flows handle Out of Office replies?

One of the rules Gong provides (you can choose to toggle it on or off) automatically delays the next flow step when someone replies with an OOO email. The step will be delayed until the recipient's return date.

How long does it take for a contact or lead to be added to a flow once they meet the flow's automation criteria?

It takes a few minutes between meeting automation criteria and getting added to the flow.


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