Automations are here to help you automate your workflows and maximize key lead events so you can get the most out of each and every lead and still have time to focus on what you do best - closing deals! Automations can automatically start action plans, reassign an agent, and/or add a note to an existing lead profile based on a trigger event and optional Conditions. 

Note: Automations will not be triggered on new leads or on a group of leads via mass actions.

💡 Learn how action plans and automations can save you hours at our Action Plans & Automations webinar! It's M-F @ 2pm EST. Sign up here!

How Automations Work 

Creating Automations 

While everyone on your team can view Automations, only account owners and admins can create automations.

1. Navigate to Automations

Go to Admin > Automations > Click + Add Automation in the upper right-hand corner. 

Name the automation in the upper left. 

2. + Add An Automation Trigger

Triggers are what will prompt your automation to begin. Triggers include:

• Stage Changed
• Tag Added
• Deal Stage Changed
• Property Saved
• Property Viewed
• New Inquiry, which includes the following events:

  • Registration

  • Inquiry

  • Seller Inquiry

  • Property Inquiry

  • General Inquiry

• Calendar Date (Including Deal Close Date and Custom Date Fields)
  • Note: When an automation triggers based on a calendar date, that action plan will start at 8 AM that day, based on the time zone settings on your company page.

Boss Tip: Install the Follow Up Boss Pixel today to start tracking website activities (New Inquiry, Property Saved, & Property Viewed) to be used in your automations! 

You can add additional triggers by pressing "+".

If any of the triggers happen the automation will run. 

3. + Add Conditions

Conditions are additional criteria that a contact needs to meet along with the trigger in order for the action plan to begin. They add an AND element to your trigger.

In this example, the action will only run if the stage is changed to nurture AND the email is good. 

Conditions closely mirror the filters you use under smart lists. Conditions are completely optional and you can specify more than one condition per automation. All of the conditions must be met in order for the automation to run.

4. + Add Actions

Specify which action you would like to start when the trigger occurs and the conditions are met. You can add one of each action per automation. 

• Reassign
  • Reassign the lead to a Pond, Lead Flow Group, or single user automatically when the automation is triggered. The newly assigned agent will be notified of the lead reassignment. 
• Add Note
  • The add note action allows you to leave a note on the lead profile and notify the assigned agent, lender, pond, and/or collaborators. They will receive an email notification and a bell notification in Follow Up Boss on the desktop. 
    • Note: We do not currently support HTML in notes created via automations, so we do not recommend using merge fields that include links, e.g. last_five_preview.

• Action Plan
  • Select which action plan you would like to be applied to the lead profile when the automation is triggered and conditions are met.
    
    • Note: If your action plan includes an initial text message, it will NOT be sent if triggered by an automation, action plan text messages will only auto-send to new leads when the action plan is applied on the lead flow page. 

Enable and Disable Automations 

Admin users can easily toggle automations on and off by navigating to Admin > Automations. In the enabled column, toggle the automation on/off or click on the automation name and enable/disable in the upper right-hand corner. When an automation is off, it will not be triggered. 

View and Edit Automations 

To view/edit existing automations, go to Admin > Automations and select the name of the automation. Admin users can edit automations while agents and lenders can view them.

Delete an Automation

Admin users can delete automations by going to Admin > Automations > Click on the Automation Name > Delete Automation in the upper right-hand corner. 

Automation Rules

New Leads

Automations are designed to work with action plans to set up workflows and nurture your existing leads. Automations will not run for new leads as they are designed for working with existing leads. A lead is considered new if the following occurs:

• Import
• Manually Added
• Web Lead (via API or Email Parsing)

To automate your follow up for new leads, be sure to specify an action plan on the Lead Flow. 

Note: If a tag is sent with the initial event that creates the lead in Follow Up Boss, an automation will not be triggered. The tag can be used on your Lead Flow rules to start the correct action plan with Advanced Lead Flow Rules. 

Mass Actions & Automations

Automations cannot be triggered en masse. Automations will not be triggered when performing a Mass Action. If you are mass applying a tag or mass updating a stage, automations will not be triggered.

Note: There is also an automatic buffer that will stop an automation from being triggered more than 100 times at once.

Applying Multiple Automations 

There are some additional rules for running action plans via automations that we have put in place to lessen the chance of a lead receiving the same action plan content multiple times due to automations.

If an automation is triggered to start an action plan and the same action plan...

• Is already running, it will continue running, i.e. nothing happens
  • There needs to be a 5-minute gap between running additional automations with the same action plan, on the same lead to run. The action plan will be automatically paused on the lead profile
• Is already paused, it will stay paused, i.e. nothing happens
• Was completed and was never started by any automation before (e.g. it was started by lead flow or manually started) it will be started again from the beginning 

Run More than Once

By default, automations will only run once per contact. If you would like the automation to continue to run every time the trigger event happens and the conditions are met, choose this option:

With this option selected, when the trigger happens and the conditions are met, the automation will apply the action plan as long as the action plan is not already running or already paused. 

This will be helpful when using workflow-based or task-based action plans. This is not recommended for action plans utilizing email templates because a person could receive the same template more than once.

How do I know if my automation worked?

If an action plan was started by an automation, you will see Plan started via [Automation Name] automation when clicking on the action plan details from the lead profile.

To see all contacts that have had an automation run, click on the number in the Times Run column.

Sharing Automations 

Sharing automations helps you share and copy automations within the Follow Up Boss community. Admins can share automations from their own account by clicking the Share button on the right-hand side of the list and from the drop-down in the automation:

Once you select share, you will be able to toggle on sharing and enter a description. The description will show on the landing page of the shared Automations. 

Once you have your description set, click Copy to copy the link. You can now share this link publicly with anyone! Here is an example of what the landing page looks like:

Anyone accessing the landing page will be able to see the automation in its entirety including the triggers, conditions, and action plan (along with the content of the action plan). Other Follow Up Boss admins will be able to copy the automation in its entirety to their own account.  

Best Practice Automations

Get started by turning on our Best Practices Automations here!

Related Articles 

Lead Flow vs. Automations

Sharing Automations

Automations for Easier Workflow

Automations Based on New Activity

Reassigning Leads using Automations

Deal Stage Change Automations

Automations Triggered by a Date