Editing Campaign Flow with Members in Wait Steps

Issue

You want to edit a campaign flow after initiating the run, but there are already members running through the flow in the wait steps.

Solution


Generally speaking, it is best to not edit the flow of a campaign after activating/initiating.

Example:

Let's say that a particular campaign has 3 flow steps:

  • Change program status
  • Wait 2 days
  • Send email


And you would like to add a new step in between 1&2, so the new flow would be

  • Change program status
  • Change score
  • Wait 2 days
  • Send email


If you add a new Flow step above a wait step, the wait step shifts down. However, currently there are leads waiting the designated 2 days (Flow step #2). (It's helpful to think about wait steps like buckets. Once a lead enters the flow step, the wait duration is calculated, and the lead waits there in that flow step bucket for that amount of time.)

 

If the campaign was initiated, and a lead entered Flow step #2 and began waiting 2 days, and then you add an additional step above, the Wait 2 days becomes Flow step #3. Now when the leads are done waiting 2 days in Flow Step #2 bucket, then they exit and progress to #3. Even though the actual wait step shifts from #2 to #3, the lead records are still in Step #2 bucket, and they do not shift from #2 to #3, meaning they are now waiting an additional 2 days.

 

Solution:
The solution here is to create a new campaign with the desired flow steps for the same membership (same Smart List), and then run a "Remove from Flow" single action by clicking the following in the old campaign (the one you wanted to edit):
 

    1. View Campaign Members > Select All > Person Actions > Special > Remove from Flow.
    2. In the Run Action dialog box, click on "is" and change to "this campaign".
    3. Click "Run Now".


After removing these members, they will not progress further into the old campaign flow, and now the new campaign is ready to be activated/initiated.

 

 


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