Get Referral Partner Info

groupreflect_photo-1450609283058-0ec52fa7eac4A client recently asked if they could get the name of the contact’s referral partner to a custom field on the contact’s record. That is, if “John Smith” had been attributed as the referral partner responsible for brining in “Jane Parker” as a lead, they wanted “John Smith” to appear in a custom text field called “Referredby”. That field would then be synchronized to a different system being used for reporting and accounting.

Unfortunately the way Infusionsoft is structured, it’s not easy to get from the contact record to the referral partner’s record and vice versa. However, with Pocket Developer’s Any Text, Anywhere plugin and Advanced Merge Notation, we were able to do it with one HTTP Post. Here’s what we did.

First, we are going to go the the Referral table and retrieve the Affiliate Id we find there that is associated with the current contact’s Contact Id by using a “prefetch” (which we number 0, because order matters and we always start with 0):

prefetch[0][affid] = Referral.AffiliateId.FilterBy(ContactId:~Contact.Id~)

Here we are making “affid” the name for “the Affiliate Id you find on the Referral table when you filter it to look for the Contact Id that matches the current contact’s id”. (You could use any word-like string you want as long as you use the same name in the next value.)

Next, we are going to go to the Affilate table and retrieve the Contact Id we find there that is associated with the Affiliate Id we just prefetched. We’ll call it “conid”.

prefetch[1][conid] = Affiliate({affid}).ContactId

We only want to find one record, so right after the table name we add parentheses to contain the specific record we are looking for. We prefetched that affiliate number in the previous step, so we use the name we gave it — “affid” — inside brackets and put it inside the parentheses.

Now we have the contact id of the referral partner saved with the name “conid”. We want to get the first and last name of that contact id, so we want to go to the Contact table and find that specific record. Again, we’re going to use parentheses after the table name, with the specific number we are looking for inside those parentheses, to get the information we want:

prefetch[2][first] = Contact({conid}).FirstName
prefetch[3][last] = Contact({conid}).LastName

We finally have the first and last name, called “first” and “last”. Now we just have to tell AnyText what it should cope and where it should copy it to:

textToSave[0] = {first} {last}
saveTo[0] = Contact._Referredby

In this case, we’re saving the first and last name we prefetched into the Referredby custom field.

If we wanted to get additional information from the affiliate’s record, we would do additional prefetches (incrementing the number and naming each uniquely). And if we wanted to save to additional fields, we would add textToSave–saveTo pairings (incrementing the paired numbers).

And that’s it!

HTTPPost_ReferralPartnerInfo

Track end of support or upgrade period by adding time to purchase date

Scenario:

Infusionsoft Delay Timer Your product or service includes support for six months after purchase. You want to record the support expiration date for each product purchased and send the customer emails to get them to renew the support agreement prior to expiration.

CAMPAIGN BUILDER CHALLENGES:

  1. How do you put a date, six months from purchase, in a custom date field?
  2. How do you format the date so that it looks nice in emails?
  3. What if they buy more than one product? What if they buy 20? How do you keep from using up all your custom fields?

SOLUTION:

Use the Pocket Developer Any Date, Any Format, Anywhere plug-in to add the term of your support agreement to the date of purchase. Put it in a custom field so you can merge it into emails and other communications.

Get the bonus videoExclusive Bonus – Read to the end to get the video of the private training I did for a client on this process with step-by-step set-up and in depth explanation of Pocket Developer superpowers.

HOW TO SET IT UP (THE Custom Field Burning WAY):

You can set this up two ways. The easiest way is to put the end of support date in a custom field in the contact record. This way, it is easily accessible as a merge field and also can be seen easily by sales or support reps.

1. Install and configure Any Date, Any Format, Anywhere and Custom Delay Timer

2. In Campaign Builder, set up a sequence triggered by a Purchase Goal

3. Add two Any Date HTTP POST snippets, which add the support agreement term to today’s date

  • Use format “l, F j” to format text version as “Monday, September 22” for emails
  • Use format “Y-m-dTH:i:s” to put the date in an Infusionsoft Date field so you can use it in a Field Timer

4. Add a Custom Delay Timer, to the end of the sequence, with a delay of 30 seconds. This gives the posts time to complete before sending the email with the details of your support agreement

5. Add a Field Timer, using your date field, from Step #3, to begin sending renewal notices prior to expiration.

HOW TO SET IT UP (THE POWER USER WAY):

The problem with the above is it burns two of your 100 custom fields in the contact record. It is also not a viable solution if the customer buys more than one product at different times.

You could, instead, use Any Date, Any Format, Anywhere, to put the expiration date in a custom date field in the order itself.

Then, use our Advanced Merge Field Notation, with the Universal Delay Timer plug-in, to run actions off the date in the order instead of from the Contact record.

When it comes time to use those dates for an email, you use Any Date to temporarily “stash” the date in the contact record. Once your email sequence is complete, use Any Text Anywhere to set your stash fields back to blank to be reused.

This method is a bit more work to set up. But, if custom fields are an issue, this technique can be applied in many different scenarios to save custom fields.

1. Install and configure Any Date Anywhere, Any Text Anywhere, Custom Delay Timer, and Universal Delay Timer

2. In Campaign Builder, set up a sequence triggered by a Purchase Goal

3. Add an Any Date HTTP POST snippet, which adds the support agreement term to today’s date and puts it in a custom date field in the order just placed.

  • Use “today” for the date and time parameters
  • Use format “Y-m-dTH:i:s” any time you are putting a date in an Infusionsoft Date or DateTime field. That is Infusionsoft’s required format.
  • Use an adjustment of +6 months
  • Use Order._demoCustomDateField.Newest as the saveTo parameter. Replace _demoCustomDateField with your custom field.

4. If you want to send an email immediately, use Any Date to temporarily stash a pretty date in a contact field, as in step 3 in the Easy Setup. Then use Any Text Anywhere to set that field to blank, after the email has been sent.

  • To set a text field to blank, leave the textToSave value blank
  • Add a Custom Delay Timer, to the end of the sequence, with a delay of 30 seconds. This gives the posts time to complete before sending the email with the details of your support agreement

5. Set up the Universal Delay Timer to restart the campaign a few weeks prior to the expiration date

  • Use “Order._demoCustomDateField.Newest” for the date parameter (replace _demoCustomDateField with the field name you used)
  • This assumes a time of midnight Eastern Time in the US. Use a date parameter if you want it to send at a specific time.
  • Use format “Y-m-dTH:i:s” any time you are putting a date in an Infusionsoft Date or DateTime field. That is Infusionsoft’s required format.
  • Use an adjustment of -3 weeks (that means the campaign will resume three weeks before the date you stored in the order)
  • Put a unique value in the callName. This is the API goal call name you will trigger to resume the campaign

6. Create an API Goal with the same callName as the previous step.

7. To send an email using the expiration date as a merge field, temporarily stash a pretty version of the expiration date in the contact record, as in Step #4 above. Set back to blank when email is complete.

8. Rinse and repeat as many times as needed for your renewal nag sequence to complete.

Get the bonus videoExclusive Bonus – Get the video of the private training I did for a client on this process with step-by-step set-up and in depth explanation of Pocket Developer superpowers.

You can read more about Any Date, Any Format, Anywhere and see more examples of its usage in the QuickStart Guide.

Any Text Anywhere, Custom Delay Timer and Universal Delay Timer also have Quickstart Guides.

You can read more about Advanced Merge Field Notation and see more examples of its usage in the Learning Center.

To browse the entire catalog and purchase Pocket Developer plug-ins, visit our plug-in store.

time-64x100Don’t want to set this up yourself? Let one of our concierges do it for you. Just purchase all the necessary blocks. Then email concierge@theapiguys.com. We will have it all set up for you in a jif.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

Q. Where do I find the table and field names for Advanced Merge Field Notation?

A. You can find the names of Infusionsoft tables and fields in the Infusionsoft Developer Resource Section under Table Documentation.

You can find the names of your custom fields by going to Infusionsoft Admin Settings -> Add Custom Field -> Record Type -> Show Database Name

Where to find custom field names in Infusionsoft

Use An Opportunity Or Appointment Date In An Infusionsoft Field Timer With Any Date Anywhere

CHALLENGE:

Infusionsoft Appointment You want to use a date or dateTime field in an Opportunity/Order/Task/Appointment to run a field timer in Infusionsoft Campaign Builder. These fields are not available as merge fields in Campaign Builder.

SOLUTION:

This tutorial and accompanying video gives you the step-by-step to use the Pocket Developer Any Date, Any Format, Anywhere Building Block to programmatically copy the date from the Opportunity/Order/Task/Appointment to a field in the Contact record so it can be used in the Field Timer. You can put the date in an unused Date field, such as Anniversary, or a custom field made specifically for the purpose of “stashing dates” copied from Opportunities, Orders, Tasks and Appointments.

STEP-BY-STEP

1. In Campaign Builder, where you want the Field Timer to run, create the following sequence:

  • an HTTP POST snippet
  • a field timer
  • whatever action or actions you want to occur when the field timer is triggered (for example, sending an email)
  • another HTTP POST snippet

Date From Infusionsoft Appointment in Field Timer

2. Open the first HTTP POST snippet. Configure as follows:

  • URL: http://yoursite.com/scripts/PocketDeveloper/Blocks/AnyDate/anydate.php (change path as necessary)
  • contactId => ~Contact.Id~ (no need to change this)
  • date => the Opportunity/Order/Task/Appointment field you want to use in the Field Timer (see Notes below)
  • format => YmdTH:i:s (this is the PHP format notation for all Infusionsoft date or DateTime fields)
  • saveTo => the Date field in the Contact Record (without tildes) where you will temporarily store the date while the Field Timer is running

Screenshot_8_23_14__8_36_AM

3. Open the Field Timer. Configure as follows:

  • Change the Contact Field to the Date field where you are stashing the Opportunity/Order/Task/Appointment date (e.g. Anniversary)
  • Change the dropdown below it from Next Occurrence to Use Year From Field
  • Configure Wait and Time to taste

Screenshot_8_23_14__8_35_AM 2

4. Configure emails triggered by field timer, etc

* Remember you cannot put a Delay Timer in line with a Field Timer. If you plan to send a series of emails, after the Field Timer, put the emails in their own sequence with HTTP POST in Step 5 at the end.

5. Open the second HTTP POST snippet. Configure as follows:

  • URL: http://yoursite.com/scripts/PocketDeveloper/Blocks/AnyDate/anydate.php (change path as necessary)
  • contactId => ~Contact.Id~ (no need to change this)
  • date => 09/09/2099
  • format => YmdTH:i:s (this is the PHP format notation for all Infusionsoft date or DateTime fields)
  • saveTo => the same Date field in the Contact Record (without tildes) as before

* Once you put a date in a date field, you cannot make it blank again. We set ours to 09/09/2099 when finished just so nothing runs accidentally and we know that field is available for stashing.

HOW TO SELECT A FIELD IN A SPECIFIC OPPORTUNITY/ORDER/INVOICE/TASK/APPOINTMENT/REFERRAL ETC

These record types have not been available in Infusionsoft’s Campaign Builder because they are a one-to-many relationship to the Contact Record. This means each contact can and probably does have multiple opportunities, invoices, orders, etc. So the challenge is how to specify which one you want.

We have create an Advanced Merge Field Notation, which allows you to specify a field in a specific one to many record for use in Pocket Developer Building Blocks:

  • In the Infusionsoft database, an Opportunity is referred to as a Lead. Our notation will take either Lead or Opportunity
  • Similarly, the database name for an order is Job. Our notation will take either Order or Job
  • You must always precede a custom field with a “_”. Stock Infusionsoft fields have no “_”
  • The merge filed notation used in the example (Opportunity._TestDateTime) assumes there is only one Opportunity. If there was more than one, it would pull TestDateTime from the most recent one
  • In cases where you know there are multiple records and you want to pull from one of them, Advanced Merge Field Notation allows you to use filters to select a specific record
  • The syntax for our notation is Table.Field.[FilterBy(…)][.OrderBy(…)][.Qualifier1[.QualifierN[…]]]. Parameters in brackets are optional.
  • A simple example would be Opportunity.NextActionDate.FilterBy(StageID:59). This would pull NextActionDate from the most recent Opportunity with Stage ID = 59. Opportunity.NextActionDate.FilterBy(StageID:59).Oldest would pull NextActionDate from the first or oldest Opportunity with Stage ID = 59
  • An example using an Appointment would be ContactAction.ActionDate.FilterBy(IsAppointment:1,ActionType:”Meeting”)

You can read more about Any Date, Any Format, Anywhere and see more examples of its usage in the QuickStart Guide.

You can read more about Advanced Merge Field Notation and see more examples of its usage in the Learning Center.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

Q. Where do I find the table and field names for Advanced Merge Field Notation?

A. You can find the names of Infusionsoft tables and fields in the Infusionsoft Developer Resource Section under Table Documentation. You can find the names of your custom fields by going to Infusionsoft Admin Settings -> Add Custom Field -> Record Type -> Show Database Name

Where to find custom field names in Infusionsoft

Q. Why isn’t the field I want to use showing up in the Field Timer dropdown?

A. There could be two reasons: It is not a Contact field or it is not a Date field. (Remember, DateTime fields do not work in Field Timer)

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