Announcement: Personalise experiences based on the outcomes of a node

Over the next few weeks, you'll notice some improvements that will bring you granular control and extensibility for even more advanced workflow building. 

You’ll soon be able to personalise experiences based on the outcomes of a node. Handle failure and fallbacks to build even more flexible customer conversations. For example, if an Outbound SMS is unable to be sent, you contact them via email instead by building a new experience for that path.

To start off, you’ll be able to handle the different outcomes for the Conversation and Outbound SMS nodes. Be notified when this release is available by following ‘What’s New at Pendula’, our feature release announcement page.

FAQ

What will happen to my flows?

Your active flows will remain unaffected and continue to behave as normal.

Upon editing an existing flow however, the new outcome paths will become available.

Please note: for any flows using the Conversation and Outbound SMS nodes, the 'Sent' path will be become the default method of progressing to the next action.

How will the Outbound SMS node be improved?

You'll be able to configure different experiences based on the outcomes of this node:

• 'Sent' outcome
  The experience will continue on this path if no failure notifications are received within a configurable timeframe. Specifically, the SMS has been sent to a mobile carrier for delivery, and Pendula will monitor for failure notifications for the set timeframe.
  
  
• 'Not sent' outcome
  The experience will either end or continue on this path depending on its toggle settings. Specifically, the SMS has failed to send due to an error that occurred within the set time period. 
  
  When toggled off, the experience will end and exit the flow. When toggled on, the Not Sent path will be visible on the canvas, where you can further configure the experience on this path. You can refer to Error messages section to personalise experiences continuing on this path.

How will the Conversation node be improved?

You'll be able to configure different experiences based on the outcomes of this node:

• 'Replies' outcome: This includes both expected replies and free replies. This behaviour remains the same – if an inbound reply is matched to a reply path, the experience continues on the path. Learn more about Reply Matching 
• 'Not sent' outcome: The Outbound SMS has failed to send due to an error before a reply is received. The experience will either end or continue on this path depending on the toggle settings.
• 'No reply' outcome: No reply has been received, meaning the experience will end and exit the flow. This behaviour remains the same.

What happens if I don't configure a Not Sent path?

By default, the experience will end and exit the flow. If a Not Sent path has been configured, the experience will follow through that path.

Why do we wait for a failure, before assuming the message is sent?

Although SMS serves as a valuable communication tool, it's important to note its inherent limitations. Unlike some other messaging platforms, there's no standardised delivery receipt for SMS, and not all carriers provide comprehensive event reporting.

Pendula relies on waiting for a failure notification as a reliable indicator of message delivery. This method allows us to use the word ‘Sent’ reliably on the canvas and progress workflow in a consistent way.

What happens when I duplicate an old flow?

The duplicated flow will show old functionality (no outcomes), however when you edit your flow, your new flow version will be automatically upgraded with new functionality.

What do I need to do now?

Whilst there’s no immediate action required, we strongly encourage you to:

• Be notified when this release is available by following ‘What’s New at Pendula’, our feature release announcement page.