How do contacts get skipped - Online Help | Zoho Campaigns

How do contacts get skipped in your workflow components?

You successfully set up a workflow from scratch, then activated it. Unfortunately, some of your contacts have not been added to it. This may have you pondering over why and how this could have happened. This guide will take you through the most common reasons why your contacts get skipped from the workflow.

Contacts skipped while sending emails

Below are the most common reasons why contacts could get skipped while sending an email in the workflow:

➤  Different topic associated with a contact

When contacts are associated with different topics from the one selected for that particular email, they will be skipped and not allowed to enter that particular workflow component.

➤  No topic associated with contact

The workflow component can also skip contacts that have no topics associated with them.

➤  Contact unsubscribed from topic

If a contact has been unsubscribed from the selected topic anytime during the workflow execution, they will be skipped from the component.

➤  Contact cannot receive the same email

The send email component that limits contacts from receiving the same email multiple times will skip them. This will happen when the 'Allow contacts to receive this email multiple times' option in email policy setup is not selected. Learn more about email policy set up

➤  Email policy is set up for the contact

While sending emails, contacts with email policies will be skipped to prevent violating their settings. Learn more about email policy set up

Contacts skipped from subscription management

Listed below are the reasons why contacts can get skipped when managing their topic subscriptions:

➤  Contact limit reached for license chosen

If you only have a license for a specific number of contacts and you try to convert more non-marketing contacts into marketing contacts, some of these contacts will be skipped by the workflow component. Let's say you have a license for only 500 marketing contacts. You already have about 350 marketing contacts. Now you convert a list of non-marketing contacts to marketing contacts. Once the limit of 500 marketing contacts is reached, those contacts that did not convert are skipped from the workflow component.

➤  Change limit for contact status reached

When you attempt to change the status of a contact more than the set limit, the contacts whose status were not changed will be skipped from the workflow component. The limit to change the status of a contact is once a month. In other words, you cannot change the contact's status more than once in one month. Let's say, in the first week of August, you've changed contact A's status from 'non-marketing' to 'marketing'. After a few days, you again change the status of the same contact A from 'marketing' to 'non-marketing'. While doing so, the limit set for status change has been reached, thus contact A's status will not change and will get skipped from the workflow component.

Contacts skipped while pushing data to Zoho CRM

The major reasons why contacts get skipped while pushing data to Zoho CRM from your workflows are listed out below:

➤  Contact has opted out of CRM

Those contacts who've opted out of Zoho CRM will be skipped in the workflow component. When a contact that's initially been pushed to CRM chooses the 'Email opt-out' option, they've voluntarily left CRM. When you try to push that same contact in your mailing list back into CRM, they will be skipped and not allowed to enter the workflow component.

➤  Contact deleted from CRM

Contacts who've been deleted from Zoho CRM will be skipped in the workflow component. This happens when you've pushed a list of contacts into Zoho CRM and some of those contacts are deleted from CRM. If you try to push those contacts who've been deleted from CRM, they will be skipped and not allowed to enter the workflow component.

➤  Invalid ZSC key used

Contacts whose Zoho service communication key (ZSC Key) is invalid will be skipped in the workflow component. This happens when the ZSC key has been changed for the contact.

➤  Mandatory field missing for contact

Contacts who have missing mandatory fields will be skipped in the workflow component. If mandatory fields for contacts are deleted and then pushed into CRM, they will be skipped in the workflow component.

➤  Selected CRM module deleted

Contacts will be skipped when their CRM module is deleted. When trying to push contacts into a CRM module that's been deleted, they will be skipped in the workflow component.

➤  Different data type mapped for contact

Contacts who have different data types mapped will be skipped in the workflow component. This happens when configuring CRM actions and if different data types are mapped for some contacts.

➤  Contact's field length exceeds limit

Contacts whose field length exceeds the set limit will be skipped in the workflow component.

➤  CRM configured to push only existing contacts

New contacts will be skipped when CRM is configured to push only existing contacts. This happens when the 'Push only existing contacts' option is selected and if new contacts are also added during the push.

Contacts skipped while sending SMS

Read to learn why contacts get skipped while sending SMS:

➤  Contact's phone number is invalid

Those contacts whose phone number is invalid will be skipped in the workflow component.

➤  Contact's phone number already exists

Contacts with duplicate phone numbers will be skipped in the workflow component.

➤  Authentication error found

When there are changes made in the integrated account (if the account has expired or blocked, or if it has an empty access token), contacts will be skipped in the workflow component. Some integration apps will only return this error, while some apps will stop the component and those contacts from the component will be termed missing.

➤  Empty field found for contact

Contacts with empty fields will be skipped in the workflow component. 

Common cases contacts are skipped

There are two cases where contacts get skipped:

➤  Contact found to be non-marketing

Contacts are skipped in a workflow when they are not associated with any topic or if they have been converted to non-marketing contacts.

➤  Unexpected error occurred

Sometimes contacts get skipped from the workflow due to an unknown error. If this happens, please contact support@zohocampaigns.com for help.

Tips to prevent contacts from being skipped from your workflow components

Here are some tips on how you can prevent similar instances from happening in the future.
  1. Ensure every contact is associated with a topic. If you are not sure if the contacts have associated topics, select the Map the topic selected above to contacts with no associated topic option while assigning a topic during message creation.
  2. Send emails to contacts with the same topics or create multiple message components for contacts with different topics. This way no contact is left out in the workflow component. Learn more
  3. Check the email policy set up for the contacts to make sure contacts don't get skipped.
  4. Make sure your license limits are sufficient to include the number of contacts you need for the workflow.
  5. Check the ZSC key for contacts that are valid and operational.
  6. Check if all fields are filled, including mandatory fields for your contacts and the length of each field does not exceed its limits.
  7. Make sure the right data types are mapped for your contacts.
  8. If you need to push any new contacts into CRM, make sure to select the Push new and existing contacts option.
  9. Make sure to provide the correct phone number ensuring that they are not duplicated and with no empty fields.
Note : Contacts will be skipped only in the particular component and will enter into other components of the workflow.