Delivering Happiness: 5 Workflows for a Great Post-Purchase Experience

Shoppers say that delivery is the most important part of the online shopping experience. That makes it extremely important to get your fulfillment workflows right. In this guide we will take you through the steps to create five different types of workflows in MESA using real-time tracking data from Tracktor to improve the post-purchase experience for customers of your Shopify store.

1. Send customers an email when their order is delivered

75% of e-commerce customers say that proactive communication is a crucial part of the delivery process. Delivery of the package is an excellent time to provide an update. Better yet, setting up a workflow in MESA to notify customers that their package has been delivered is simple, so you can have it up and running in seconds. Follow these short steps.

Step 1. Start at the bottom of the MESA dashboard, select Tracktor from the Connect this… dropdown menu since this is the system that will trigger the automation. You will see two more dropdowns appear where you will specify the action within Tracktor that will act as the trigger. Select Order Status from the first drop down and Delivered from the second.

Step 2. Having selected the trigger, it’s time to select where the workflow will output to. In this case, the result of the workflow will be sending an email to our customer. So select Email from the With this… dropdown menu. Click Make My Automation.

After clicking Make My Automation, you’ll be taken to the builder with part of the automation pre-built. In this case, you’ll see the trigger (Tracktor Order Status Delivered) and the output (Email). The builder page also has a section called Automation Details which is where you enable the workflow as well as logging.

Step 3. All you need to do now is write your email. Click into the email section to begin.

For the recipient, you’ll want to click +Insert and use this token: {{tracktor_order_status.order_email}}. For the subject line and message, fill in as you see fit.

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2. Automatically advance a custom order status after X days

For Shopify stores that have custom steps in their fulfillment process, such as printing photos for an order, MESA can automatically update your Tracktor order statuses so your customers can stay up to date with where their order is.

For this automation, I will be using custom statuses for a made-to-order clay pot company that moves each item through one stage of manufacturing per day.

Step 1. Again, the system providing the trigger here is Tracktor, so begin by selecting Tracktor from the Connect this… dropdown menu at the bottom of the dashboard. Then select Order Status and Order Created from the following two dropdowns to indicate the particular action to provide the trigger.

Step 2. In this case, the system we’re outputting the workflow result to is also Tracktor, so select Tracktor from the With this… dropdown menu. To further specify what action we’ll be outputting, select Order and Update Manual Status in the two menus that pop up. Click Make My Automation.

Now we’ll see the builder page. Unlike the previous automation, this one comes with not only the trigger and output set up but also the main action, since we indicated a data transfer in the beginning.

Step 3. Since it takes one full day for this company to complete the first step of manufacturing (painting), we must place a 24 hour delay after the trigger. Click the plus sign in between the trigger and Transform and select Delay by MESA.

Step 4. Click next and then write 1 in the first section, and select Day in the second.

Step 5. Now we have to indicate to MESA to update the custom status from Ordered to Painting.  To do this, we will use the Transform feature, which can take source data and convert it into the correct format for the target field. In this case, a Transform section was added at creation.

If you need to create the section manually, simply click the plus and choose Transform by MESA. You will next need to choose Mapping in the dropdown menu that appears.

In our case, Mapping was already chosen. Data mapping is essentially providing the computer with a guide of the source field you’re taking data from and the target field(s) you wish to move the data into. Here we’re taking a label from a MESA automation and placing it in a Tracktor order. Click next.

Now you’ll see this:

Step 6. The Key is the section in which you tell MESA where to map the data too. In this case, it’s the order status. So under Key, choose or write status. The Value tells MESA what piece of data to fill in. In this instance, we want MESA to update the order status to Painting. So in Value write Painting. Please note that the value you fill in must match the custom order status title in Tracktor exactly.

Step 7. The last step is to fill in the output. Open up the Tracktor Update Manual Status Order section and place {{tracktor_order_status.order_id}} in the Order ID. Using a dynamic token makes this workflow function for all orders rather than a specific one.

That’s the first part of the automation done. We can now repeat these steps for any following status changes. Here’s what the finished automation for two status changes looks like:

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3. Email customer a coupon if their order is not delivered within 20 days

95% of customers expect retailers to proactively reach out if the delivery date is postponed during shipment. It’s a good idea to not just provide an update on the delivery, but also to offer some type of apology, often in the form of a coupon.

It’s easy to set a workflow up in MESA to automatically email customers when delays hit so you don’t need to waste time doing it manually. Follow the steps to build this automation for yourself.

Step 1. To get started, at the bottom of the dashboard, select Tracktor from the Connect this… dropdown menu as the system providing the trigger. Then select Order Status and Order Created from the two dropdowns that appear to clarify which action will provide the trigger.

Step 2. Since the result of our workflow will be to email customers, select Email from the With this… dropdown menu. Click Make My Automation.

The builder page will look like this:

Step 3. We have to set up a delay now so that MESA can hold the order in the workflow to check its status at the time you would expect it to be delivered by. I will be using twenty days. Click the plus sign in between the trigger and output and select Delay by MESA.

Click Next and write 20 in the first section and select Day in the second.

Step 4. At the end of the delay period, we need to tell the workflow to check for updates on the order. To do that, click the plus button beneath the delay and select Tracktor.

Then select Order in the first dropdown and Retrieve in the second to tell the workflow what action to take. The workflow will now be able to pull in all new order data.

Step 5. Click Next. Now we need to specific the order that the action needs to be performed on. We’ll use the token {{tracktor_order_status.order_id}} to dynamically input order IDs.

Step 6. Next, we’ll create a filter to check if the order still has not been delivered. Click the plus sign below the order retrieval and select Filter by MESA.

Click Next. In the first menu, select or write {tracktor_order_status . fulfillments[0] . fulfillment_status}}. In the next menu, select Does not equal. In the final menu, select or write Delivered.

Step 7. It’s time to write the email. In the recipient section, select or write the token {{tracktor_order.order_email}} so MESA can dynamically pull the most recent email address. Then write your subject line and body. Use the Shopify discount code feature to create coupons and keep your customers happy. You can include tokens within both these sections by clicking the insert buttons. 

Here’s what the finished automation looks like:

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4. Change the status of an order if it has items tagged “Made to order”

If your order fulfillment process differs based on the item(s) ordered, you’ll need to use different order statuses in Tracktor for orders containing certain items. MESA can automatically choose these statuses for you. I’m going to show you an example workflow that chooses the status Preparing your order for orders with items tagged Made to order.

Step 1. We’ll begin by selecting Shopify from the Connect This… dropdown menu at the bottom of the dashboard since it is our triggering system. The trigger action is the update of an order with item tags so select Order and Updated from the following two dropdowns.

Step 2. Since we’re outputting the result to Tracktor, select Tracktor from the With this one! dropdown menu. And since the final action we’re looking to achieve is updating the order status, select Order and Update Manual Status in the two menus that pop up. Click Make My Automation.

Step 3. We need to set up a filter to look specifically for items that have a Made to order tag. So click the plus button beneath the trigger and select Filter by MESA.

Step 4. Click next. In the first box write Made to order, then select Is in in the second box, and in the third box select the dynamic token {{shopify_order.tags}}. Make sure Made to order matches the item tag in Shopify exactly.

Step 5. Now that we’ve narrowed down the orders that this workflow will affect, it’s time to work on turning the Shopify order tag into a Tracktor custom status. The following has been automatically added at creation, however, here are the manual instructions.

Click the plus button beneath the filter and select Transform by MESA and then further select Mapping, since we’re moving data from one area and placing it in another. Here we’re taking an order tag and using it to update a custom status in Tracktor. Click next.

Step 6. Within the mapping, we’ll need to accomplish two things. First, we need to tell Tracktor to turn automatic updates off for this product so that we can use custom statuses. To do this, you must place automatic_carrier_updates in Key. Then place {{false}} in the value, so as to tell Tracktor to turn off the automatic carrier updates.

We still need to update the custom status, so click the Add Row button. In the new space, place or select order.status in Key and Preparing your order in Value. Remember that the value wording must match the custom status title identically.

Step 7. With that, you should be at the output, Tracktor Update Manual Status Order. Select {{shopify_order.id}}.

The finished automation looks like this:

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5. Automatically update order status on ReCharge subscription renewal

For businesses using Recharge to manage their subscription workflows, you can use MESA to update the order status when Recharge starts processing.

Step 1. Recharge will be the system that triggers this workflow, so in the Connect this… menu on the dashboard, select Recharge. The action that will provide the trigger is the processing of an order, so select Order and Processed in the two further menus.

Step 2. Our output system will be Tracktor so select that from the With this one! dropdown menu. Since we are going to have this workflow specifically update the order status, go on to select Order and Update Manual Order Status from the dropdown menus that appear. Click Make My Automation.

Step 3. You’ll need to add your Recharge credentials before we continue.

Step 4. All we have to do is use the Transform feature to map the ReCharge data over to Tracktor.

Again, this step should have been added automatically at creation. However, to do it manually click the plus beneath the first step and choose Transform by MESA. Further choose Mapping.

Step 5. Within Key, choose status to tell MESA where to send the data from ReCharge. In the value section, write Ordered (or your custom status, if you have a different one).

Step 6. The final step is to specify which order MESA needs to send this data to. In the Tracktor Update Manual Status Order section, choose {{recharge_order.shopify_order_id}}.

The final automation should look like this:

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Wrap Up

These five workflows are just a starting point. With MESA, it’s easy to combine multiple automations together or extend them to create unique capabilities.

If you enjoyed these workflow, be sure to checkout other Tracktor workflow templates:

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