Customer Journey Plug-in Administration Guide

Overview

The Customer Journey Plug-in lets administrators create easy-to-follow, visual business processes for users to complete against their Sugar records. Each journey is an end-to-end process that is split into color-coded stages, and each stage contains one or more call, meeting, or task activities that the user can complete with optional dependencies and actions on related records. This guide covers how to start using the plug-in as an administrator after it has been installed and activated.

Note: This guide pertains to the latest supported version of the Customer Journey Plug-In.

For more information on installing and activating the plug-in, please refer to the Customer Journey Plug-in Installation Guide. For more information on using the plug-in after an administrator sets up a journey, please refer to the Customer Journey Plug-In User Guide.

Understanding Customer Journeys

A customer journey is a set of successive stages through which most customers proceed as they participate in the decision-making process. A traditional journey is often characterized by the stages of awareness, consideration, purchase, and loyalty. Depending on your business needs, you may have more or fewer stages or even several variations of the journey for different types of consumers. With the Customer Journey Plug-in, administrators have the freedom to create multiple, unique journeys specific to their business processes.

The customer journey in Sugar is presented in an easy-to-follow visual format, comprising a progression of stages and activities within those stages.

Customer Journey performance is measured in terms of progress and momentum. For more information on how these measurements are calculated and where to see them, please refer to the Understanding Progress and Momentum section of this page.

Before creating a Customer Journey template, we recommend planning the journey outside of Sugar. Take the time to fully understand the individual steps that make up the customer's decision-making process and the steps in Sugar that correlate with each part of the journey. For more complicated journeys, it may help to sketch a diagram or map the journey on a spreadsheet before creating the Customer Journey template and related stages and activities in Sugar.

Configuring Journey Display Settings

Customer Journeys may be displayed as a panel beneath its parent record or as a separate record-view tab from the rest of the record. By default, all journeys will be rendered in panel format unless the admin changes the display settings. Each Journey-enabled module's display settings can be configured independently.

There are four display configurations available. The "tab" options will be grayed out and not selectable until you have saved the module's Display Type as "Tab" in Studio > Layouts > Record View as described in the steps below.

• Panel - Bottom (default): The journey panel will show at the bottom of the record view.
• Panel - Top: The journey panel will show at the top of the record view.
• Note: If "Panel - Top" is selected and tabs are enabled for the record view in Studio, then the journey will revert to the default display as a panel at the bottom of the record.
• Tab - First: The journey panel will be shown as the first tab of a tabbed record view layout. This option is grayed out and not selectable until you have saved the module's Display Type as "Tab" in Studio > Layouts > Record View.
• Tab - Last: The journey panel will be shown as the last tab of a tabbed record view layout. This option is grayed out and not selectable until you have saved the module's Display Type as "Tab" in Studio > Layouts > Record View.

Use the following steps to change a module's journeys to display in the tabbed format:

1. Navigate to Admin > Studio and select the module (e.g. Accounts) for which you want to change your journeys to a tabbed view.
2. Click on "Layouts" and then select the "Record View" layout to edit.
3. In the upper section of the record view layout, change "Display Type" to "Tab". Then click "Save & Deploy". For more information on changing to tabbed display type, refer to the Studio documentation in the Sugar Administration Guide.
   
4. Once you have changed the module to a tabbed view, navigate to Admin > Configure Display Settings in the Customer Journey Settings section of the admin page:
   
5. Select "Tab - First" or "Tab - Last" as desired for the module and then click "Save".
   
   Note: If the "Tab - First" and "Tab - Last" options for any dropdown are disabled, then the Tab view has not been enabled for that module in Studio. To enable the Tab view, return to step 1 of these instructions.

The journeys created within the selected module (e.g. Accounts) will now display as an additional tab in the record view instead of a panel below the record.

Customer Journey Plug-in Template Access

Templates created for the Customer Journey Plug-in utilize three template modules:

• Customer Journey Templates
• Customer Journey Stage Templates
• Customer Journey Activity Templates

Administrator users can automatically access all of these modules to create new journey templates. To grant developer access to a regular user for creating Customer Journey templates, the user's role must have "Developer" access to all three template modules.

For regular users, a team is set on the activity template, stage template, and journey template records. Assuming the admin creates the template records using the global team, regular users without Developer role permissions will have access to all Customer Journeys in Sugar, even if they are related to records outside of their team(s). Administrators should leverage the team fields on the journey template records if this is a concern.

For more information about teams and roles, please refer to the Team Management and Role Management documentation.

Creating Customer Journey Templates

The administrator composes a customer journey in Sugar using three steps:

1. Create a Customer Journey template.
2. Add stages to the Customer Journey template.
3. Add activities (calls, meetings, and tasks) to each stage of the Customer Journey template.

A Customer Journey template is the record that controls what users see after they choose a journey from the journey picker in the Customer Journey panel under leads, contacts, and other modules participating in the customer journey. Each time a user chooses to start a new journey for a record, a copy of the template with its related stages and activities is created.

Note: Running Customer Journeys are automatically named "Record Name - Journey Name," where the record name is the name of the record the user is viewing when they start the journey (e.g. the contact's name) and the journey name is the name of the Customer Journey template that they choose.

The following steps cover creating a Customer Journey template.

1. Navigate to Admin > Templates in the Customer Journey section of the Admin panel:
   
2. Click the Create button on the upper right of the Customer Journey Templates list view. Alternatively, click the triangle in the Customer Journey Templates module tab to open the Actions menu and select "Create Customer Journey Template".
   
   • From list view:
     
   • From the module tab:
     
3. Refer to the Customer Journey Template Fields section of this page to complete the fields in the record view layout. All required fields are marked as such and must be completed prior to saving.
4. After completing the Customer Journey template fields, click "Save" and then move on to the Adding Stages to Customer Journey Templates section to add stages to the customer journey.

Customer Journey Template Fields

The Customer Journey Templates module contains the following fields:

Customer Journey Templates Module Tab

The Customer Journey Templates module tab is located on the navigation bar at the top of the Sugar screen after the administrator clicks on "Templates" on the Admin panel. Click the triangle in the Customer Journey Templates tab to display the Actions, Recently Viewed, and Favorites menus. The Actions menu allows you to perform important actions within the module. The Recently Viewed menu displays the list of Customer Journey templates you last viewed in the module. The Favorites menu displays the list of Customer Journey templates you most recently marked as favorites in the module.

The Actions menu allows you to perform the following operations:

Adding Stages to Customer Journey Templates

After creating the Customer Journey template record, you must create stages for the journey. Stages are the groups of activities in the customer's decision-making process and are defined in the Customer Journey Stage Templates module.

After saving the Customer Journey template, follow these steps to add a stage to the journey:

1. Click on the Add Stage button in the panel below the Customer Journey template's fields:
   
2. Refer to the Customer Journey Stage Template Fields section of this page to complete the fields in the record view layout. All required fields are marked as such and must be completed prior to saving.
3. After completing the stage template's fields, click "Save." At this point in the design process, you may only need to populate the stage's name (e.g. "Awareness") before saving.
4. Continue creating stage templates via the Add Stage button until you have made one for every stage of the journey. For example, if the current journey will move through Awareness > Consideration > Purchase > Loyalty, you must create four separate stage templates.
5. New stages will be added to the end of the journey cycle. At any time from the Customer Journey template's design panel, you can re-order the stages by simply dragging them into the order you prefer. The stage's order numbers will adjust appropriately.
   

After creating a stage template for each stage of the journey and ordering the stages as desired, move on to the Adding Activities to Customer Journey Templates section to add activities to the stages.

Customer Journey Stage Template Fields

The Customer Journey Stage Templates module contains the following fields:

Adding Activities to Customer Journey Templates

Activities are the concrete actions that must be completed to move from one stage to the next. Under each stage, you can add activities in the form of tasks, calls, meetings, and milestones via the Customer Journey Activity Templates module. For calls and meetings, the connector will automatically add the activity's assigned user and the person associated with the journey's parent Sugar record (e.g. the lead or contact) as guests for the activity. This ensures that the activity appears on the assigned user's calendar and that the call or meeting shows up in the lead or contact's subpanel. Users can add or remove guests via the call or meeting's record view.

After saving a journey's stage template, follow these steps to add an activity to the stage:

1. Hover over the stage where you want to add an activity. When the stage's Actions menu appears, click the down arrow to reveal the options to add an activity:
   
   Alternatively, click "Copy" from a similar activity's Actions menu to duplicate, edit, and save a new activity in the journey.
2. Click on "Add Task," "Add Call," or "Add Meeting" to create an activity record for the stage.
3. Refer to the Customer Journey Activity Template Fields section of this page to complete the fields in the record view layout. If creating a task, select the relevant task Type. All required fields for the new activity are marked as such and must be completed prior to saving.
4. After completing the activity template's fields, click "Save."
5. Continue adding activities to this stage and all of the other stages in the journey as required by your business process. New activities will be added to the end of the journey stage. At any time, from the Customer Journey Template designer, you can re-order the activities by simply dragging them into the order you prefer. You may also drag and drop activities around from one stage to another. The activity order numbers will automatically adjust for the stage.
   

Once you have defined all activities for each stage of the customer journey, you may choose to add sub-activities to the activities created in this section. If so, please refer to the Adding Sub-Activities section. If sub-activities are not required by your business process, then the customer journey template is complete and is ready to share with users. For more information on using the templates you have created for the plug-in, please refer to the Customer Journey Plug-In User Guide.

Adding Sub-Activities

The activities on a Customer Journey Template may optionally contain one or more sub-activities. Simply expand the parent activity's Actions menu and select the appropriate activity type that you would like to nest underneath it. For example, an activity task called "Get Approval" could contain two sub-activity tasks for "Manager Approval" and "QA Signoff", which may be assigned to different users.

After saving a stage's activity template, follow these steps to add sub-activities under the activity:

1. On the parent activity (e.g. "Get Approval"), click the down arrow to reveal the Actions menu:
   
2. Click on "Add Task," "Add Call," or "Add Meeting" to create an activity record under the current activity. Alternatively, click "Copy" from a similar sub-activity's Actions menu to duplicate, edit, and save a new sub-activity in the journey.
3. Refer to the Customer Journey Activity Template Fields section of this page to complete the fields in the record view layout. If creating a task, select the relevant task Type. All required fields for the new activity are marked as such and must be completed prior to saving.
4. After completing the activity template's fields, click "Save." The sub-activity will be slightly indented and display the default order number x.1, where x is the order number of the parent activity.
5. To add another sub-activity to the same parent, return to the parent activity's Actions menu and select the appropriate activity type to create. Complete the activity's details and save. The second sub-activity will display the default order number x.2 when shown in the journey panel.
   
6. Continue adding sub-activities as required by your business process. New sub-activities will be added to the end of the parent activity. At any time, from the Customer Journey Template designer, you can re-order the sub-activities by simply dragging them into the order you prefer. You may not individually drag sub-activities to a new parent activity, but you can drag and drop the parent activities including all their sub-activities around from one stage to another. The activity order numbers will automatically adjust for the stage.

Once you have defined all activities and optional sub-activities for each stage of the customer journey, the template is complete and ready to share with users. For more information on using the templates you have created for the plug-in, please refer to the Customer Journey Plug-In User Guide.

Customer Journey Activity Template Fields

The Customer Journey Activity Templates module contains the following fields:

Adding Related Sugar Actions

Each stage and activity in a journey may contain up to four Related Sugar Actions that prompt the user to create, view, or edit a Sugar record that is related to the journey's parent record. The Related Sugar Actions module is available as a subpanel under each journey, stage, and activity template's record view.

When used on activities, a Related Sugar Action will appear on the activity in the journey as the icon in the following screenshot unless you set the Display Icon field to "No" or set the Action Trigger Type to be automatic. When the user hovers over a Related Sugar Action icon on an activity, they will see the descriptive text used as the Related Sugar Action record's name. The user can click on the icon at any time during the journey to perform the activity's related action. The admin also has the option to launch the action automatically when its parent activity begins or ends using the Trigger Event setting on the activity's Related Sugar Action record. For more information on the options available, refer to the Related Sugar Action Fields section. For more information on completing Related Sugar Actions, refer to the Customer Journey Plug-in User Guide.

When used on a stage or journey instead of at the activity level, a Related Sugar Action will not show as an icon; instead, it will automatically initiate when the stage or journey is set to In Progress or Completed, as set in the Trigger Event field. For more information on the options available, refer to the Related Sugar Action Fields section. For more information on completing Related Sugar Actions, refer to the Customer Journey Plug-in User Guide.

To add a Related Sugar Action to a journey stage or activity, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the customer journey template record and find or create the stage or activity that should contain a Related Sugar Action.
2. Click on the name of the stage or activity in the template.
   
3. From the stage or activity's record view, scroll down to the Related Sugar Actions subpanel and click on the Create (+) button.
   
   Note: There is a limit of one active Related Sugar Action per Trigger Event type for each stage or activity in a journey. Attempting to add a second Related Sugar Action for the same Trigger Event type will result in an error on save unless one of the records has an "Active" value of "false". 
4. After clicking the Create (+) button, complete the form fields according to the Related Sugar Action Fields and Pre-Populating Fields via Related Sugar Actions sections, and then click "Save".
   • When setting the Relationship field, the first selector will always display the parent record's module name (i.e., Calls, Meetings, or Tasks) and refer to itself using the "self" identifier. If you would like to choose a record in a one-away module from the stage or activity (e.g., the opportunity related to the activity), then change the first selector to that module's name. A second Relationship selector dropdown will then appear containing the related module's name and it will now contain the "self" identifier to indicate that it is the chosen record. If you would like to choose a record in a two-away module from the stage or activity (e.g., create a contact related to the opportunity that is related to the activity), then change the second selector field to the two-away module. For this example, the two-level relationship will require three dropdown fields configured like this: 
     
5. After saving the Related Sugar Action, you will return to the stage or activity record view. You can now add another Related Sugar Action for a different Trigger Event on the stage or activity or click on the Customer Journey Template name to return to configuring the overall journey.
   

Blocking Activities

Using the Blocked By field, the admin has the option to make an activity's start dependent on the completion of one or more earlier activities. For example, you can block users from starting "Meeting 2" until "Meeting 1" has been completed.

Similarly, the admin can choose to block activities until a specified stage has been completed using the Blocked By Stages field. For example, you can block users from starting the "Value Proposition Meeting" activity until the "Prospecting and Introduction" stage has been completed. 

Blocked activities display the Blocked icon (a circle with a slash) and do not have options to start or complete the activity from the Customer Journey panel. Users will also receive an error if they attempt to close the activity from its Sugar record view. Once the required activities have been completed, then the blocked activity will become unblocked.

Pre-Populating Fields via Related Sugar Actions

In the Related Sugar Actions module, values can also be set to pre-populate in fields on the related record. When the Related Sugar Action is triggered and the Action Trigger Type field is set to "Manual", a new drawer will open and the values will be prefilled in the drawer which you selected in the Related Sugar Action record's Populate Fields section. If the Action Trigger Type field is set to "Automatic", the records will be created or updated in the background with the predefined field values.

Simply select the field that you would like to update (e.g. "Name") from the dropdown list and then type the value (e.g. "Call to schedule demo") in the adjacent field. You can populate the values of multiple fields for the related record by using the Add and Remove icons at the end of the row. If you choose to populate a date or datetime-type field, then you can either set a fixed date (or date and time) or one that occurs in the future relative to the day the action is triggered. For relate fields, simply choose the field name and then select the record to relate.

When the Related Sugar Action's "Action Type" is set to "Create Record" and the relationship type is a call, meeting, or task, the newly created activity will be related to the journey and show up in the journey panel. To place the new activity in a specific position in the journey, use the Populate Fields functionality to set the "Customer Journey Order" field to the numeric place that the activity should occupy in the journey.

Related Sugar Action Fields

The Related Sugar Actions module contains the following fields:

Removing Stages and Activities from Customer Journey Templates

If you would like to remove a stage or activity from a Customer Journey template, simply expand the stage or activity's Actions menu and click on "Delete Stage" or "Delete Activity." This will apply to all journeys that are started after the change has been made. Any running or completed journeys will not be affected by the deletion.

Disabling Stage and Activity Actions

If you would like to remove an option from the Stage Actions Menu or the Activity Actions Menu in a Customer Journey, select the options using the "Disabled Stage Actions" and "Disabled Activity Actions" fields on the customer journey template record. These fields are both multiselect and are empty by default.

• Disabling a stage action will remove it from the Actions menu for all users on all of the stages in the journey.
• Disabling an activity action will remove it from the Actions menu on all of the journey's activities for all users.

Changes made to the Disabled Actions fields on existing Customer Journey templates will be applied instantly on save and apply to all new and existing journeys related to the template.

Copying Customer Journey Templates

You can also create a new Customer Journey template by duplicating an existing journey's template. The Copy option is useful if the journey you want to create has similar stages and activities to an existing journey. Unlike other records in Sugar, all of the related stages and activities will also copy over to the new journey template, which you can edit, rearrange, delete, or add to later.

The following steps cover creating a new Customer Journey template by duplicating an existing Customer Journey template:

1. Navigate to Admin > Templates in the Customer Journey section of the Admin panel.
2. Click on the name of the journey that you want to copy.
3. Click the record's Actions menu and select "Copy".
   
4. The displayed record view is pre-populated with the original journey's values. Update the necessary fields and then click "Save."

Importing Customer Journey Templates

Customer Journey templates can be exported from one Sugar instance and then imported into another Sugar instance that has the plug-in installed (e.g. from your test or development instance to your live production instance). Only files that have been exported from a Sugar instance can be imported into a Sugar instance. Exported journeys will download as the appropriate .json file type for upload to the Customer Journey Templates module.

Follow these steps to export a Customer Journey template from a test instance and then import it to a production instance as an example:

Note: You must already have the plug-in installed on both your test and production instances.

1. In your test instance, create and configure a Customer Journey template with the desired stages and activities according to the sections covered earlier on this page.
2. When you are satisfied with the template, expand the template's record-view Actions menu and click on "Export." Save the exported .json file to your computer.
   
3. Navigate to your production instance. In the Admin panel, click on "Templates" in the Customer Journey section.
4. Expand the Customer Journey Templates module tab and select "Import Customer Journey Template".
   
5. Click on "Choose File" to search for and select the .json file you saved in step 2 and then click "Import."
6. Review the template's design and settings to be sure everything imported as expected.
7. Finally, activate the Customer Journey template in your production instance by placing a checkmark in the template record's Active field and immediately test its behavior.
   

Note: You cannot import a new Customer Journey template with the same name but different ID as an existing Customer Journey template. You must change the name of the new record or use "Copy" to create a duplicate journey template.

Updating Customer Journey Templates via Import

If you have access to a test instance with the Customer Journey Plug-in installed, you can update existing journey templates via the import tool. The existing journey template and the updated journey template must have the same record IDs. This allows you to export a journey template for maintenance without interrupting your production instance.

Follow these steps to update an existing Customer Journey template via the import tool:

Note: You must already have the plug-in installed on both your test and production instances.

1. In your production instance, navigate to the record view for the Customer Journey template that you would like to update.
2. Expand the template's record-view Actions menu and click on "Export." Save the exported .json file to your computer.
   
3. Navigate to your test instance's Admin panel and click on "Templates" in the Customer Journey section.
4. Expand the Customer Journey Templates module tab and select "Import Customer Journey Template."
   
5. Click on "Choose File" to search for and select the .json file you saved in step 2 and then click "Import."
6. Navigate to the imported journey and make any changes according to the sections covered earlier on this page.
7. When you have finished testing and making changes, expand the template's record-view Actions menu and click on "Export." Save the exported .json file to your computer, replacing the previous template file if prompted.
8. Return to your production instance. Navigate to the Admin panel and click on "Templates" in the Customer Journey section.
9. Expand the Customer Journey Templates module tab and select "Import Customer Journey Template."
10. Click on "Choose File" to search for and select the .json file you saved in step 7 and then click "Import."
11. An alert will prompt you to confirm that you would like to replace the existing template. Click the Confirm button to commit the update or click cancel to without making any changes.
    

The changes you made in your test instance should now be reflected in the original Customer Journey template in your production instance. The changes will apply to all journeys that are started after the import. Any running or completed journeys will not be affected.

Using Customer Journeys With SugarBPM

Customers using SugarBPM for workflow automation can configure their process definitions to start, cancel, or delete a journey when specified conditions are met.

Starting Journeys via SugarBPM

Administrators can configure process definitions to start a certain journey when conditions are met for a record. For example, some opportunities may not need to engage in the exhaustive sales process, like when an existing customer requests a quote. For this scenario, the "Opportunity Quick Deal" journey could be set to automatically begin when a new opportunity is created for existing business. 

To set a condition for journeys to start via SugarBPM, simply build a Change Fields action into a process definition for the affected module. For the "quick deal" example mentioned above, the affected module is Opportunities. In its simplest form, the basic process definition structure would be as follows:

• Target module: Opportunities
• Start event: New records only; Type = Existing Business
• Change Fields action: Customer Journey Template = "Opportunity Quick Deal"
• End event: Terminate

For more information on creating process definitions, please refer to the SugarBPM® documentation.

Canceling and Deleting Journeys via Sugar BPM

Two checkbox fields exist on the customer journey record that, when set to "true" (checked), will either cancel or delete a journey: "Is Canceled" and "Is Deleted". An administrator can configure a SugarBPM process definition's Change Fields action to set one of these fields to "true" and thereby cancel or delete the running journey when a condition is met. For example, If an opportunity closes before a related sales journey has completed, then the journey could be set to automatically cancel.

To set a condition for deleting or canceling journeys via SugarBPM, simply build a Change Fields action into a process definition for the affected module. For the example mentioned above, the affected module is Opportunities. In its simplest form, the basic process definition structure would be as follows:

• Target module: Customer Journeys
• Start event: New records and all updates; Customer Journey Template = "Opportunity Quick Deal"
• Receive Message event: Opportunities "Status" changes to "Closed Won" OR Opportunities "Status" changes to "Closed Lost"
• Change Fields action: "Is Cancelled" = true
• End event: Terminate

For more information on creating process definitions, please refer to the SugarBPM® documentation.

Understanding Progress and Momentum

The Customer Journey Plug-in measures the performance of each journey in Sugar via journey progress and journey momentum. Journey progress lets you know how close to completion the journey is, while momentum measures how efficiently the journey has advanced with respect to the time-based performance standards set by the administrator. 

The following sections explain progress and momentum in detail.

Customer Journey Progress

Journey progress is visually represented as a Progress Bar. The blue portion of the bar represents the percentage of points that have been completed relative to the journey's total point value.

Points contribute to the growth of the Progress Bar for running customer journeys in Sugar. When creating activities for your customer journey templates, you can assign 1 to 10 points to each activity in the journey. Each time you assign points to an activity, the parent stage's total point value increases and so does the overall journey's point value. Later, when a user engages with a journey, the progress bar will grow commensurate to each completed activity's point value relative to the journey's total point value.

While an activity can have a maximum of 10 points, there is no limit to the number of points that may be attributed to a stage or journey. For more information on journey progress, please refer to the Calculating Progress section of this page.

All fields associated with journey progress are located on the activity's task, meeting, or call record. For more information on assigning progress points, please refer to the Customer Journey Activity Template Fields section.

Calculating Progress

The Customer Journey panel contains a progress bar that represents how far along a customer is in the customer journey based on the point values and statuses of the journey's activities. The administrator assigns the point values from 1 point up to 10 points for each activity in a journey. When an activity is In Progress, 30% of its point value is credited to the progress bar. Activities set to Held, Completed, Not Held, or Not Applicable credit 100% of their point values to the progress bar. The journey calculates its overall progress as a percentage rounded up to the next whole number: {points completed}/{total journey points}.

For example, in the journey below, the administrator has created a journey with a total of 115 points, and the activities associated with 43 of those points have been completed. Therefore, the progress bar shows that the journey is 38% complete (43/115=0.374, rounded up).

Customer Journey Momentum

For most processes, there is an optimal amount of time that should elapse between stages and activities. This is known as process momentum. Depending on the type of journey, this is sometimes called velocity, efficiency, or forward motion. Momentum functionality in the Customer Journey Plug-in allows admins to define the optimal time-to-complete between activities and stages. The performance standards can then be calculated against actual time-to-complete and used by individuals and their managers to assess process efficiency.

Momentum Points contribute to the Momentum Score for running customer journeys in Sugar. A higher momentum point value for one activity over another would indicate the relative importance of that activity over the other. All fields associated with momentum are located on the activity's task, meeting, or call record. For more information on assigning momentum points, please refer to the Customer Journey Activity Template Fields section.

Journey momentum is visually represented in Sugar as a Gauge Chart dashlet but can also be displayed as a Momentum Bar on the list view dashlet. Both visualizations show how well the journey is keeping up with expected time standards as a percentage of momentum points completed.

For more information on the momentum functionality, please refer to the Calculating Momentum section of this page.

Calculating Momentum

Customer Journey momentum reflects how well a journey is keeping up with expected time standards as a percentage of momentum points completed. When momentum is defined for one or more activities, it becomes a part of a summed score for the Customer Journey Stage as well as to the Customer Journey object itself.

The momentum of an activity contains its total Momentum Points when not yet started. The tracking of the actual momentum days or hours only begins when an activity has been started.

Below is an example of how Momentum Points and Momentum Scores are calculated for the Gauge Chart and the Momentum Bar. As an example, imagine a Customer Journey template that has been set up with two stages that have two tasks each. Each task has the following Momentum Points and Momentum Due Days set: 

In the example above, Task A is given a Momentum Point value of 100. if Task A is completed within its expected 5 days (i.e., less than 120 hours), then the Momentum Score for that task will remain 100. However, if Task A is completed after the expected 5 days, for example, it takes 6 days (i.e., 144 hours), then the score for that task will be less than 100 because there is a penalty for each hour over the projected hours that a task is not completed.

The following calculation is used to calculate the Momentum Score for an activity:

• Activity Momentum = (expected time / actual time) x potential activity points

The formula applied to Task A, which was completed in 144 hours opposed to the projected 120 hours, gives us a Momentum Score of 83 from the activity's 100 potential momentum points:

• (120/144) x 100 = 83

Assuming no other activities in our example have kicked off, Tasks B, C, and D still have perfect 100% scores and the overall Journey Momentum after Task A is completed is a total 303 (83+100+80+40) out of a potential 320, or 95% (rounded up) of the journey's potential momentum points, as represented by the journey's gauge chart:

Momentum Scores are also visualized in the Customer Journey list view dashlet as a color-coded bar that follows the same color convention as the gauge chart and with a bar-length that represents the momentum score's percentage of the journey's potential momentum:

Reporting on Momentum

Customer Journey progress points, momentum points, and momentum scores are also reportable fields in the Reports module. For more information on building reports in Sugar, please refer to the Reports documentation. As an example, the following report evaluates the average rate of momentum for the activities in a given customer journey for all users. It helps to identify common points of delay in the journey that may need the attention of management.

Note: Before using this report, be sure that you have assigned momentum points for the activities in the journeys that you want to track and that enough time has passed for momentum values to have been calculated. For more information on assigning momentum points, please refer to the Customer Journey Activity Template Fields section.

Use the following steps to create a report that evaluates the average momentum for each task in a journey:

1. Navigate to the Reports module and create a Summation Report for the Customer Journeys module.
2. Define the first filter:
   • In the Related Modules panel, under the Customer Journeys folder, find the "Customer Journey Stages" folder and click on the + icon to expand it.
   • Under the Customer Journey Stages folder, find the "Tasks" folder and click on the word "Tasks".
   • In the Available Fields panel, click on the Status field to add the filter to the main panel.
   • Set the filter's operator and value to "is Completed".
     
3. Define the second filter:
   • In the same Available Fields panel, click on the Customer Journey Momentum Points field to add a new filter to the main panel.
   • Set the filter's operator and value to "Greater than 0".
     
4. Define the third filter:
   • In the Related Modules panel, under the topmost Customer Journeys folder, click on the words "Customer Journey Template" next to the Customer Journey Template folder.
   • In the Available Fields panel, click on the Name field to add the filter to the main panel.
   • Select your favorite journey template for the filter and enable the Run Time Filter option.
     
5. Click "Next" and then set one Group-By field:
   • In the Related Modules panel, under the Customer Journeys folder, find the "Customer Journey Stages" folder and click on the + icon to expand it.
   • Under the Customer Journey Stages folder, find the "Tasks" folder and click on the word "Tasks".
   • In the Available Fields panel, click on the Subject field to add it to the main panel.
6. Click "Next" to proceed to the Display Summary step where one Display Summary line should already be set.
7. Set the following additional Display Summary:
   
   • Customer Journeys > Customer Journey Stages > Tasks > AVG: Customer Journey Momentum Ratio
8. Click "Next" to proceed to the Chart Options step and choose "Vertical Bar (Grouped)".
9. Click "Next" to proceed to the final step, name the report "Average Momentum Ratio by Journey Task", and click "Save & Run".

The resulting report will display a separate bar for each task in the selected journey. The bar represents what fraction of 1 (i.e., 100%) each task has achieved in momentum. Those with a value of less than 1 have lower rates of momentum based on the average of their actual vs expected completion times. In the table below the chart, you can also view the total average momentum for the entire journey.

Advanced Configurations

The following advanced options may be configured by administrators who want to enable additional modules to be used with journey templates, to define custom "closed" statuses for records used in customer journeys, and to create Web Hooks for communicating with external systems. Additional, developer-level configurations are covered in the Developer Configurations section of this page.

Configuring Modules for Customer Journeys

The Customer Journey panel will be included on records for modules that are enabled for journeys via Configure Modules. By default, the Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Opportunities, and Cases modules are enabled. When you create new journey templates, the templates may include any combination of the enabled modules.

If your business converts lead records into contacts and opportunities, then you may want to design a journey template that follows the lead as it is converted in the system. For example, if you design a customer journey template and select Leads, Contacts, and Opportunities for the journey's Available Modules, a user will then be able to start the journey on a lead record and continue to manage the same journey after they convert the lead into a contact and, optionally, an opportunity. Please note that the contact and opportunity records must be created on the Lead Conversion screen in order for the journey to continue with those records. 

To enable additional modules to be used with journey templates, you can configure the plug-in's available modules via Admin > Customer Journey > Configure Modules. Conversely, you can disable modules so that they cannot be used in customer journeys.

The following steps walk through how to make modules available for the Customer Journey Plug-in for your instance.

1. Navigate to Admin > Customer Journey > Configure Modules.
   
2. In the panel titled "Step 1", select or remove modules until the multi-select field displays the modules that you may want to use in a journey template. When you start creating individual journey templates, you can select as many or as few of the enabled modules as you like for each template.
   Note: If you see a "No Access" label on this step, please clear your browser cache and reload the page.
   
3. Click "Save" and wait for a success message or the Step 2 panel to load. If you receive the following success message, you have completed the plug-in configuration and can commence creating customer journeys.
   
   Otherwise, continue following the displayed instructions under the panel labeled "Step 2". The plug-in is designed to work with common modules in Sugar automatically. If you have chosen to enable modules that are outside of the scope of the core plug-in's functionality, then you must download and install a separate package to finalize the configuration.
   
4. Click the Download button to save the installable package to your computer.
5. Click on the Module Loader link to navigate to the upload page. Alternatively, navigate to Admin > Module Loader.
6. On the Module Loader page, click the "Choose File" button in the Module Upload panel to open a file selection window from your browser. Find and select the .zip package that you downloaded from the Customer Journey configuration page.
7. Click the Upload button to load the package to Sugar.
   
8. Once the upload has completed, click the Install button next to the package's name in the Uploaded Packages panel.
   
9. Click "Commit" to run the installation.
   
10. Wait for the progress bar to complete and display a success message.
    
11. To finalize the package installation, navigate to Admin > Repair and perform the following two repair activities:
    • Repair Roles
    • Rebuild JS Grouping Files
      
    • For more information on performing repair activities in Sugar, please refer to the Repair documentation.

You have now completed the plug-in configuration and can commence creating Customer Journey templates.

Configuring Custom "Closed" Statuses

Many instances have been configured to use different statuses (e.g. Closed, In Progress, Invalid) for records than the statuses used in a stock Sugar instance. You may define which statuses the Customer Journey plug-in considers "closed" for your instance via the Sugar dropdown editor.

By default, The Customer Journey Plug-in considers tasks as closed when they have a status of "Completed" or "Not Applicable". Calls and meetings are closed when they have a status of "Held" or "Not Held". To add or remove statuses that are considered closed in your instance, navigate to Admin > Dropdown Editor and modify the statuses for the respective dropdown list shown below:

• cj_calls_completed_status_list
• cj_meetings_completed_status_list
• cj_tasks_completed_status_list

For more information on working with dropdown lists, refer to the Developer Tools documentation in the Sugar Administration Guide.

Assignment Notifications

When a user starts a new journey and one or more of the activities in that journey are assigned to another user(s), the other users will receive a single, compiled "digest" style email that lists all of the activities that are assigned to them and of record type "task". No notifications will be sent to the logged-in user starting the journey for tasks that are assigned to them. For any call or meeting activities in the journey, email invitations will be sent according to the default behavior of the Sugar version you are using.

Please note that notification emails will only be sent if "Send Assignment Notification" is enabled in both the admin System Email Settings and in the user's profile.

Web Hooks

The Customer Journey Web Hooks allow you to send data to an external URL so that additional processing can be completed outside the Sugar application. This can allow you to send the data to other applications within your organization (e.g. send a Slack message) or to validate that the journey can progress on to the next stage.

Customer Journey Web Hooks are available for use with records in all of the template modules (Customer Journey Templates, Stage Templates, and Activity Templates) via the Web Hooks subpanel under each template's record view.

The following fields are available when creating a Customer Journey Web Hook:

Content-Type: application/json
X-Api-Key: xxxxxxxxx

Web Hook Example

This example will cover how to send a Slack message using the Web Hooks for Customer Journey Plug-in.

Prerequisite: To successfully set up this integration, you must be the admin for your Slack workspace or have permission explicitly granted by the Slack admin to add webhooks to your workspace via the Slack API. 

Steps to complete:

1. Navigate to https://api.slack.com/apps and create a new app for your workspace.
   
2. Activate incoming webhooks for your app:
   
3. After activating webhooks, click "Add New Webhook to Workspace" at the bottom of the screen, and in the pop-up, select the Slack channel where you want your message to appear. Copy the resulting URL to your clipboard.
   
4. In your Sugar instance, navigate to the Web Hooks subpanel under the template record (Customer Journey Template, Stage Template, or Activity Template) where you want the web hook to trigger from. Click "Create" (+) in the subpanel.
5. Configure the web hook record's fields as follows:
   
   
   • Request Method: POST
   • Trigger Event: For this example, we have selected "After In Progress", meaning that our hook will get triggered after the parent activity's status has been set to "In Progress".
   • URL: Enter the Webhook URL that you generated and copied from Slack's API in the earlier step.
   • Request Format: Set the format in which the "Post Body" will be sent. It can be a JSON string or a query string. For the Slack example, we will be sending a JSON String.
   • Custom Post Body: Enter the post body to send with your request as instructed in the Slack API documentation. For testing, we have entered:
      {"text": "This message was sent via customer journey webhook:tada:"}
     Note: To include variable data from the journey or its related parent record (e.g., the journey's name or fields from the account record in an account journey), refer to the Custom Post Body Variables section of this page.
6. Save the web hook record in Sugar with an "Active" status enabled.
7. Test your web hook by clicking on "Send Test Request" in the Test Webhook dashlet in the intelligence pane of the web hook's record view.
   

To test your web hook in production, start the related journey in your Sugar instance and set the relevant journey, stage, or activity to "In Progress". When this web hook triggers, you will see a message in your Slack app.

Custom Post Body and URL Variables

When sending a web hook request via POST with a custom post body, you can include field variables from the journey's parent record (the parent account or contact, for example) and from the journey, stage, and activities to which the web hook is associated. Additionally, the Current User, Assigned User, and site URL variables can be sent to the external endpoint.

The variables used for web hooks can also be used in the URL field on Customer Journey Activity records to create custom dynamic URLs that reflect data from the parent record. For example, entering the value http://www.google.com/search?q={$parent.name} will take the user who clicks the link from a running journey to a google search for the name of the parent record.

The following variables are only a few examples but serve to illustrate the format that is used. Please note that relate-type fields cannot be used as variables.

• {$site_url}
• {$current_user.full_name}
• {$assigned_user.full_name}
• {$parent.name}
• {$activity.name}
• {$stage.name}
• {$journey.name}

Test Webhook Dashlet

From the Web Hooks record view, you will see a special Test Webhook Dashboard which contains the Test Webhook dashlet. The Test Webhook dashlet lets you send a test request to validate your work. Simply save the web hook record and then click on "Send Test Request".

Developer Configurations

Some options can be configured by a developer who has access to your Sugar instance's file system. If you are hosted on Sugar's cloud servers, please file a support case to make developer-level changes. 

customer_journey.disable_activity_check_notify

By default, assignment notifications have been disabled for tasks when they are created by the Customer Journey Plug-in. This means that users will not receive separate email notifications for every task in a new journey. Users will be notified, however, when a journey has been assigned to them, when a journey meeting or call is assigned to them, or when a journey task is edited and reassigned to them after the journey has commenced.

To enable notifications for all task records when a Customer Journey is created, add the following line to the config_override.php file:

  $sugar_config['customer_journey']['disable_activity_check_notify'] = true;

The target assignee for the journey will now receive individual assignment email notifications for every task in a new journey assigned to them.