Best Practices for Publishing SmartPlans

SmartPlans is the applet that allows us to automate our business. Through SmartPlans, you can create custom task checklists, automatically set phone call reminders, send automatic emails and texts, and you can customize the timing of all of this. Additionally users have the ability to create awesome SmartPlans and publish them to the shared SmartPlans Library in Command. 

As you start thinking about publishing a SmartPlan, keep in mind that everything you include in the SmartPlan will be shared with other agents and should be created with that in mind. The trick is to use merge fields, instead of including your personal branding, which will allow other agents to use your SmartPlan without having to re-brand everything:

1. When adding tasks to a SmartPlan, use merge fields to make the task relevant for anyone to use. Also, don't add a hyperlink to the task that is specific to your business, make sure it is a link that anyone can use for SmartPlan tasks.

2. When adding an email step, you have two options:

Simple - when editing a simple email, there is no option to add images, but only the text.  Ensure that the subject line in the email is something any agent would be able to utilize. Also, any branding or contact info you add to the email will be published along with the SmartPlan, so use merge fields to make the task relevant for anyone to use.

Designs - when using the Designs option, you will utilize templates that are provided in the Command Designs library, so branding should not be an issue. Ensure that the subject line in the email is something any agent would be able to utilize.

3. When adding a text step, use merge fields to make the text content relevant for anyone to use. Also, when editing an SMS/MMS, you will see two message types, which you can use in your SmartPlan:

Static - with this option, you can set one text message that will be sent in this step, which will repeat if the SmartPlan repeats.

Dynamic - with this option, you can add multiple text messages for the same step. Each time the SmartPlan repeats, it will send a different text message to your contact, when this step is triggered. If you are going to add a "Restart Flow" step to your SmartPlan, it is recommended to setup Dynamic Texts.

4. If your SmartPlan includes any "Add to SmartPlan" steps, this will cause the contact to be automatically added to the secondary SmartPlan(s) as part of the workflow. Ensure that the secondary SmartPlan(s) follows the same best practices as the original. When you publish, you will be prompted to publish the secondary SmartPlan(s) as well.

5. If you need to edit a SmartPlan that has been published, you must go to the Published tab, in the My SmartPlans section of the applet, and publish the changes. If you go to the People Plans tab, in the My SmartPlans section of the applet, and make edits, they will not be reflected in the published version.

When editing a published SmartPlan, there are limits to what you are able to edit:

• What changes can be made in published SmartPlans?
  • Name of the SmartPlan
  • Text messages
  • Task descriptions
    
    
• What changes cannot be made in Published SmartPlans?
  • Adding steps
  • Deleting steps
  • Changing the order of steps

If you need to make edits beyond this:

1. Go to the People Plans tab, in the My SmartPlans section of the applet.
2. Find the SmartPlan, and click to edit.
3. Click the Duplicate button, on the right side of the page.
4. This will create a copy of the SmartPlan. Make any edits, save, and publish the new plan. This will require people to download the new plan, but it is the only way to add, remove or re-order steps for these published SmartPlans.