By controlling how often a recipient can enter the same Flow, you make sure that you don't send the same communication to the same recipient too often.
There are two ways you can temporarily block recipients from a Flow:
If you only want your recipients to go through your Flow a certain number of times regardless of how much time passes, you can do this in the Flow settings. Set the 'Max Repetitions per Recipient' to the number of times you want the recipient to enter the Flow.
How to Temporarily Block Recipients from a Flow Using a Wait for Period Step
- Open the Flows module.
- Create a new Flow or navigate to an existing Flow.
- Open the Flow.
- Insert a Wait for Period Step at the end of your Flow.
- Set the 'Wait for Period' field to the amount of time you want recipients to wait before being able to enter the Flow again.
- Save the Flow.
Now, you've created a Flow where recipients have to wait a certain amount of time before finishing the Flow. Since the same recipient can only be at one point in the Flow at a time, the recipient can only reenter it once they've finished the Flow.
A Flow sending an SMS Voucher. Due to the Wait for Period Step at the end of the Flow, the same recipient can only receive an SMS voucher every 30 days.
How to Temporarily Block Recipients from a Flow Using a Side Effect
To make this set up work, you'll first need a Person Data field to contain the time your recipients finish your Flow as well as a Target Group.
- Create a Person Data field and choose the Data type 'Date' or 'Timestamp'.
- Create a new Target Group or navigate to the existing Target Group used for the Flow you want to set a quarantine rule for.
- Add a Condition to the Target Group based on when recipients should be allowed to enter the Flow again. An example could be any:
- PERSON DATA - SMS_VOUCHER_FLOW_END_TIME - is empty - Condition met
- PERSON DATA - SMS_VOUCHER_FLOW_END_TIME - is older than - 30 - days in the past from now - Condition met
- Create a new Flow or navigate to an existing Flow.
- Open the Flow.
- Click on the Flow's last Step.
- Click the 'Side Effects' panel.
- Click the plus icon and select 'Update Person Data'.
- Select your previously created Person Data Field.
- Select 'Is set to today'.
- Leave the remaining settings as they are.
- Click 'Ok'.
- Save your Flow.
Now, you've made a Flow that records the time when a recipient finishes the Flow. As the Target Group for the Flow has Conditions based on this time, only recipients who entered the Flow 30 days ago will be able to enter, along with recipients who have never entered the Flow before.
A Flow where the SMS Step has a Side Effect which sets the Person Data Field 'SMS_VOUCHER_FLOW_END_TIME' to the time a recipient finishes the Flow