Why we at Centro built Slack Workflow Steps for the App Directory
Slack has opened up their Workflow Builder to partners like Centro, and when we heard this announcement, we initially pondered if we would join others in providing Workflow Steps. After digging into the capabilities, the lightbulb went on! Let me set up the scenario:
I use Centro on a daily basis for my own sales prospecting and deal cycles, all within Slack. It’s connected to our Salesforce, but I find the experience of prospecting, follow-ups, demos, and deal progression easier. Plus, I’m a huge advocate of “drinking our own kool-aid”. Why put a customer through an experience I’m frustrated with? It helps the product development cycle enormously, and I highly recommend it.
One giant missing piece for me was follow-up emails. I of course use Centro to email prospect and customers, as Bailey my co-founder finds these incredibly useful to see himself. The email goes out, and we have reminders set in case the person doesn’t respond right away. However, I kept dropping the ball! I needed some sort of sequenced emails I could tee up on a cadence. Bailey and I talked about features around this, but didn’t come up with anything salient.
Along comes Slack Workflow Builder! We built the Centro steps to partially solve my problem, and as it turn out, lots of people’s problem. You can set up the initial email, if the recipient doesn’t respond in 5 days (for example, completely configurable), draft out or send the follow up email or SMS text. So for my workspace, I set up the following:
- New lead comes in. Create a new channel for that lead, draft an initial email and send.
- If the recipient doesn’t reply in 4 days, draft (but don’t send) a follow up email.
- If 5 more days elapse, send a SMS reminder
I may adjust the cadence, but it’s easy enough to do with Slack’s Workflow Builder!
We think there are likely other cools things to do with this functionality. Send a SMS text message to remind people to finish onboarding. Send an email when a service is down. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Check out how to use Centro Workflow Steps here, and install Centro from the App Directory here.
Ryan Hitchler is CEO & Co-Founder of Centro
He can be reached at ryan@centro.rocks
