Your contact information typically resides in different objects (or tables) within your data source, such as Contacts, Leads or Users in Salesforce, or as Sold to Contacts and Bill to Contacts in Zuora.

Depending on the context of a particular communication, process or journey you intend to manage via Pendula, you're going to want to trigger flows based on different objects or subsets of data.

How does Pendula know who should be the intended recipient of your flow?

The answer is related objects.

Quick links:

What are related objects?

How to create a related object

Standard related object configuration

Tips and tricks

You should now be able to

What are related objects?

Related objects point Pendula to the relevant recipient within your data source. They help establish what the context of your flow is, and who should receive any SMS or email communication.

The related object for a lead nurture flow will be different to the related object for a payment confirmation flow, as these reference different recipients.

For this reason, each time you are sending to a different recipient object or field, you will need to firstly configure a new related object.

Once you have connected Pendula to your data source and created a related object, you're ready to start using this related object to build out both your flows, and if needed, templates for those flows.

How to create a related object

Before you start

Creating a related object is a quick and easy process, but requires you to know what the context of your flow will be and what information you will need to target the correct recipients.

Before going any further, you'll firstly need to understand where this resides within your data source!

For example, if you are using Pendula to send out an appointment reminder, you are going to want to be able to reference information such as when the appointment is occurring and who will be attending. Typically this would reside on an appointment object, so this is what you would point Pendula to when creating the related object for this flow.

Important considerations

A related object will determine:

• What information you can provide within your messaging as merge fields

• The fields available to be used as criteria or filters within the flow setup screen to target your recipients (When will it send? and Who are you sending it to? sections)

• Which fields nodes within the flow builder can reference and also update (criteria filter and field update nodes)

• Where visibility of any communication is written back to in your data source as an activity (Salesforce only)

• Which email address field Pendula references to send any outbound emails to as part of the flow

• Which mobile phone number Pendula references to send any outbound SMS to as part of the flow

Steps

1. Navigate to the Pendula Settings screen by clicking on the avatar within your Pendula tenant and selecting Settings

2. Scroll down to the Related Objects section

3. Select your data source from the Data source dropdown menu

4. Select the root object (context or triggering object) of your flow from the Select object dropdown menu
   
   

5. If your intended recipient information exists as a standard contact lookup relationship with your root object, it will be available to be selected from the Contact field dropdown menu.

   For Salesforce, this means Pendula will look to the standard Email and MobilePhone fields on the selected contact for recipient information.
   
   For Zuora, this means Pendula will look to the PersonalEmail and MobilePhone fields on the selected Sold to or Bill to Contact.

   Pendula strongly recommends the use of the standard mobile phone fields on the Contact/Lead, in order to support two-way messaging via the Console. This is because Pendula matches any inbound SMS to the number listed in these standard fields.

6. For other scenarios, click on Advanced recipient fields to customise the recipient fields for your related object
   
   

7. Click on the magnifying glass icon within the ID field field to map Pendula to the Id field of the object you are using as your recipient object.
   
   To search for a specific field, simply start typing the name into the filter box to narrow the search options.
   
   If your related object shares a one-to-one relationship with another object (such as a Contact or an Account) within your data source, you can traverse across to reference fields on this object as well.

   If such a relationship exists, it will be indicated above the standard merge field options as a field name with an arrow symbol.
   
   

   When you are ready to select the relevant Id field, simply click on the field name within the list and it will be inserted into your related object.

8. Click on the magnifying glass icon within the Email address field field and map Pendula to the field containing the email address of your recipient

9. Click on the page/magnifying glass icon within the Mobile phone field field address field

10. Lastly, enter a name for your new related object within the Related object name field and click Save

After creating a related object, you can edit it if required. However, you'll then need reactivate any flows using this related object in order for these changes to take affect

Standard related object configuration

Salesforce

Contact

Lead

User

Zuora

Contact

Invoice (Bill to Contact)

Tips and tricks

• Related objects can be based on custom objects which share a one-to-one relationship with standard recipient objects within your data source (such as Contacts, Leads or Users)

• If need be, a related object can traverse multiple object relationships to reference the correct recipient record

• A related object can traverse different object relationships for both the email and mobile phone information (they don't have to both reside on the same object)

You should now be able to

• Use your new related object to create a template

• Use your new related object to create a flow

• Edit or delete this related object if needed (this may impact any flows currently using that related object)