Keap support doesn’t have the best reputation.

Some might say it’s terrible even.

And personally, I’m not proud of the role I’ve played in that reputation, because I honestly think it’s unfounded and based on presumptuous assumptions (consonance alliteration ftw). More on that in a second.

I always get what I need when I connect with Keap support. Always.

I always walk away from the experience satisfied with the outcome. Always.

And now I’m going to tell you how I manage that. But first, some obligatory exposition. 🙂

In my decade+ of dealing with Keap, I’ve only been disappointed in support when I expected them to be something that they aren’t (and let’s be honest, never have been) – experts in everything having to do with everything.

Keap support don’t know everything about everything. In fact, some interactions may make us feel like they don’t even know very much about Keap. As frustrating as that may seem, that is not the reason why we have trouble getting what we need from them.

The real reason is that we already know they don’t know everything, but we go ahead and act like they do (or at least should) when we call them. No wonder we’re always mad at them.

How to Work with Keap Support

Step 1 – Don’t

We all know that Keap is not the best resource for simple how-to questions. That’s not to disrespect Keap – quite the contrary; it’s virtually impossible for an entry level employee of any company to have enough context from enough industries and businesses to be capable of giving advice on specific setup questions.

Instead of calling Keap with a question that we know they probably can’t answer, why not turn to one of the plenty of other (free) resources available to get questions about implementation, strategy, or functionality answered? There are plenty of Facebook communities teeming with business owners and seasoned experts that can provide more applicable answers in realtime.

Step 2 – Prepare

Online communities can help with just about everything when it comes to Keap, but still there is the occasional situation where the issue you’re running into can only be explained as a “bug in the software”. Most of the time, frustrated business owners will call Infusionsoft support and the first thing they say is, “There’s a bug in the software.”

That is not an effective technique. A support rep can’t do anything with that. And the minute they start to feel you getting upset or angry or frustrated, it will put them on the defensive. And a defensive support rep is an unhelpful support rep. Get ready for disappointment if that’s the route you choose.

Here is a list of things that you should have prepared before you call or join chat support:

1. Your appname
2. Your security details (they can’t help you if you don’t have this)
3. The name and id of the affected feature (e.g. Marketing Campaign, id 123)
4. The exact steps that you took that caused the issue
5. The exact steps that you took trying to replicate the issue
6. Whether you were able to replicate the issue
7. Screenshots (of everything)

I like to do all of this in one shot by recording a screencapture video of me duplicating the error.

Step 3 – Empathize

As difficult as it can be to swallow your pride, empathizing with the support rep will always result in a better experience. Going into the call with the understanding that the individual on the other end is not responsible for causing or fixing your issue will keep you from taking your frustration out on the rep, which, again, is simply ineffective.

But if you take that one step further, and type these exact words while the support rep is looking into the issue, that rep will go above and beyond for you:

“Thank you so much for your help. I understand this is in no way your fault, and I appreciate you taking the time to help me. If you sense any impatience or frustration, please don’t take that as frustration with you personally.”

Think about it – support reps only deal with 1 type of person – a frustrated person.

If you set yourself apart from that and recognize them as an individual, a human, and not just a cog in a bigger machine, they will make it their personal mission to help you.

Keap support aren’t perfect, but if you approach the interaction correctly, you never have to walk away from the interaction feeling like the end of the world is nigh. With a little bit of preparation and a slight mindset shift, you can get so much more out of it and end up actually satisfied with the result.

Imagine that.

Editor’s note: If you liked this, tell the world (and Bret) on twitter.

Editor’s other note: If you’re looking for more suggestions for getting the most out of your support channels, check out the tips from this article written by another former Infusionite.

If you run regular recurring events, then I think I can make your life a little easier.

Here’s how most businesses I work with handle repeating live events:

1. Build out campaign for event 1
2. Copy campaign for event 2
3. Adjust email copy, and campaign timers for event 2
4. Repeat for event 3, event 4, etc.

And heck, maybe you’ve even used campaign merge fields, and campaign links to make your life a little bit easier.

But this process is still heavily manual, and a little tiring. Right?

Right. So, I think I can make things a little easier for you, and your monthly workshop, or your meet-up every few weeks.

Let’s jump right in, shall we?

Context:

If you are promoting a live event then you likely want to put the date in the email(s) to your contacts, right? Totally normal request.

The way most people handle this problem is to use the campaign merge field.  Campaign merge fields are managed centrally on the campaign level, so if you have to make a change, you only need to go to one place to update the date and it will automatically use the new value for every email that was using that merge field.

This is especially helpful when you’re copying the campaign too, because the campaign merge fields are all copied too, so you can use the same structure and quickly update the merge fields to save yourself time.

But even if you update the campaign merge fields, you still have to manually go through and adjust all the date timers for the new event, and for some people this is a dealbreaker.

So, I’m going to show you how you can set the campaign and never need to touch it (as far as dates are concerned).

Scenario:

You are advertising on Facebook for your live event.  You have 4 events coming up in Jan and Feb.

Let’s Build:

Before the campaign:

For this campaign you’re going to need to set up an Event Date custom field (the field should be a Date Type), and then you’ll also need one tag, we use “Date Set” as the tag name.

The campaign structure:

• Create a goal to trigger the campaign.  In this case I used a tag as a goal for when people register for the event from Facebook.
• Create a Date Picker Sequence. (We’ll talk about what’s inside next)
• Create a Event Date Set Tag Goal
• Create an Event Reminder Sequence. (We’ll talk about this one in a moment too)

This is how your campaign structure should look:

Simple right? The magic happens inside the sequences. Let’s take a closer look at what is happening under the hood:

 Inside the Date Picker Sequence:

1. Use a new start element for every event date
   (The first date timer should range from the date you will start the ads up to the date before the event. We are not going to let people register for this event on the day of, yet.  For now, if they sign up on the day of the event, they will be registered for the next event.)
2. Add a Set Field Value widget and add the date of the event
3. Apply the Date Set tag.

On the second Start element, add a new date timer that runs between the start date of the first event and the day before the next event.  Then repeat steps 1-3.

Here’s how the inside of the Date Picker Sequence (highlighted in yellow above) will look:

Each of the individual “tracks” inside the sequence should look like the image below:

And here are the important things to note about this:

1. The date range timer should include all dates leading up to the first event, but you can adjust the cut off date if you want last minute registrations to automatically be registered for the following event. So, choose a range that accommodates based on your own preference.
   (Each “track” in this sequence will have a different date range, and they should not overlap.)
2. The “Set Field Value” is the widget responsible for recording the Event Date into a custom field on the contact record, this is important because it will be used in the next sequence to control the delivery of reminders.
   (Note: The first track would have the date of event one, the second would have the date of event two, etc.)
3. This is the “Event Date Set” tag, and this will be the same for each track in this sequence. This tag is important because once the custom field has been updated with the event date, this ensures that the contact is extracted from the sequence by achieving the Tag Goal attached to it.

Inside the Reminder Sequence:

1. Add the Confirmation email and merge in the Event date
2. Use a field timer with the event date.  Be sure to choose the option – “Use year from field”
3. Add a reminder email to let people know when the event is approaching.
4. Add another field timer, followed by another email, for as many reminders as you’d like.

Here’s how the inside of the Event Reminders Sequence (highlighted in blue above) will look:

———–

Okay, that’s about the size of things. You should now have a functional campaign designed to automatically assign registrants to the next upcoming event, and then send reminders as the event approaches.

One benefit of this campaign is that you can set it up for as many events as you have scheduled, so if you know the event dates for the next 6 months, you can build it out, launch, and you shouldn’t have to do any real upkeep to make sure things are current.

Hope this helps lend some automation to your recurring live events! If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below, or reach out to me directly!

Here you can create the content that will be used within the module.