To illustrate how to refine the amount of records actioned, here are some examples of ways to narrow down Filtering Criteria within a Robot.

Filter for Current Records

Let’s say your CRM has a lot of old records that need to be archived. Even with basic criteria the returned results might be staggering. Employ Last Date Modified to include records that have been touched in the last 7 days.

Filter Out Records Already Evaluated by Playbooks Users

Perhaps you are using an enrollment Robot for a team of Playbooks users who have already been using Playbooks for a while. Consider using the Created Date field with the “on or after” operator and identify the absolute date as the date you launch the Robot. This would prevent the Robot from enrolling records that the users had already filtered out of their Playbooks.

Target Records in a Specific Play

You can also use Playbook fields in your filtering. If the Robot Action is to mark a Play Successful or move records from one play to another, you would want to specify the original Play Name the records are enrolled in. You’ll identify the Play the record will move to when you setup the action.

Identify Records at the End of a Play

If a record makes it all the way through a Play without success, you can move the record to a different Play or remove it from Playbooks entirely. Set the Playbooks Play Status to identify failed records.

Here are some examples of commonly requested Robot Actions to help you determine which Robots will work best in your sales process.

Remove Successful Records from Playbooks

If you are trying to clear out Playbooks users after they have been marked successful in a Play, you might consider the Remove from Playbooks action. When this action is used, it will remove the record from the current Play and Playbooks, so you won’t have to create two Robots to clean up old records. In your filtering, set the Playbooks Play Status to equal ‘Success’. It is not recommended to broadly apply this Robot to all Plays, so include the Play Name in your filtering as well.

Remove Over-due Tasks from Playbooks

Another useful Robot tactic is to clear out records that contain substantially overdue Playbooks tasks, especially if those tasks are for lead records. If a lead isn’t being pursued because there are better leads to contact, clear it out with the Remove from Playbooks action. Identify the overdue tasks where the Playbooks Next Step Due Date is at least 30 days in the past.

For more information, check out the other Robot Articles and the Play Maker Course on XANT University.