Real-time journeys tile reference

This article describes the various journey capabilities available in Customer Insights - Journeys. For complete examples of creating customer journeys, see Create a trigger-based journey and Create a segment-based journey.

Journey start

The journey start configuration lets you define how customers start the journey.

Trigger-based journey

• Trigger to start the journey: Customers start the journey when the selected trigger occurs.
• Repeating the journey: Lets you configure how soon customers can repeat the journey if the trigger to start the journey occurs again. You can let customers repeat the journey, or only let them repeat the journey after a delay interval.
• Exclude this segment: Members of this segment won't be allowed to start the journey. This is an easy way to filter out certain segments of customers from starting the journey, even if they performed the trigger to start the journey.
• Journey timing: Lets you specify the time window in which customers can start the journey. Customers must perform the journey start trigger after the start time to enter the journey. No new customers can start the journey after the end time. The end time only affects when customers can start the journey. If a customer is already in the journey, they'll be allowed to continue the journey even after the end time.
• Handling unresolved profile: This option is only available for trigger-based journeys that target Customer Insights - Data profiles. It takes time to create a full Customer Insights - Data profile. If the full profile isn't available when the person triggers the journey, they can either start the journey using defaults for any missing profile data or wait for the full profile to be available before starting the journey. To successfully communicate with someone without a profile, the trigger must specify email (contactpoint_email) or phone (contactpoint_phone) attributes. See Create a custom trigger.
  For journeys such as sending purchase order confirmations, both new customers and existing customers can trigger the journey. A new customer might not have a full profile when they make the purchase. By selecting the option to start the journey even if the full profile isn't available, you can ensure new users get the order confirmation without having to wait. All profile attributes for these new users are treated as empty, so it's important to always include default fallbacks in personalized content as well as attribute branches.

Segment-based journey

• Audience: The audience property lets you specify the segment of people that start the journey. Segment-based journeys support segments from outbound marketing as well as segments created in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Data. The journey uses audience data based on the segment selected. For example, if the journey starts with an outbound marketing segment that contains a segment of Contacts, the journey uses Contacts as its Audience data. Similarly, if the journey starts using a Customer Insights - Data segment that is a segment of Customer Profiles, the journey uses Customer Profile as its Audience data. Once an audience segment is selected, all other segments used in the journey must be of the same type (segment from outbound marketing or Customer Insights - Data segment).
• Exclude this segment: Members of this segment can't start the journey. Specifying an exclusion segment lets you remove anyone from the Audience that starts the journey.
• Frequency: Lets you specify whether the journey should repeat.
  • One time: One-time journeys run only once with a static audience segment. This is useful for scenarios like one-time email blasts that are sent on a specific date to a fixed set of customers.
  • Ongoing: Ongoing journeys run only once with a dynamic audience segment. This is useful for scenarios like nurture campaigns where anyone added to the audience segment can start the journey as soon as they're added to the segment.
  • Repeating: These journeys repeat based on the specified time interval. Every time the journey repeats, all members of the audience segment go through the journey. If any new members are added to the segment between the repeat interval, those new members only go through the journey the next time it repeats. This type of journey is useful for scenarios like renewal reminders, where you might want to send people through the journey every time they're up for renewal.

Journey end

By default, customers end the journey when they complete all the steps. You can set additional ways for customers to exit the journey using triggers or segments.

• Exit when an event occurs: Customers who perform this trigger exit the journey after the trigger. This provides an easy way to remove customers who perform the trigger from the journey, ensuring that customers don't receive irrelevant messages from your journey. This requires the trigger to be evaluated and the existing journey to stop for that customer. In some cases, this can result in customers not exiting immediately. One way to better ensure that customers who perform the trigger exit is to add a Wait tile after the trigger and before the customer continues the rest of the flow. This can allow the necessary processes to complete and the customer to exit.
• Exit by segment: Customers who are part of this segment exit the journey. This capability is often referred to as a suppression segment and helps you ensure that members of this segment are suppressed from the customer journey. Exit by segment removes members of the segment from wherever they are in the customer journey. This is notably different from the Exclude by segment property in journey start, which only excludes members of the exclusion segment from starting the journey.
• End on a date: You can set a date to stop accepting new customers into the journeys. After this end date, customers that have already entered the journey complete all the steps but no new customers enter the journey. If you were previously using the legacy, outbound marketing module, this behavior differs in that in the outbound marketing module customers mid-journey would stop and not complete the remaining steps after the end date.

Journey goal

Journey goals let you track and analyze the performance of the journey. You can use a trigger as the journey goal and measure the success of the journey based on the customers who perform the trigger as they go through the journey.

Journey goals also help you determine the winner of A/B tests and find the best channel for channel optimization. For more information about using A/B tests, see A/B tests in Customer Insights - Journeys.

Messaging customers

Customer Insights - Journeys customer journeys let you reach customers through various channels, including:

• Send an email
• Send a text message
• Send a push notification

A/B test

A/B tests let you measure which channel or content messaging strategy leads to higher success. For more information about using A/B tests, see A/B tests in Customer Insights - Journeys.

Channel optimization

Channel optimization uses AI to find the best channel to reach each customer and improve your engagement. To learn more about channel optimization, see Use AI-driven runtime channel optimization.

Branching the customer journey

If/then branch

The if/then branch lets you branch the customer journey based on customer actions like opening an email or completing a purchase. The if/then branch waits for the customer to perform the trigger within the specified time limit. If the customer performs the trigger, they proceed down the yes branch. If the customer doesn't perform the trigger within the specified time limit, they proceed down the no branch after the time limit has passed.

For example, you can configure the if/then branch to wait for the Email opened event on a previously sent email. If the time limit is set to 1 day, the if/then branch waits for the customer to open the email within that day. If the customer opens the email within that day, they proceed down the yes branch. If the customer doesn't open the email within that day, they proceed down the no branch after one day.

Attribute branch

The attribute branch lets you branch the journey based on various attributes including:

• Customer's attributes: Branch the journey based on the customer's attributes like address or age. The journey's audience defines which attributes are shown. For example, if the journey is for Contacts, only attributes for Contacts are shown.
• Customer's segment membership: Branch the journey based on whether the customer is part of a segment. The journey's audience defines which segments are shown. For example, only Contacts-based segments are shown for journeys meant for Contacts.
• Attributes in triggers: Branch the journey based on attribute values in triggers. For attribute values to be shown, the trigger must have previously occurred in the journey. Thus, you can only check the attribute values for a trigger that starts a trigger-based journey or triggers used in an if/then branch.

The attribute branch checks for attribute values the moment a customer enters this step. For example, when a customer enters the attribute branch step, the segment membership condition checks whether the customer is part of the specified segment at that instant.

Audience split

The audience split tile lets you divide your audience to give a unique set of experiences to random sets of the audience. You can split by percentage or split by number. Learn more: Preview: Split your audience into groups

Activate a custom trigger

Triggering a custom event lets you activate a custom event at any point in the customer journey. Additional journeys or Power Automate flows connected to the custom event are triggered when a customer reaches the tile. This includes custom triggers used in exit criteria, goals, and if/then branches for journeys.

When using a custom trigger, you can choose which data to send as part of the trigger. You can choose customer profile data (for instance, attributes of the target audience such as contacts, leads, etc.) and data from other triggers used in the journey (for instance, attributes of the trigger that starts the journey).

For example, a loan application journey could have various steps that require a human agent’s approval. By creating a separate customer journey or Power Automate Flow for loan exception approval, you can trigger it from various points in the loan application journeys where exceptions can occur. The data you send with the trigger can be used to populate dynamic content or as inputs to other Flow actions.

To learn more about triggering a custom event, see Preview: Trigger an action outside of a journey.

Wait

The wait step holds the customer in the journey for the specified wait period.

Important

The maximum time a wait tile can wait is 90 days or 12 weeks. The maximum time limitation applies whether selecting an amount of time or setting a fixed date.

You can configure the wait step using the following parameters:

• A set amount of time: Customers wait for the specified amount of time (for example, one hour or one day). The time period starts as soon as customers enter the wait step.
• Until a specific date and time: Customers wait until the specified date and time. If the date and time are already in the past, customers will proceed to the next step.
• Until a time specified by a trigger: For trigger-based journeys, customers wait for the date and time specified by a trigger attribute. This configuration is useful for scenarios like appointment reminders, where you can choose to wait one day before the appointment to send a reminder. The date and time information must be included in the trigger that started the journey for the customer.