Creating and using contact Relationships (Related Contacts)

FunnelFLARE has the ability to build relationships between contacts. A contact relationship is a named connection between one contact and another.

For example, two contacts, Bob and Mary have a single relationship:

Mary is Bob's Father.

This relationship is unidirectional (i.e. a directed relationship from one contact to another). In this case,  the relationship describes, when talking about Mary, in the context of discussing Bob, Mary is Bob's Daughter.  Bob can have multiple relationships with Mary, for example:

Mary is Bob Smith's Friend

Mary is Bob Smith's Fortnite Clanmate

Etc.

Defining Contact Relationships

You can define a contact relationship between two contacts on the contact edit screen. 

In the above screenshot, we have two relationships involving Mary displayed. The first relationship is "Mary's relationship to Bob", the second is "Bob's relationship to Mary". A contact can have many relationships with other contacts (or even one contact), but it can only have one primary relationship with a contact.  Only those connections to contacts (Relationships to the contact) of the currently viewed contact can be set as primary. For example, the above screenshot is viewed on Bob's contact record. Thus the option of primary cannot be assigned to Bob's relationship to Mary, but it can be set to either Mary's relationship with Bob, or Fred's relationship with Bob. The primary relationship is referenced using dynamic fields in emails etc. Also, note that Bob has no relationship defined with Fred (for example, Bob is Fred's salesperson).

Using Contact Relationships

The real power of relationships is used in communications. You can reference a related contact directly using dynamic fields on contact records. For example, 

If Bob's relationship with Mary was primary, the above would resolve to: 

If Fred was Bob's primary relationship:

You as well could reference specific relationships

whish would resolve to

Sending Emails to Related Contacts

There are cases when you may want to communicate with related contacts directly. This can be achieved using the 'Email Related Contact' workflow action

This action allows you to communicate directly with related to the person that is currently in process. If Bob is the in workflow contact, and you use the Email Related Contact, workflow, you can email any one of Bob's related contacts. You can define which relationship you are looking to email.

The options are:

• Primary
• Dynamic
• Specific

If Primary is chosen, an email will be sent to the in-process Contact's Primary relationship. Dynamic allows you to use dynamic fields, and specific defines the relationship.  

Within the Email Related Prospect workflow action, there are some considerations related to dynamic fields that should be noted. When referencing the in-process contact, nothing changes in the email body. You still reference the in-process contact directly:

In Process Contact: %CONTACT.FIRST_NAME%,
In Process Contact: %CONTACT.LAST_NAME%
In Process Contact: %CONTACT.EMAIL.EMAIL_ADDRESS%

etc.

But when referencing the related contact, you use the dynamic fields

In Related Contact Relationship: %RELATIONSHIP%
In Related Contact First Name: %RELATED_CONTACT.FIRST_NAME%
In Related Contact Last Name:: %RELATED_CONTACT.LAST_NAME%

Etc.