Sitecore tip 35: respect user privacy in your Sitecore Automation plans

When creating automation plans one could quickly forget about the user’s privacy. And that could have a counterproductive effect on the sentiment of your visitors. The ultimate customer experience is one where you respect the other party. Especially when it comes to sending emails.

The Consent Revoked check

To make sure you respect the choices of your visitors, include the Consent Revoked check. It is a special rule in Sitecore that can be used in combination with the Decision Point element. The rule is as follows:

(except) where the contact’s profile is marked as “Consent revoked”

The most common situation to use it in, is before sending an email. You want to check if the user’s does not have revoked his consent. Otherwise emails are send and can break your visitor’s experience. You probably have to add this check on multiple places if you send multiple emails.

In my example below, I send a first email, which is an invitation email. Then I check if user’s opened the first email. If not I send a reply. If yes, then a confirmation email or something like that. But after the first email user’s can revoke their consent. So you need to keep checking it. In my example I added the consent check two times.

About the Decision Point element

The Decision Point element must be placed directly after a Listener element or after another Decision Point. Please note, that it evaluates right away so there is no timeout. If you have to wait you should add a Delay element before it.

That’s it. A simple extra check to respect the choices of your visitors and customers. Makes them smile the next time they do business with you :).