Let’s say you design a subflow that attempts to find a contact. After several attempts, if a contact isn’t found, it creates one.
Each attempt tries to find a matching contact using different criterias. For example, find by
- Email address
- First and last name
- Last name and postal code/zip code
- Last name and birthdate
If attempt 1 doesn’t return any results, you move to attempt 2. And so on.
When building this flow, there are at least two styles:
- When an attempt fails, continue down the flow to the subsequent attempt. Aftwr the final attempt, a contact is created
- When an attempt fails , increase the attempt number and reconnect to a decision element. The decision element has as many outcomes as attempts, and the default outcome creates the contact
Style 1 creates a vertical flow with many dependencies. Adding, removing, or reordering attempts is challenging. But it follows a mostly singular path
Style 2 creates a more horizontal flow, as the flow reconnects back up for another attempt. This allows for easier updates to flow, and reordering is very simple.
The takeaway
Before actually building flows, consider which style makes more sense for your scenario. Each one has pros and cons.