User Action Best Practices

Before creating User Actions, understand the end-user workflow in the application. While a process may have an expected sequence of steps, users may take different paths to complete the same workflow.

For example, a contact in the Salesforce Sales Cloud application can be accessed through both the Contact module and the Opportunity module. It is common practice to create User Actions in the Contact module, as this is the expected path for the end user. However, missing User Actions in the Opportunity module results in a lack of tracking for users who access contacts through that module. Consequently, User Action analytics may indicate that Step 2 of a process has higher engagement than Step 1, which may seem illogical.

While selecting an element to create a User Action, add Display Rules to identify the element for which the action is tracked. Using Display Rules with User Action improves the performance of tracking the actions.

Ensure that you add the correct Display Rules while creating User Actions.

Common mistakes to avoid when adding Display Rules to User Actions

• Display Rules configured for one User Action may conflict with another User Action, resulting in inconsistent latching behavior.

  Solutions:

  • Verify User Actions before making them live on your application.

  • Identify all possible paths in the application and check whether the CSS selectors used on one page or URL have been reused in configuring the Display Rule of another User Action.

• If the UI of the underlying application changes, the CSS Selectors used to configure Display Rules may also change. As a result, User Actions dependent on the Display Rules may not evaluate correctly.

  Solution:

  Reselect User Actions to manage UI changes and verify the User Actions before making them live on the application.

• An incorrect operator may be used when more than one Display Rule is added. For example, the Display Rule is configured as Selector A AND Selector B instead of Selector A OR Selector B.

  Solution:
  Use the AND operator when the User Action needs to be evaluated only if all the conditions are evaluated as true.
  Use the OR operator when the User Action needs to be evaluated if any one of the conditions is evaluated as true.

While creating User Actions, ensure that you always select the outermost individual element of the UI. This selection ensures that any action performed inside the element is also tracked as part of the User Action

Adding relevant and recognizable tags to User Actions organizes and filters actions specific to a particular page or process.

Add tags while creating a User Action.

Once User Actions are created, use the verification experience to validate the User Actions contextually on the application. The experience enables you to understand if you've configured User Actions correctly on the application, if they have latched to the correct element, or if there is already a User Action on the element.

After creating User Actions, ensure that you push them to the Production stage to make them live for your end users. Unless the User Actions are pushed to Production, they won't be able to capture data.

For more information, see

• Push Whatfix content and widgets to Production
• Should I do a Push to Production for any content changes?

Use the User Action Analytics insight to get the User Actions engagement data.

If you have created User Actions in a sequence that represents a process, use Funnels to see on which step of the process your users are dropping off. Funnel insights also show how much time users take to complete a process.

For more information, see Funnels.

To use User Actions for further analysis, that is, in Funnels, Trends, User Journey, Event groups, or Cohorts, the action needs to be completed at least once for you to see them in the Custom events dropdown.