Zapier: The Automation Hero — Or Just Another Greek Tragedy?
Pros and Cons of the Trending Automation Tool
Introduction
Did you know that cognitive fatigue from repetitive tasks can not only affect your productivity but also lower your IQ?
Yes, it’s true — those monotonous tasks are not just a drain on your time, they’re also giving your brain cells one-way tickets out of town! Studies also show that extended periods of repetitive work can lead to involuntary twitches and movements.
Imagine trying to deliver a flawless pitch to that VC firm you’ve been targeting for months, only to find your hands doing Mr. Miyagi’s “Wax On-Wax Off” routine!
Okay, maybe that’s not exactly how it works, but you get the gist. You need to stop doing boring, repetitive tasks and let your tech do it for you.
Zapier claims to be the solution to all your automation needs — but is it really?
What is Zapier?
Zapier is a powerful automation tool that connects different apps and services, allowing them to work together seamlessly. The heart of their service is helping automate workflows, which they call “Zaps,” to handle repetitive tasks for you.
They also offer other tools still in beta testing — let’s call them side quests. One of these side quests is “Chatbots,” which helps you build customized chatbots with no coding experience needed.
Zapier promises a lot, but can they deliver? Is Zapier right for your business or startup?
I tried Zapier out, so you don’t have to — let’s jump in.
First Impressions
Right off the bat, I had mixed feelings. The home page had links and modules to different Zap templates, chatbots I could create, and a generative text bar asking what Zap I wanted to start customizing.
Listen, I didn’t even know what a Zap was, let alone how to craft the proper prompts to create my own!
Tip: Ignore the sea of boxes staring at you. Go to the left side options panel and start from the top: “Zaps” → “Create New Zaps”.
Zaps
What Are They?
A “Zap” is the term used for automating specific tasks or processes across various applications. Think of Zaps as different routes on a map: one route automatically downloads documents emailed to you into your Google Drive, while another connects Slack with your calendar. These routes have individual names you can customize, but all falling under the umbrella term of Zaps.
Before I continue, I need to define another important step called a “trigger”. The trigger is the action that occurs which triggers the Zap to run its automation. Similar to an alarm trigger. The alarm is armed, a burglar opens the door or breaks a window and that triggers the system to release a siren and immediately notify the police.
Trial and Error
So, let’s start with Zap Creation. This was actually kind of tricky and took me a solid day of working and messing up to perfect some of my Zaps.
For my first Zap, I automated the process of moving .pdf and .docx files from my email to my Google Drive. It was very straightforward, and I thought, “Great! Connecting Zaps is going to be this easy for everything.”
I got cocky…Zap humbled me.
Second Time’s a Charm?
For my next Zap, I attempted to connect Slack to my calendar. The trigger was any time I received a notification in my Slack channel for a Zoom meeting or an event in general, it would immediately populate my calendar.
Brilliant right?
No need to sift through unread messages to make sure I didn’t miss something!
Well, it would have been brilliant if it worked. I stumbled when I got to the customization screen. Questions like Summary of Event, Description of Event, Time, attendees, etc. all had drop-down menu options that were not easily interpreted.
The Meat and Potatoes
Here’s what I learned from all that struggle:
- When setting up a Zap, it will perform a test run by scanning your most recent messages on Slack (or whatever app you’re automating) to find an example of a trigger.
- Zapier then parses this test message and provides options for each category to create a fully descriptive calendar event.
- It learns which parts of the messages should go where for future triggers.
Tip: If the parsing for your test message is too convoluted or your Zap can’t find a trigger, go to Slack, initiate a trigger by sending yourself an event date, and rerun the test to ensure it picks up a clearer message.
4. After these steps pass successfully simply press ‘create’ and your Zap will show up in a list format under the Zap page.
Imagine the same idea but for an application like ClickFunnels. New “Successful Purchase” or “Help Request” would automatically populate into a given Google Doc or Sheet, which then sends a notification to your sales team’s Slack channel. You can add as many steps to your automation path as you need.
Interfaces
So, when done correctly, Zaps are pretty helpful. Let’s move on to Interfaces.
The sidebar has Tables before Interfaces.
Ignore that, go straight to Interfaces. It makes more sense to create an Interface first because your Table depends on it.
You can create two main Interfaces:
- Form: used to capture information from your leads or customers
- Customer Portal: a web portal for your team or customers.
Interfaces is a very easy tool to use, simply follow the step-by-step and you’ll be able to build your forms, or even better, use the templates provided!
Now the impressive part of this is that you can embed these forms into your already existing website. It seems intimidating for non-technical users, but Zapier puts it in very manageable language in their Share and embed Interfaces pages article.
Tip: If the app where you want to embed your interface page does not accept HTML script tags (such as Coda), you can select the iframe option from the Code Snippet Type dropdown menu. The iframe is relatively universal.
Tables
Now that we’ve gone through Interfaces and Zaps let’s talk about your personal user interface — Tables.
Tables collect all the information from the different forms and Zaps that you’ve created and put it all in one place, typically in the form of sheets (think Google Sheets, or Excel) in a list format. You can then go in and manipulate and work with the data.
Very simple stuff.
Tip: Make sure you’ve already set up the interfaces or third-party tools for collecting this data!
Canvas
I’ll briefly touch on Canvas. This feature allows you to visualize the connections and paths for your interfaces. It displays boxes representing steps and options in your workflows. Remember when I said Zaps are like different routes on a map, well Canvas is the map!
For example, here is what the map looked like when I created an Onboarding Portal.
Canvas provides a visual map of how your workflows connect. It offers a bird’s-eye view, allowing you to see the overall structure and you can easily add steps between paths directly on the map.
Final Thoughts
Does Zapier work?
Yes!
Zapier will automate your workflow well. With that said, let’s go over a few key points worth noting.
Some of the Zaps you build might be rather convoluted. Don’t fret! Keep working through it. It took me several tries to figure out what was going wrong with connecting my Slack to my calendar, but I eventually got it. The learning curve for Zapier isn’t steep, but it is there.
Remember, Zapier is not meant to help you create beautiful web pages. The Interfaces are only there for data collection. Whether it’s the forms interface or the customer (or employee) portal interface, neither is intended to be visually stunning.
I think Zapier delivers on its promise to take the tedious parts of your workflow off your shoulders. However, stay tuned because we are going to talk about another automation hero that is already giving Zapier some real competition!
That’s all for now, until next time!
How wonderful it is that nobody need to wait a single moment before starting to improve the world
- Anne Frank
