How to utilize webhooks in your customer journey

Hi Klaviyo community!

Being able to use Klaviyo as your CDP (Customer Data Platform) is one of the many things that sets it apart from the other email and SMS solutions on the market. Why? Because it means you can have one source of truth for all your customer data. When you have each step of your customers’ journey in one platform, it makes it easier to run your business, deliver a premium customer experience, and leverage your data together to make the right decisions and grow your sales year over year.

But what does it mean to use Klaviyo as a CDP? To me, it means Klaviyo is THE place I want all my data to sync to for three reasons:

1. Your data is more useful in Klaviyo than anywhere else.

2. The user experience is simple to understand even as your data grows.

3. The platform is easy to build on, making it simple to sync your data to and from Klaviyo.

Today, I’m going to explore how you can leverage this third point, especially with the help of webhooks. 

But first, what are webhooks?
 

In general terms, webhooks are a way to build if/then statements between Klaviyo and different apps you’re running. Klaviyo can push information from our platform to other places so you can appropriately act on a recent customer action.

For example, if a customer subscribes to a list and enters a Subscribed to list metric-triggered flow, the webhook within the flow can send a notification from Klaviyo to a 3rd party app that ships that new customer a snail mail thank you card.

Why are webhooks powerful?

Webhooks are so powerful because they essentially allow you to create custom integrations that fit your business’s specific needs. Have you felt limited by the available in-house integrations or felt that the addition of a specific integration would exponentially upgrade your tech stack? 

Zapier, a big webhook aggregator, was the only solution for situations like these until the launch of Klaviyo’s webhook action right in flows!

How webhooks connect customer actions and rewards

When the brand Poppy Barley came to Gatsby, they knew they wanted to take their Instagram and TikTok insights to the next level by encouraging social engagement with loyalty points.

Gatsby had a native integration with their loyalty platform, Yotpo Loyalty, but the process to integrate was made simpler by using Klaviyo webhooks rather than the native integration steps.

Step-by-Step Solution

Step 1: Create a Gatsby account to enable social listening and integrate it with Klaviyo

Step 2: Create a Klaviyo form that collects Instagram / TikTok handles

Step 3: Create a Klaviyo Flow that is triggered when a customer fills out the form. 

Step 4: In this Klaviyo flow, we created a webhook to fire to Yotpo that rewards the customer with points for filling out the form.

Step 5: In that same flow, you can add a conditional split to check if they are already a member of your loyalty program. If yes, they receive an email saying they just received points. If not, they receive an email recommending them to join the loyalty program. See both variants below:

Step 6: Create a second flow that triggers when the customer tags your brand on Instagram (powered by Gatsby). 

In this flow, we created a webhook step that again sends the event to your Loyalty program to deliver points to that customer. In addition, you’ll want to set up an email / SMS that communicates these additional points as well.

And just like that you’ve created a fully automated way to engage your customers on Instagram or TikTok and reward them with loyalty points for social shares!

Ready to create something similar? The tools you need to set this up are:

1. Klaviyo

2. Gatsby

3. A loyalty app that supports webhooks. I can confirm that at least LoyaltyLion, Yotpo / Swell, and Stamped can support this strategy.

4. This developer doc on how to add a webhook to your flow

*Note that webhooks are currently only available within flows, and send when a flow reaches a certain stage or step. Only one event can initiate the webhook to send.*

Final words

Webhooks are the most versatile way to integrate the different apps you’re running if no native integration exists. Thanks to Klaviyo now supporting webhooks in flows, you can trigger data to send from Klaviyo for any custom event you dream up to positively impact your business and efficiently follow your customers’ journey. This is what makes Klaviyo even more powerful than ever as your Customer Data Platform!

For questions or support on this strategy, please don’t hesitate to comment or reach out to me directly.

-@Brett_Gatsby (Brett Bernstein)

Learn more from Brett and other resources to keep learning:

• Understanding webhooks in Klaviyo