WC-AC stopped adding order status to tags

It not only complicate things… it prevents scenarios that it exists to enable.

I don’t think anything has changed but there is a subtle difference between the base tag and product specific tag that might explain what you are seeing.

The default (base) tag will cycle through (i.e. remove old tag and add new tag) as the order status changes e.g. default-tag (pending), default-tag (processing), default-tag (completed)

So you can always use the default tag to see the status of the last order.

The product tag is slightly different. As the orders goes through you would get product-tag (pending), product-tag (processing) and finally just product-tag. So you don’t get the (completed) suffix on the final product-tag (when the order is complete).

So you just need to start your automation on product-tag (if you want the automation to be triggered when the order is complete for that product).

I’ve checked tags manager in AC and found that indeed I have product tags with order status suffixes.
So the question is – why customers from last few weeks that didn’t complete order get product specific tags without suffixes (like they completed their orders)?

Can you check this please?

I am starting an automation on product-tag.

But I’ve noticed that some customers have product-tag even though they didn’t complete the order… This is my issue.

Sorry for taking so long to respond. I could have sworn I clicked the notify me check box to follow this thread.

It is obviously 2 months since you posted, so let me know the latest situation. The first thing I would want to see is the log entries for one of these customers (WC-AC Hook log entries have contact ID from ActiveCampaign, WC order ID, status and time). From the specific status changes (and times) for all a customer’s orders we should be able to see what is going on.

Regards, Matthew.

Hi!

Me and my coworker got back to this issue and it still is a thing.

here’s some screenshots of the logs for one of our “customers”. Even though they did not complete the order, the product tag triggered the welcome automation that should have been reserved for actual customers:

https://puu.sh/y1Y4c/a2030edf78.png
visited the sales page and forgot password (so already tried to log-in to make the purchase)

https://puu.sh/y1Y7A/f23a7517f0.png

recovered password, added the product to cart and instantly got added to the “welcome” automation “[UPSELLING] Koncentracja w Akcji” that should have been reserved for those that completed the purchase, not just added a product to the cart.

That automation triggers when the product tag is added to contact, just as you said we should do.

Another example:

Activity log from the very start of somebody that cancelled the order, never paid and yet:

https://puu.sh/y1Ymn/0bf8cdfb7e.png
https://puu.sh/y1Ynu/c42a1a9db5.png
https://puu.sh/y1YnN/9009e7c547.png

That’s all the info that shows up in the activity log. Some of those automations, like “[UPSELLING] Lodo?amacz J?zykowy” trigger only on the product tag added: https://puu.sh/y1YoU/2e3d45203f.png

and yet as you can see here: https://puu.sh/y1YsL/3ce9dc3faa.png
The red X tells us the paypal order was cancelled.

So the problem is, product tag adds when the order BEGINS, not when it is complete.

How can I use tags to trigger AC automations only for orders that are completed?

Here are logs of wc-ac from the WooCommerce plugin in case they help: https://pastebin.com/agwZ3ePq

I hope you’re still watching this thread and you can help! I’ve been sending WELCOME messages to people that didn’t buy anything and I’ve been treating them as customers. I need to fix that ASAP.

Ok, I’ve just taken a read through and let’s see what I can do. Two points or questions spring to mind.

Firstly, I see from you logs that contacts are being synced on ALL order status changes. This means that you must have the ‘Track Order Status’ checkbox ticked? Please let me know if this is not the case. You may also have the ‘Add/Update Contact’ checkbox ticked but I cannot tell since the ‘Track Order Status’ would override.

Now if you NEVER want contacts created before order status is ‘completed’, then BOTH these check boxes should be UNCHECKED (which is actually the default). With both these check boxes unchecked, tags should only be created when an order is completed.

Note that in this case no suffix will be added to any default or products tags. If you haven’t already (or recently) done so, please read the two FAQs and get back to me if any of the points are unclear. I’m more than happy to explain with further examples. The plugin FAQs to understand are:

‘When will a contact be created or updated on ActiveCampaign’ and
‘Can I track order status and abandoned carts’

So if you only want contacts created at order completion please do that (uncheck both settings) and see how you get on (but please check that your automations are not triggered by tags with any suffix, since you will no longer have the suffix added by the ‘Track Order Status’ setting).

My second point is that I noted you said that contacts were synced (i.e. created with tags) when a product was added to a cart. That is hard to explain (by default WooCommerce only creates orders when a customer checks out). I also noted that you said contacts were synced when an order was ‘cancelled’ which is as expected (until you make the changes to the settings as proposed above). I guess (and that is all it is) that either the order was actually cancelled (and not just an abandoned cart) or maybe you have an extension to handle abandoned carts (and which creates orders before checkout). Anyway, I suspect this will be immaterial if you switch to the default of only syncing when order status is ‘completed’.

Regards,
Matthew

I want to track order status to activate campaigns for abandoned cart.
So I don’t want to uncheck tracking order status.

At the same time I want to send product specific thank you and upselling campaigns.

When testing I used existing contact. AC didn’t have to create complately new contact.

Ok. Well I suggest that I explain what should happen (with track order status) with an example specific to you. Then you can tell me what actually happens.

So that I can give you the best explanation. Please can you send me (i.e. cut and paste) the following two entries:

1) The ‘Default Tag(s)’ field from your wc-ac-hook settings.

2) An ‘ActiveCampaign Tag’ field from one of your products (you will find this in the ‘Advanced’ product data tab or ‘Custom Fields’ for a product). You can pick any product that you are having trouble with.

Thanks,
Matthew

1) klient
(“klient” means customer in polish language)

2) motywacja-poliglotow
(it’s a short for my product name)

So here is an example of how I would expect tags to be added and removed on ActiveCampaign. Take a read through and get back to me with any questions and see how this compares to what you get.

Default Tag = klient
Product Tag = motywacja-poliglotow

Looking at your debug log example, the order status sequences I can see include:

pending -> completed
pending -> cancelled
pending (i.e. abandoned)
pending -> processing -> completed

Just to recap the meaning (from WooCommerce documentation) of these status:

Pending payment – Order received (unpaid)
Processing – Payment received and stock has been reduced – the order is awaiting fulfillment.
Completed – Order fulfilled and complete – requires no further action
Cancelled – Cancelled by an admin or the customer – no further action required

In the example below I have used the most common sequence from you log which is pending -> completed

The trigger for sync of contact data with ActiveCampaign is order creation at checkout (by the customer) and ANY order status change. This is a sync of contact data so if the contact does not exist it will be created. The only point to note is that the MANUAL creation of an order by an administrator will NOT sync contact data UNTIL the first order status change after order creation.

Step 1: Customer checks out creating a ‘pending’ order including the product with tag motywacja-poliglotow

Contact is synced with ActiveCampaign. If the contact does not exist they will be created.

The following tags are added: klient (pending), motywacja-poliglotow (pending)

If the contact has any similar tags (klient or motywacja-poliglotow) with a DIFFERENT suffix then these tags will be removed. For example if the customer had already completed another order and had the ‘klient (completed)’ tag then this tag would be removed. If the client had previously cancelled an order for this product then the ‘motywacja-poliglotow (cancelled)’ would be removed.

Step 2: The status of the order is changed to ‘completed’

The following tags are added: klient (completed), motywacja-poliglotow

The following tags are removed: klient (pending), motywacja-poliglotow (pending)

Note that you do not get the (completed) suffix on the final product tag when the order is complete.

A typical way to handle abandoned orders would be to have an automation triggered by the ‘klient (pending)’ tag being added. The automation would then wait for a period of time (e.g. 1 hour) and check if the ‘klient (pending)’ tag still existed. If the tag did exist then you might assume that an order has been abandoned since the status has not been updated to ‘processing’, ‘cancelled’ or ‘completed’ (which would have removed the pending tag). If you wanted the action to be specific to a product (or group of products) then you can either check for the ‘motywacja-poliglotow (pending)’ tag in the automation or create a new automation triggered by the product ‘motywacja-poliglotow (pending)’ tag being added.

If you wanted to take specific action when a customer buys (i.e. completes an order including) this product then you would trigger an automation based on the ‘motywacja-poliglotow’ tag being added without any suffix (remember you don’t get ‘(completed)’ on the product tag). Note that wc-ac-hook will NOT remove this final product tag (without suffix) on subsequent orders for the same product.

After some testing I see that wc-ac-hook may have issues when we use more than one tag in “product tag” field.

In my case I got “product-tag (pending)” and “product-tag” at the same time on my testing account/emails.

When I removed second tag from product field and left only one (product name) everything is working as planned.

So maybe add this info somewhere in the instructions or restrict the possibility for adding more than one tag.

Thanks for letting me know that you have worked around ok.

I will put another example in the FAQs to explain better what happens if you have multiple product tags with track order status (which is valid).