Overview

✔️ No staff time used to send birthday cards

✔️ More cost-effective than buying supplies and doing this manually”

Sending birthday cards from my business is easy because I don’t have to check the list every day or every week, figure out when to send them, write in each of them, order cards and envelopes and postage, pack them, put them in the mail, and worry about weekends and holidays and where they fall or if they were done.

I also don’t have to take up staff time to do it and I can change the design of the card any time. It works on weekends, holidays, and vacation days, and we all hated having to keep track of it. It is also cost-effective because I don’t have to buy any of the supplies, store them, or take the time to do it.

How it works

Every day the workflow triggers, formats the day into a date that matches the spreadsheet format, searches the mail date column which is a formula for when to send the card based on days before the birthday date, loops for each record found, sends it to a print partner with fillable fields for the card and envelope, adds it to another sheet that it was sent, and then sends me an email confirmation that it was sent so I can see whose birthdays are coming up.

💡Tips and tricks

• Spreadsheet dates: You want them in a matching format so the search step will find the date match and pull the row.

• Looping: You want it to trigger for all records on that day found.

The last two steps in the loop are not mandatory, I just include them to keep tabs on what is being sent and to make sure it isn’t missing any.

💡 Tip: I put 2 or 3 extra people that are internal to our company that have birthdays spread through the year so I can make sure they are being printed and sent and then received on time.

Zapier also will send an error email if it errors. The print partner verifies the addresses before sending, so I had an incorrect city on the records and I was able to get the error from Zapier, go fix that step, and replay that step so the card still sent out.