Proposal: Changes to application workflow for better communication

Our Meetup and WordCamp vetting queue might sometimes be a bit long. It causes a delay, sometimes almost a month, between sending the application and deputy vetting it. The long gap between submitting the application and receiving an update might be frustrating for some applicants. Some do also come to #community-events Slack channel and ask to confirm that their application is received.

Public application report page helps a little with this, but not all applicants know about it. Even if they do, it does not feel like personal contact with Community Team.

I propose the following change to our application workflow, to keep applicants informed and to add a bit more personal touch after sending the application:

  • Create a HelpScout ticket and in that ticket:
  • Send a short warm confirmation that the Community Team has received the application.
  • Keep ticket open and mark it with the tag “application-confirmation.”
  • The application tracker on central.wordcamp.org is updated with a link to the ticket for later communication.

This can be done pragmatically leveraging HelpScout API, so manual deputy work is not needed.

After this process has been set up, we could use HelpScout workflows to do different things. For example, send a short message if there hasn’t been any activity for two weeks after the application was received. This message could contain an apology that we have a bit of queue right now and promise that we will vet the application as soon as possible.

Possible advantages for deputies:

  • Deputies can view the queue from HelpScout and not require to visit the application tracker queue to figure out which one to conduct a vetting
  • Easier and trackable way to assign applications to deputies

What do you think, is this a good idea? Do you already imagine how the messaged are phrased? Tell it in the comments! Deadline for comments is 2019-10-04.

Thanks to @adityakane for brainstorming this proposal with me and commenting the draft.

Yes yes yes
Thanks!
No idea about how to phrase it, but definitely yes to not leave people hanging

I love this – better and more immediate communication with applicants would be hugely valuable.

This can be done pragmatically leveraging HelpScout API, so manual deputy work is not needed.

Using the API would require a bunch of dev time that we don’t really have available, but this same thing could likely be achieved by simply emailing the applicant and then CCing (or BCCing) support@wordcamp.org, then we use an HS workflow to tag and handle appropriately. It would have the same effect with essentially zero development hours.

I like this approach! Not only because we don’t have dev time, but also because it simplifies the functionality overall. The only thing we lose when not using API is automatically updating the HS ticket link to tracker.

same thing could likely be achieved by simply emailing the applicant and then CCing (or BCCing) support@wordcamp.org

Hopefully, you didn’t mean that we’d send those emails manually 😅

I think this is a great idea. We can see a lot of people complaining lack of action. In fact the action is being taken in the background. A quick email to inform them the status will be very helpful.

+1
I was unable to handle many of the reviews and was worried about making the applicants wait.
I think this is good idea!

Giving this another +1! Not everyone understands the vetting process, and people can be impatient. More communication, the better!

Thanks a lot for brainstorming about this @sippis & @adityakane

About:

Send a short warm confirmation that the Community Team has received the application

I’ve just checked the WordCamp/Meetup application code from the Meta repository because I was almost sure we already receive a notification when the application has been successfully saved in database. Here’s the message built by Event_Application->notify_applicant_application_received() :

Thank you for applying to organize a {event_type} in {event_city} ! We’ll send you a follow-up e-mail once we’ve had a chance to review your application.

You can probably edit this method to add a Bcc header. So far the existing header is setting the Reply to:
$headers = array( 'Reply-To: support@wordcamp.org' );
You could simply edit this in favor of:
$headers = array( 'Reply-To: support@wordcamp.org', 'Bcc: support@wordcamp.org' );

To automatically update the WordCamp/Meetup post type with the HS ticket url, this probably require some more development to use their API.

About the other parts, as I’m not used so much to HelpScout, I don’t really see the benefits, but I trust your expertise 🙂

I do see a benefit about having all the log data in the WordCamp/Meetup Post Types: you can directly view the chronological informations about the city, searching in HS is not that great for this part imho (but I’m probably off topic 🙂 ).

Ha, true! Even easier to add those automated messages when the only real dev time needed is to add that Bcc. Thanks for digging this information 🙂

If deputies agree that BCCing support@wordcamp.org would help with coordination and communication, and if that can be done without leaning on our limited developer time, then I think we should go ahead with it! Who can volunteer to report back on whether the experiment was successful in 3-6 months? 🙂

I could volunteer to report back in 3-6 months 🙂

I really like this process! Great job, Timi! @sippis

Now that I think of it, I feel we have also a small gap between vetted application that is moved to orientation and sending the email to schedule the orientation. Should we send a message to the applicant when their application is moved? Telling that someone will contact them shortly to schedule the orientation.

Should we send a message to the applicant when their application is moved? Telling that someone will contact them shortly to schedule the orientation.

That might be another process change and another p2 post I think. Would it be useful to actually see how this change goes and tweak it further with more changes to the workflow?

Yup and yup! Let’s keep this in mind and check back in 3-6 months after we have implemented the first step.

I think it’s fantastic. It has to be done.

I love the amount of interest in this topic, but I’m now confused about the new “final” process that we’ve collectively landed on. 🙂 Can someone re-state it for me? #lazyweb

I was thinking the same. Really in favor of improving communication with applicants though as I know how frustrating the process can be when it’s a busy application time.

Additionally it sounds like some things that could help keep us on our toes in terms of getting those responses out.