Zapier is Great… Most of the Time

This post is part of a month-long project where I’m learning three different operations tools: TextExpander, HubSpot, and Zapier. To learn more about my project, click here to see my project landing page.

What is Zapier?

Zapier is a software system that allows you to integrate many different web applications to run in the background so you can focus on more important tasks and save time. By creating “Zaps” you link two or more systems together to do time-saving tasks, like sending a reminder message when a calendar event is coming up.

This brings me to my main problem with Zapier…

It Doesn’t Always Work

Let me explain. When I was trying to make a Zap that would send a message to a Slack channel when a new event was created in Google Calendar, it wouldn’t always send one. And when it did send, it had the wrong time for the event. I changed the time zone to Central Standard (which is where I live) and it still would put the wrong time. If the event I created was at 7:30 PM for example, it would send the message (most of the time) and state that the time of the event was 1:30 AM. I could never get the time stamp to be correct. I ended up finding other Zaps to create for my video about Zapier, but they weren’t the ones I had originally planned.

In other words, based on my experience, this specific Zap is a bit useless. Thankfully, though, there are plenty of other Zaps to create, so let’s dive into 3 that I made.

Zap #1: Create a New Contact in HubSpot When a New Row is Added to a Google Sheet

This Zap ended up working well for me, but not without a few hiccups and workarounds. I first tried to make this Zap the usual way, by clicking Make A Zap. But that didn’t work for some reason. I tried everything, from changing the action settings to starting all over again from scratch. Nothing worked until I went to a list of premade Zaps that Zapier has on their website. I clicked on that, customized it to fit my needs and FINALLY it worked. As long as I’m signed in to the right account on Google Sheets it creates a new contact without fail.

I’m not quite sure what the difference was between the Zap that I created and their premade Zap was, all that matters is that it works.

What exactly is the Zap I created? When I type a new contact into a Google Sheet…

The Zap I created will automatically add it to my contacts list on HubSpot

This Zap can be useful if you like using spreadsheets more than HubSpot’s contacts page, but your office still wants you to use HubSpot.

Zap #2: A New Lead Saved on Hunter.io Creates a New Company on HubSpot

This Zap is fairly self-explanatory. When you’re on Hunter and you save a new lead, this Zap automatically creates a new company in HubSpot. I set the Zap to mark it as a new lead on HubSpot and this Zap works well. No hiccups or workarounds here.

The final Zap I created adds a step to this. I would have made it another Action, but I’m using the free version and to use more than one application on one Zap requires a paid subscription.

Zap #3: A New Hunter Lead Sends a Message to a Slack Channel

I would’ve rather done the Zap that sends a message reminding everyone of a new event that was created on Google Calendar, but since that didn’t work, I did this instead. When I save a new lead in Hunter this Zap automatically sends a message to a Slack channel. You can choose what’s in the message, from a little bit of custom text to a few predetermined things from the lead on Hunter. Here’s an example of a couple of messages that were sent…

This Zap works well and sends a message almost instantly when a new lead is created.

In Conclusion…

Zapier is great, most of the time. When it works it can do trivial tasks and save you time that can be used on more important things. When it doesn’t work, however, it can be very frustrating. If you can find the Zaps that work for you and don’t make you pull your hair out, this can be a great system to use. And it’s not all that hard to create a simple Zap. You can create Zaps that are very detailed or you can create some that are more simple. You decide. Just remember, Zapier is great, most of the time.

P.S. To see a video showing how to create a Zap, click here for my video.