In this article, we will cover the most common reasons why users may see duplicated Salesforce Events and/or calendar events after a meeting is booked via Chili Piper.
Table of Contents
Duplicate Events in Salesforce
We will start covering the most common reasons why users see duplicate Events in Salesforce after a meeting is booked.
Salesforce's Einstein Activity (EAC) for Event Sync enabled in Salesforce
Why does it happen?
According to Salesforce's definition in their documentation, "Einstein Activity helps keep data between Salesforce and your email and calendar applications up to date". This option is useful for users who want to export their calendar events - including the ones not booked via Chili Piper - to Salesforce. You may also know this functionality as Lightning Sync.
Once Einstein identifies a new calendar event, it creates a new Event in Salesforce, generating the duplicate on the Salesforce side.
This means that when a meeting is booked via Chili Piper, and the calendar event is generated, Einstein will identify it and create a new Event seconds after Chili Piper's.
By default, Chili Piper does not create duplicate Salesforce Events in any instance.
Other Tools
Why does it happen?
Other tools or apps, such as people.ai, SalesLoft, and Outreach, may have the functionality to create Salesforce events by syncing with your calendar. This can result in duplicate events in Salesforce, and they may not necessarily detect that Chili Piper has already created the Event.
How can we confirm this and tell which event was created by Chili Piper vs another Event Syncing tool?
We recommend two ways to confirm whether or not the duplicated Event came from Chili Piper.
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Check Chili Piper's Custom Fields: Events that were not created by Chili Piper will not have Chili Piper-related Custom Fields, such as Meeting Type, Queue, Router Name, and others, filled out. If one of your Events has these fields filled out and the other doesn't, we can likely confirm that one of them (with no custom fields filled out) was not created by Chili Piper.
Click here for more details about Chili Piper's Custom Fields in Salesforce.
- Check the Event's Source:In the Event history, for the Event created by Chili Piper, you should find your integration user, while in the one created by EAC, a different user.
Options to Consider
There are a couple of options to evaluate, where you need to pay attention to the "consequence" for each:
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Disable the Event Sync in Einstein Activity Capture (EAC): Consider this option if you are not using EAC or can disable the Events sync functionality in EAC. You can still sync Emails and Contacts, disabling only the Events option over there:
You can also consider disabling it completely if that makes sense for you and your org. Click here to access Salesforce documentation explaining how to do it.
Note that calendar events will stop being exported as Events in Salesforce once this is the Events sync, or EAC itself is disabled, so consider evaluating with your team if disabling will not cause any issues to their routines. Disabling it will not affect the Event creation from meetings booked via Chili Piper if the Event creation is enabled.
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Disable Chili Piper's Event Creation: If you disable the Event creation from Chili Piper's side, you will basically rely on Einstein to export the new meetings/events as Events for you once they are in your calendar, and there will be no duplicates.
Chili Piper's Salesforce Custom Fields and Ownership updates will not happen!
We do not recommend switching the Event creation off. If you are using Chili Piper's Custom Salesforce Fields for any purpose or relying on Chili Piper to update the object's ownership after a meeting is booked, they will stop working as they are directly related to the Event creation from Chili Piper.
- Keep Both: Although we understand this might not be ideal for your organization, keeping both Events is also an option. You can create filters and reports based on Chili Piper's Salesforce Custom Fields if you want to separate the events booked via Chili Piper from the duplicates created by the external source (EAC).
Duplicate Events in Calendar
Now, we will cover the most common reasons why users see duplicate events in Google/Microsoft after a meeting is booked.
Salesforce's Einstein Activity (EAC) Directions
Why does it happen?
We explained Einstein in more detail in the section above, but if you came directly to this section, let's recap what EAC is according to their documentation: "Einstein Activity helps keep data between Salesforce and your email and calendar applications up to date". This option is useful for users who want to export their calendar events - including the ones not booked via Chili Piper - to Salesforce. You may also know this functionality as Lightning Sync.
Salesforce's Einstein Activity (EAC) can also generate duplicated Events in your calendars if it's set to sync in "Both Directions" or from "Salesforce to Google/Microsoft":
That means when Chili Piper creates the new Salesforce event, Einstein identifies it, and if it has "Both Directions" or "Salesforce to Google/MS", it will bring the Salesforce event to your calendar after some seconds, generating the duplicate.
Options to Consider
Within EAC, consider using the Google Suite/Microsoft to Salesforce option to avoid creating duplicates in your calendar. However, note that this option will likely generate duplicate Events in Salesforce.
We recommend checking the Duplicate Events in Salesforce above for more details on this behavior.
Calendar Sync Enabled in Chili Piper
Why does it happen?
If you are an Admin, in the Legacy's Admin Center Users Table, you will find the Calendar Sync option after scrolling all the way to the right.
This option is enabled or disabled by individual users. If enabled, it is responsible for pushing Events from your CRM (external meetings created, for example) to your calendar.
Once a new meeting is booked, a Salesforce and a calendar event are created via Chili Piper, and then Calendar Sync identifies the Salesforce event, it pushes a new calendar event, generating duplicates.
Options to Consider
Generally, unless you have a specific reason or use case for syncing events from Salesforce to Calendar, we generally do not recommend enabling Calendar Sync in Chili Piper.
If you are not using this functionality as an Admin, navigate to Legacy's Admin Center Users table in the left-hand menu and disable the Calendar Sync for each user - it's the last option after scrolling to the right.