Action | Integration | Best for |
Slack Message | Slack | Real-time team alerts for notable customers |
Klaviyo Stream | Klaviyo | Pushing enriched data to all customer profiles |
Klaviyo Tag | Klaviyo | Triggering flows or building segments by tag |
Shopify Tag | Shopify | Tagging customers or orders for fulfillment or filtering |
Shopify Metafield | Shopify | Writing structured data to customer records |
Shopify Note | Shopify | Adding fulfillment instructions to orders |
Email Notification | Built-in | Notifying your internal team by email |
Webhook | Custom | Sending data to any external tool or endpoint |
Slack Message
Sends an alert to a Slack channel when a customer enters your segment. Best for VIP and high-signal customers where your team wants to act personally — reach out, send a gift, or escalate to a senior team member.
Configuration:
Trigger:
On Enter — fires once when a customer first matches the segment
Live Sync — fires on every matching order while the customer is in the segment
Channel — select the Slack channel to receive alerts (e.g. #alerts). The channel must exist in your Slack workspace first — create it in Slack, then refresh the channel list here
When to use On Enter vs Live Sync:
Use On Enter when you want a single alert the first time a notable customer appears — ideal for VIP notifications where you want to reach out once. Use Live Sync when you want your team alerted on every order from customers in this segment — useful for high-value repeat buyers where each order is actionable.
Klaviyo Stream
Pushes enriched OuterSignal data fields directly to Klaviyo customer profiles. This is the foundation of persona-based email — it makes demographic and enrichment data available in Klaviyo for segmentation, flows, and campaigns.
Configuration:
Trigger: Live Sync (always — streams update continuously)
Available fields — select which data to sync:
Age
Gender
Birth Date
Birth Year
Persona
Segment Name
At least one field must be selected. We recommend selecting all of them.
When to use: Set this up on your All Customers segment as the very first Playbook you create. It ensures every customer processed by OuterSignal gets their enriched data pushed to Klaviyo automatically — past and future.
Klaviyo Tag
Adds a tag to a customer's Klaviyo profile when they enter your segment. The tag can then be used to trigger Klaviyo flows, build Klaviyo segments, or organize customers by segment membership.
Configuration:
Trigger:
On Enter — fires once when a customer first matches the segment
Live Sync — fires on every matching order while the customer is in the segment
Tag Name — enter your tag using letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores (max 50 characters). Examples: vip-customer, high-value, os-influencer, loyal-buyer
When to use: Use Klaviyo Tag for specific segments where you want to trigger a dedicated Klaviyo flow — for example, tagging all influencer customers to enroll them in an ambassador invite flow, or tagging a specific persona to trigger a persona-specific welcome sequence.
Shopify Tag
Adds a tag to a Shopify customer record or order when a customer enters your segment. Tags help you organize customers in Shopify, instruct your 3PL, or trigger Shopify-native automations.
Configuration:
Trigger:
On Enter — fires once when a customer first matches the segment
Live Sync — fires on every matching order while the customer is in the segment
Target Object:
Customer — tag is added to the customer record and persists across all future orders
Order — tag is added to the specific order associated with the customer
Customer Tag — enter your tag using letters, numbers, hyphens, underscores, and template variables (max 50 characters). You can use dynamic variables like os-{{segment_name}} to auto-populate with the segment name
Customer vs Order tagging:
Tag the customer when you want the tag to persist — for VIP status, persona labels, or any classification that applies to all their future orders. Tag the order when you need the instruction on a specific transaction — for example, to tell your 3PL to include a gift with this particular order.
📖 Shopify Tag Playbooks — Tagging, Metafields, and Order Notes (coming soon)
Shopify Metafield
Writes structured OuterSignal data to a custom metafield on the Shopify customer record. Metafields store richer, more structured data than tags — useful for powering your CS platform, storefront personalization, loyalty apps, or any Shopify-connected tool that reads metafields.
Configuration:
Target Object: Customer (metafields apply to the customer record)
Namespace — pre-set to outersignal — leave this as is. The full metafield identifier will be outersignal.your_key
Key — the name of the metafield (e.g. vip_status, biography, persona). Max 64 characters
Value — select the OuterSignal variable to write to this field (e.g. Biography, Persona). The value type shown (Single Line Text or Multi Line Text) is set automatically based on the field selected
Most common use: Writing a customer's OuterSignal biography to their Shopify record so it surfaces automatically in your CS platform (e.g. Gorgias, Kustomer) — giving your support team instant context on who they're talking to without leaving their helpdesk.
Shopify Note
Writes a free-text note to a Shopify customer or order record. Notes are visible in Shopify admin and to your 3PL — useful for fulfillment instructions, internal flags, or team context about why a customer is notable.
Configuration:
Trigger: On Enter or Live Sync
Target Object: Customer or Order
Note Template — free text up to 1,000 characters. Use dynamic variables to personalize the note e.g. VIP Alert: {{criteria_text}} — please include handwritten note and gift
Mode:
Append — adds your note to any existing notes (recommended — preserves history)
Overwrite — replaces existing notes completely (not recommended)
When to use: Shopify Note is ideal for 3PL fulfillment instructions that need to appear on the order itself — for example, flagging that a VIP customer should receive a handwritten note or premium packaging with every order.
Email Notification
Sends an internal email notification to a specified recipient when a customer enters your segment. This sends to your team — not to the customer.
Configuration:
Trigger: On Enter or Live Sync
Recipient Email — enter the email address that should receive the notification (e.g. [email protected])
When to use: A lighter-weight alternative to Slack alerts for teams that don't use Slack, or for routing specific segment notifications to a specific person (e.g. your wholesale team gets emailed when a retail buyer is detected).
Webhook
Sends a JSON payload to any HTTPS endpoint when a customer enters your segment. Connects OuterSignal to any external tool, CRM, or custom system that accepts webhooks.
Configuration:
Action Name — give your webhook a descriptive name
Trigger: On Enter or Live Sync
Webhook URL — the HTTPS endpoint to send data to. Must use HTTPS. POST is recommended — GET is not supported
HTTP Method — POST (default and recommended)
When to use: Webhooks are for advanced integrations — connecting OuterSignal to a CRM, a custom internal tool, or any platform not natively supported. If you're not sure whether you need a webhook, you probably don't — the native Klaviyo, Shopify, and Slack integrations cover most use cases.
Choosing the right action
Not sure which action to use? Here's a quick decision guide:
I want my team to know immediately when a VIP orders → Slack Message (On Enter)
I want enriched data in Klaviyo for all customers → Klaviyo Stream (All Customers segment)
I want to trigger a specific Klaviyo flow for a segment → Klaviyo Tag
I want to tag customers in Shopify for VIP status → Shopify Tag (Customer, On Enter)
I want to flag each VIP order for my 3PL → Shopify Tag (Order, Live Sync) or Shopify Note
I want OuterSignal data in my CS platform → Shopify Metafield (Biography)
I want to notify a team member by email → Email Notification
I want to connect OuterSignal to a custom tool → Webhook
📖 Deep Dive: Creating and Configuring a Playbook (coming soon)