Traits Overview
Traits are pieces of information about an Org/Account/User, like their plan, number of licenses, name, etc., that are defined by you or the systems, like Segment, that you integrate with.
You can view a customer's traits on their dashboard, set up subscription tracking based on traits, use them for sorting and filtering, or even define Success Metrics using traits.
Viewing & Managing Traits
In the Traits view for an account, you can see all the currently defined trait values for that account. Traits are separated by their source: Custom traits are traits defined in Vitally, and traits from each of your integrations (e.g., Segment, Stripe, Mixpanel, etc.) are visible on their own tabs.
Editing traits in a 360
Both custom traits and traits from your integrations can be edited. Just click into the field for that trait, change the value, and hit save to save your changes when you're done editing!
Editing traits in a View
You can do the same from a Table View, giving you spreadsheet-like ability to edit your data. Any cell that, when hovered over, highlights blue can be edited with a double-click.
Bulk Edit Traits for Multiple Customers
When in an Organization, Account or User View, you can use the Select All box towards the top-left and the Update Traits bulk action at the bottom of the screen. Alternatively, you can select multiple Customers to only update the ones you've selected.
Trait Editing Permission Levels
Vitally offers several levels of editing permissions for traits, which can be configured in the Settings > Select the Object (e.g, Accounts) > Traits section. Then, under the "Editable by" column, you'll have a dropdown to choose who can edit traits in Vitally. The available editing levels are:
Admins and Leaders only: Only users with the roles of Admin or Leader can edit the trait
All users except Observers: All users with roles of Admin, Leader, or Team Member can edit the trait, while Observers cannot
No one: No users are allowed to modify the trait
A couple of notes on editing traits:
If the format for a trait is a different type than you expect (e.g, string instead of number), you can change the type by navigating to the Traits section of your account settings
If you edit a trait syncing to Vitally via an integrated data source, your edit will be overwritten if the data is re-synced via the integration
If you've selected "No one" under Allow Edits in your integration configuration page, no one (including Playbooks) will be able to edit the trait, regardless of the above permissions you've selected
Viewing Trait Values in Pull-Down Menus
By default, Vitally displays up to 25 trait values in pull-down menus. This includes Vitally custom traits or those synced in from external integrations, like HubSpot or Zendesk. If a value is not shown in the pull-down menu, you can type in the value and hit Enter/Return on your keyboard to add the value to a filter or to set the value when editing the trait.
If you need more than 25 values to always be shown, or if there are specific values that are more commonly used, and you want those to always be available from the pull-down, you can predefine those values in trait settings.
Typing in a trait value to search for it when editing that trait will set the trait to whatever you typed before hitting Enter/Return. Be mindful of capitalization and entering the full value before hitting Enter/Return to avoid creating unexpected entries.
Creating a Custom Trait
Like most CRMs, you can also define traits for your accounts and users that are managed exclusively in Vitally. To do so, navigate to your Settings (⚙️) by selecting your Account Logo on the top left and under Vitally Objects select Accounts, Organizations, or Users, then select Traits (or via Quick Jump Mac: ⌘ + j Windows: Alt + j). There, you can create or edit custom traits.
When creating custom traits you'll have an additional option on string and multi-select traits to Prevent others from adding additional options to this trait. This checkbox, when checked, prevents new values from being added from outside the trait’s configuration modal!
One benefit to custom traits over your integration traits is that you can set up Playbook automation to update the value of a custom trait automatically. Read our docs on Playbooks to learn more.
Types of custom traits
String: a short text value
Number: an integer or decimal value
Date: a past or future date value
Datetime: a past or future date value that contains both date and time parts
Boolean: a true/false style checkbox
Multi-select: an array; select all values that apply
Text Area: a long text field
File Attachment: upload a file to be viewed or downloaded.
The Datetime value is displayed in the local timezone as determined by the Vitally User's browser settings.
Vitally's default supported File Attachment types include: .csv, .doc, .docx, .gif, .jpeg, .jpg, .pdf, .png, .svg, .txt, .xls & .xlsx
NOTE: Additional file types can be added by navigating to Settings > Security
Trait Status
Each trait has one of two possible statuses in Vitally related to how they are displayed:
Visible: The default state. We'll show these traits normally.
Hidden: Hidden traits will not be shown in Vitally. Use this when you receive traits from an integration that you don't care about seeing in Vitally.
Trait Rendering
You can now configure a trait value to be rendered as something totally different. This is useful for ID fields, allowing you to render the more legible name of the thing the ID references (i.e, if you sync a CSM ID field that you want to display as the CSM's first name, you can do that!)
Navigate to the traits for that object and select Edit. Towards the bottom, you'll see the trait values, where you can customize the display value.
To access emojis:
On Windows: Press Windows Key + .
On Mac: Press Ctrl + Command + Space or right-click and select Emoji & Symbols.
Displaying trait values as colorful tags
In the above screenshot, notice how there are 3 predefined options, each rendered as a colorful tag. Both custom traits and your integration traits support this! When creating or editing your trait, if you define some initial options, you can control just how those options render in Vitally. This will also customize the colors in Dashboards!
As long as an account has a trait value with a defined colorful tag, then that trait will automatically render with a bit more pop 🎉
NOTE: Remember that you can double-click on a trait's cell to edit its value.
Configuring Number Traits
Within the trait settings edit options, you can configure number-type traits to display as either numbers or currency. If you select the currency display option, you can then choose which currency you would like to display next to your trait value. You also have the option to abbreviate large numbers (e.g., 10,000 = 10K).
Note numbers will not be abbreviated in places where they are immediately editable.
Rollup Traits
Rollup traits make it easy to roll up the Trait value from a child Account/Organization to the parent Account/Organization. In addition to this, you can roll up Traits from native Vitally Objects & Custom Objects to an Account/Organization!
Some Rollup Trait use cases:
Rollup a customer’s ARR value from an Opportunity object to the Account for better cross-object reporting in table views
Rollup the latest Renewal Opportunity amount & name from an Account to the Organization
Rollup the oldest/newest JIRA ticket status from an Account to the Organization
Rollup User Traits such as ‘Last NPS Feedback’ to the Account
Rollup a Task Trait to the Account to provide another way of documenting data while completing Tasks at the Account level
How To | How To Visual |
Rollup Fields: This allows you to roll up the trait from a child to the parent account/org!
How to create a rollup field:
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When there are no objects included in a formula trait where the operation is sum, average, or a rollup, the value will be set to null instead of zero, allowing traits with no values to be excluded from health scores or filters that ignore nulls.
Formula Traits
FAQ
Q: Can you have a clickable link within a trait in Vitally?
A: Within a String type trait, you can include a URL as the value for the trait, which will allow you to then navigate to the link via theicon.
Q: Can you remove values that have been added as an Option to a trait?
A: Yes, go to Settings > Traits, click Edit, and un-tick the “Also automatically include recently used values in options” box.