Dynamics Community Forum Thread Details

Hello Victoria,

You've hit upon a crucial point regarding how Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys (and potentially older Marketing versions) handles consent on form submissions. The behavior you're seeing, where a missing consent on a subsequent form submission leads to an unsubscription, is indeed the default behavior and can be problematic when a contact has previously granted consent.

Why this happens (Default Behavior):

The system treats each form submission as a fresh interaction and an opportunity to capture the contact's current consent preferences. If a consent field isn't filled, the system interprets this as the contact not providing consent on this specific submission. For purposes with "explicit consent" enforcement, this lack of consent on a new submission can override the previously granted consent for that specific purpose.

What can you do to address this?

Unfortunately, there isn't a simple, out-of-the-box setting within the marketing form builder to change this default behavior. However, here are several approaches you can consider, ranging from less ideal workarounds to more robust solutions:

1. Make the "Consent Commercial" Checkbox a Required Field (Simple but Impacts User Experience):

Pros: This is the easiest solution to implement. Users will be forced to make a conscious choice regarding consent on every form submission.

Cons: This can negatively impact the user experience. It might lead to lower conversion rates as users might be hesitant to fill out required consent fields repeatedly, especially if they've already provided consent. It doesn't address the scenario where someone genuinely forgets.

2. Implement Customization using Power Automate (Recommended):

This is a more flexible and user-friendly approach that involves creating a Power Automate flow to check for existing consent before updating it based on the form submission.

How it works:
1. Trigger: The flow would trigger when a new Marketing Form submission is created.
2. Get Contact: Retrieve the Contact record associated with the form submission using the submitted email address.
3. Check Existing Consent: Check the value of the "Consent Commercial" field on the retrieved Contact record.
4. Conditional Update:
  - If the "Consent Commercial" field on the Contact is already "Grant" (or your positive consent value) and the submitted form has the "Consent Commercial" field as blank or a negative value: Do not update the Contact's "Consent Commercial" field.
  - Otherwise (if the Contact's consent is "Not Granted" or blank, or if the form explicitly grants consent): Update the Contact's "Consent Commercial" field based on the form submission value.
5. Update Form Submission (Optional): You might want to update a field on the Marketing Form submission record itself to indicate how the consent was handled.

Pros: Preserves existing consent if the user doesn't explicitly opt-out on a subsequent form. Improves user experience by not forcing repeated consent.

Cons: Requires building and maintaining a Power Automate flow. You need to ensure the flow is robust and handles different scenarios correctly.

3. Custom JavaScript on the Marketing Form (More Technical, Potential Maintenance Overhead):

You could potentially use custom JavaScript embedded in your marketing form to pre-check the "Consent Commercial" checkbox if the contact is known and has previously granted consent.

How it works:
1. Identify Known Contact: The JavaScript would need to identify if the form submission is from a known contact (based on pre-filled fields or cookies).
2. Retrieve Existing Consent (Potentially via Web API): You might need to make a call to the Dynamics 365 Web API to retrieve the existing "Consent Commercial" value for the contact.
3. Pre-check Checkbox: If the retrieved consent is positive, the JavaScript could pre-check the "Consent Commercial" checkbox on the form before the user submits.

Pros: Can provide a seamless user experience by pre-selecting the consent if it was previously given.

Cons: Requires significant JavaScript development skills. Involves making Web API calls from a publicly accessible form, which needs careful consideration for security and performance. Can be more challenging to maintain with platform updates.

4. Review Your Consent Model and Processes:

This scenario highlights the importance of clearly defining your consent model and how it's captured and managed across different touchpoints. Consider:

Clarity of Consent Language: Ensure the consent text on your forms is clear and unambiguous.

Preference Centers: Utilize preference centers to allow customers to manage their communication preferences centrally.

Progressive Profiling: Consider if you need to ask for commercial consent on every single form. You might prioritize other information gathering on some forms and rely on the initial consent.

Which approach should you choose?

The Power Automate customization (Option 2) is generally the most recommended approach. It provides a good balance between preserving existing consent, improving user experience, and being maintainable within the Power Platform ecosystem.

Implementing custom JavaScript (Option 3) can be more complex and carries higher maintenance risks. Making the checkbox required (Option 1) is the simplest but can negatively impact form conversion rates.

In summary, the default behavior of Dynamics 365 Marketing can lead to unintentional unsubscriptions if a consent field is missed on a subsequent form. Implementing a custom Power Automate flow to check and preserve existing consent is the most robust solution to address this scenario. Remember to thoroughly test any solution you implement.

If my answer was helpful, please click Like, and if it solved your problem, please mark it as verified to help other community members find more. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me.

My response was crafted with AI assistance and tailored to provide detailed and actionable guidance for your Microsoft Dynamics 365 query.

Regards,

Daivat Vartak

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