Set up follow-ups that run on their own

Some messages are worth sending every time the same thing happens: someone nearly ordered, hasn’t bought in a while, or has a birthday today. You set these up once.

• Journeys — a short series of messages your Sales & Commerce agent sends after something happens, with waits in between. After a missed booking, your Booking & Events agent sends it.
• Triggers — one WhatsApp template, plus optional follow-ups, sent when someone joins an audience, on a date you keep on the customer (a birthday, an anniversary), or when something happens in your rewards programme. Winning back a lapsed customer is a trigger.

Order updates, such as packed and shipped, are set separately. See Shipping and order updates.

Before you start

• Both only message people who agreed to get marketing messages from you. See Who gets your offers.
• Journeys run while the agent that sends them is on, in Agent › AI Studio › Agents: Sales & Commerce for most, Booking & Events for Missed a booking. From the Sales & Commerce agent, Follow-ups and giveaways brings you here.
• Find both in Grow › Campaigns › Triggers.

Build a journey

1. In the Triggers tab, choose Journeys, press New journey and give it a Name.
2. Under Starts when, pick what starts it, such as Nearly ordered, Due to reorder, Back in stock or Missed a booking. Due to reorder asks one more thing: how long until it’s due again.
3. Under Speaks on, choose WhatsApp or Instagram.
4. Under Steps, a new journey waits a day, sends one message, then ends. Write the message, change the wait, and press Add a step after to add another wait or message.
5. Under Limits, set Starts only within (older events don’t start it), Ends after at most (up to 90 days), and whether Someone who left can start it again.
6. Leave Every message waits for approval in Needs you ticked until you trust it.
7. Press Save draft, or Save and publish when it’s ready. Nobody enters it until it’s published.

What happens next

People leave a journey as soon as they reply, buy or ask to stop, or when its time runs out. Press Who’s in it to see each person’s step, or why they left: They replied, They bought, They asked to stop, Ran out of time or A message wasn’t approved in time. Press Open the conversation to jump to their chat.

While it waits for approval, each message sits in AI Studio › Overview › Needs you.

Pause keeps everyone where they are; Turn on starts it again. If you change a running journey, people already in it keep the version they entered with. Archive ends it for everyone and can’t be undone.

Set up a trigger

1. In the Triggers tab, choose Triggers. Under Start from a ready-made one, press Use this on one — such as Win back a lapsed customer, Wish a customer happy birthday or Mark a yearly date — or press New trigger to start empty.
2. Fill in Name and What it is for.
3. Under What fires it, choose Someone joins an audience and pick the audience (a lapsed-customer trigger picks Lapsed customers for you), A date saved on the customer comes round and pick Which date, How often and Days before, or Something happens in the rewards programme and tick the events, such as Points about to expire.
4. Under The message, pick an approved template with no blanks and set Send after (hours). Press Add a follow-up for another message later; Skip this if they already came back stops it for people who returned.
5. Under When it may send, set the quiet hours and Leave the same person alone for (days).
6. Press Save as draft.

Every trigger starts without sending. Press Start shadow run: it watches and records who it would have messaged, and sends nothing. When the number looks right, press Go live, check how many people it would have reached, and confirm with Start sending. Press Pause to stop it at any time.

If something’s not right

• “No template this can use” or “No approved marketing template without blanks yet.” Create a text template with no blanks. See Create a WhatsApp template.
• People leave with “A message wasn’t approved in time”. Check Needs you more often, or untick Every message waits for approval in Needs you.