Build your own automation
Create an automation with your own trigger, audience, messages, follow-ups and guardrails, and preview it for a real customer.
When the ready-made automations don't cover it, build your own, for example a reorder reminder before your spring season or a thank-you after a big order. Owners and admins can create automations.
Go to Engage → Automations and click New automation. The editor has four steps, with a Live preview beside them.
The New automation editor with the trigger step and the live preview
Screenshot coming soon
Trigger: when does it fire?
Give it a Name, then choose a Trigger type:
- When something happens: a request comes in, a quote is approved, an invoice is overdue, an order moves, a package is delivered…
- Before or after a record: for example 3 days before an invoice is due, or 2 days after a quote is sent.
- On a schedule: every hour, day or week at a set time.
- When something has not happened: for example no paid invoice for 365 days.
Audience: who gets it?
Add conditions, or leave none to reach every customer the trigger finds. Conditions can use:
- Customer: type, status, tags, lead source, balance due, lifetime value, ship-to city or ZIP, custom fields.
- The record: the quote's or invoice's status or total.
- History: something that did or didn't happen in the last so many days.
- Prediction: at risk of lapsing, likely to pay late, likely to approve an open quote (see Customer 360).
Message: what does it say?
Choose the Channel and who to Send to (the primary contact, or the billing contact). Pick a Template or choose Write it here. Insert merge fields to fill in each customer's details.
Under Follow-ups, click Add a follow-up for more messages. Each waits from the one before; 0 hours sends it together with the previous one. Under Stop the follow-ups when, add events such as "Invoice paid". A reply always stops them.
Guardrails
- Purpose: Order updates or Marketing. Marketing also needs the customer's marketing consent, and texts get "Reply STOP to opt out".
- At most once every so many hours per customer.
- Time-critical: sent even during quiet hours. Use it only for order updates that can't wait.
- Turn it on: when on, it starts messaging customers the next time it fires.
Click Create automation.
Preview it
In the Live preview, choose a Sample customer (and a record). You see whether each condition holds for them, and every message with their details filled in. Nothing is sent.
A turned-on automation messages real customers. Preview it for a few customers before you turn it on.