Automation
Automation rules do routine work for you: answer common questions, run chatbots and AI replies, send reminders and follow-ups, tag contacts and hand chats to the right person. You set a rule up once and it runs every time its event happens, day and night.
Automations are part of every plan (Engage). Some triggers and actions work with data from a module, such as clients or appointments; those are marked below.
How a rule works
Every rule has three parts:
- Trigger: the event that starts the rule, for example Incoming WhatsApp Messages, When a Contact is created or Appointment Updates. Each rule has one trigger. See Triggers.
- Conditions (optional): filters that decide whether the rule should run this time, for example "the message includes 'price'" or "the appointment status is Booked". Choose All (AND) to require every condition or Any (OR) to require just one.
- Actions: what the rule does, in order, for example send WhatsApp message, Add Contact Tags or AI Conversation. Each action can wait before it runs, such as 1 day before an appointment.
For example, the rule "Opening hours reply" uses the trigger Incoming WhatsApp Messages, the condition Incoming Message includes any "hours, open", and the action send WhatsApp message with your opening hours.
Where to find automations
Go to Engage > Automations. Rules are grouped in tabs by category: Customer Experience, Manual, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, TikTok and Web. Shopify and WooCommerce rules are on their integration pages.
What each plan module adds
The automation builder itself is in every plan. Triggers and actions that work with module data need that module:
| Needs | Triggers | Actions |
|---|---|---|
| Engage (every plan) | All message triggers, contact triggers | Messages on every channel, contact tags, groups, stages and notes, chat assignment, AI Conversation, Smart Follow-up, webhooks for messages and contacts, transactional emails |
| CRM Suite | Client created, client tags, birthday, anniversary, form triggers, WhatsApp Flow form submitted | Client tags, client notes, client custom attributes, form requests, Marketing emails, client webhooks |
| Bookings | Appointment and class triggers | Appointment and class webhooks |
| Sales | Order, invoice, payment, subscription, credits, loyalty, Shopify and WooCommerce triggers | Send Single Product Message, Send Product List Message, invoice webhooks |
What you see when something is not in your plan:
- Locked triggers and actions stay in the lists with Needs the ... add-on and cannot be picked.
- Locked templates show Unlock with ... instead of Install Rule.
- If your plan changes, saved rules on a locked trigger stop running, and locked steps inside a rule are skipped (Skipped: this step needs the ... add-on.). Everything else in the rule still runs, and nothing is deleted.
See Plan modules to add a module.