How do I send an automatic text, email or task when something happens?
Build a rule that pairs a trigger, like a contact entering a stage or going dormant, with an action like sending a text, an email, or creating a task.
An automation is one trigger paired with one action: something happens, and your organization does something in reply, without a person having to remember to do it.
Build a rule
- Open Team management, then Setup, then the Automations tab.
- Click New automation, or start from a ready-made recipe like Welcome message or Birthday greeting and edit it from there.
- Pick a trigger: a contact entering a specific pipeline stage, a new signup, a birthday, a signup anniversary, a contact going idle for a set number of days, a task approaching or past its due date, an outstanding document or payment request, or the stage-reminder ladder covered in How do I get reminded automatically when a customer is stuck on a step?
- Pick an action: send an SMS, send an email, send a WhatsApp message, create a task, or send a payment request.
- Fill in the message or task details for the action you picked, using placeholders like the contact's first name where offered.
- Save. The rule starts running the next time its trigger happens.
Turn a rule on or off
Use the switch on the rule's row to pause or resume it without deleting it. A paused rule keeps its setup so you can turn it back on later exactly as it was.
Sending a WhatsApp message
A WhatsApp action needs an approved message template, the same kind covered in the inbox's saved-replies article. Pick one from the list and fill in every variable it needs; a rule can't be saved with a template left incomplete.
If a new rule can't be created
Whether you can add a brand new automation rule depends on your plan. If yours doesn't include it, you can still see, edit and turn on or off any rules you already have, only the option to add a new one is switched off.
Why an email didn't go out
If email sends for this rule seem to be missing, the Automations tab shows a plain summary of why recent ones were blocked, for example the contact had unsubscribed, their address had bounced before, your organization's email sending is paused, or a daily or monthly sending limit was reached. This is shown so you can see the reason rather than just noticing an email never arrived.
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More in Team management: setting it up
The other guides people read alongside this one.
- How do I turn on Team management, and what does it actually add?
Team management adds a shared workspace for your staff: tasks, time tracking, schedules and a queue of work to hand out. Whether it's on for your account depends on your plan.
- What's the difference between a "pipeline" and the "customer journey"?
A pipeline is the general idea of stages a contact moves through. The customer journey is one specific, ready-made pipeline that also creates tasks automatically and marks when a lead becomes a customer.
- How do I set up a pipeline for how my customers move through my business?
Create a pipeline, add the stages your work actually goes through, and give each stage a task template so your team knows what to do when a contact reaches it.
- How do I set up the ready-made customer journey?
Install the standard journey with one click, or have it drafted around your own business first. Either way you see exactly how many customers and tasks it creates before you confirm.
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