Everything in an automation points at the real tag, field, pipeline, stage, form or person by its id, never its name, so renaming any of them never breaks an automation.
Triggers
- Contact created.
- Contact changed: any change, or only to the fields you pick (built-in or custom), optionally only when it changes to a value.
- Tag added / Tag removed: a tag you pick, or any tag.
- Do not contact changed: for one channel or any.
- Form submitted: the forms you pick, or any form on the business's sites.
- Inbound webhook: one webhook, or any.
- Opportunity created, Opportunity moved to a stage, Opportunity won, lost or reopened, Opportunity changed: each can be limited to pipelines, stages, statuses or fields.
- Opportunity not moved for a while: an open opportunity that hasn't changed stage for N days (14 to start with).
- Task added, Task done, Task overdue.
- Note added.
- Email opened, Link clicked, Email bounced: optionally only emails from the automations you pick.
- Unsubscribed, Marked as spam.
- Contact replied: optionally only when the reply contains some words.
- Message received: a message comes in to the Conversations inbox, on chosen channels, optionally containing some words.
- Conversation assigned: to anyone, or to the people you pick.
- A date: minutes, hours or days before, on or after a date on the contact or opportunity (a birthday, a renewal date), at a time of day; it can repeat every year.
- On a schedule: every day, week, month or N days at a time, for no contact in particular (useful with Find a contact or Notify a team member).
- Added by hand: someone adds them, in bulk, or another automation does.
Triggers that look at the clock (dates, schedules, "not moved for a while", "overdue") are checked every few minutes.
Steps
- Send an email: a saved email template or one written in the step, marketing or transactional (see Email templates), from the automation's sender or another address.
- Notify a team member or role: chosen people, the contact's owner, the conversation's assignee, or a role (all owners, all managers, everyone on the team); in the app (always) and / or by email, with a title and message. Each person's quiet hours still hold the email.
- Create a task: title, notes, assigned to a person, the owner or round robin, due in N minutes / hours / days or on a date field, priority, reminder.
- Add tags / Remove tags (or all tags).
- Update fields: set or clear any field; numbers can be added to, subtracted, multiplied or divided; dates can have time added.
- Create an opportunity: in a pipeline and stage, with a name, value and owner; not a second open one unless you say so.
- Update the opportunity: the one that started the automation, or the contact's latest open one: stage, status (with a lost reason), value, owner.
- Assign an owner: a person, round robin, or remove the owner; optionally only if there's no owner yet.
- Add followers / Remove followers.
- Set do not contact: block or allow a channel.
- Add a note.
- Send a webhook: the contact's details to one of your webhook endpoints or a web address (https).
- Add to another automation / Remove from automations (some or all).
- Update a business value (see Business values).
- Conversations: Mark the conversation read, Mark the conversation unread, Archive the conversation, Add an internal comment (optionally mentioning whoever it's assigned to), and Assign the conversation (to a person, the contact's owner, in turn (round robin), or nobody).
- Find a contact: by email, phone or a custom field, optionally adding them if they're not there; then found and not found branches.
- If / else, Wait, Goal and End (see Automations).
Wait
A Wait holds each person at that step until it's time to go on. The step shows what it waits for, for example "Wait 2 days (business hours)", "Wait until reply or 3 days" or "Wait until 1 day before the appointment". Waits are skipped when you Test with a contact.
In the step's panel, pick what to wait for:
A time delay: minutes, hours, days or weeks. Under When the time is up, only carry on… you can tick:
- In business hours: the delay runs, then it waits for opening hours (Settings → Phone & texting hours, or Mon–Fri 9–5) and holidays; for example 1 hour after 4:30 pm on Friday resumes at 9:00 am on Monday;
- On certain days (for example weekdays only);
- At or after a time of day (for example "2 days, then the next weekday at 9:00").
Until a date and time: a date and time you pick.
Until a date in a field: a date from:
- a contact field (standard or custom date fields);
- the opportunity (its expected close date, or a custom date field);
- the booking's start (the booking that started the automation, or their next upcoming booking).
You can wait before or after it (for example "1 day before the appointment"), and pick the time of day for dates without one (9:00 am if you don't). Carry on if they have no date (on unless you untick it): if the date is empty, the person carries on (the run history says why); untick it to end the automation for them. Skip the wait if the date has already passed (on unless you untick it): they carry on straight away; untick it to end the automation for them.
Until something happens (any of the ones you pick; add more with Or something else): they reply (by email, by text, or either), they open an email (any, or the one sent by a step in this automation), they click a link (optionally a link containing some text), a form is submitted (which forms), they book, their booking changes, their opportunity moves stage (which pipeline / stage), a tag is added (which tags), a payment comes in, a call with them is answered, or they miss a call. Automatic out-of-office replies don't count as a reply.
Until conditions are true: checked whenever something happens for the contact, and every 15 minutes.
Waits for something to happen, or for conditions, can Give up after a while and then carry on, end the automation for that person (End the automation for them when it times out), or, with Add a “Timed out” path, split on the canvas into Done waiting and Timed out, each with its own steps, before carrying on. Waits made with older options keep working as they were; the panel says so and offers Change it to a time delay.
Text in emails, notes, tasks and notifications can use merge values: {{contact.first_name}}, {{contact.custom.<key>}}, {{business.<key>}}, with a fallback: {{contact.first_name | there}}.
Conditions
If / else branches, waits, goals, Stop when and trigger filters all use the same conditions, combined with all or any (and groups inside groups). A condition can look at:
- a contact field or custom field (is, is not, contains, starts with, is one of, is empty, greater / less than, between, before / after / on, within the last or next N days, more than N days ago, is true / false);
- the contact's tags (has any / all / none of);
- the opportunity: pipeline, stage, status, value, tags;
- the last email this automation sent: opened, clicked, bounced, replied;
- a value from the trigger (a form answer, part of a webhook's data);
- a business value;
- do not contact on a channel;
- the time: the day of the week or the hour, in the business's or the contact's time zone.