Step 1: Log in to your account and navigate to the “Automation” section on the left-hand side.
Step 2: Click on the “Add automation” button top right.
Step 3: Choose the trigger that will start the automation.
You can choose between two types of triggers:
- Triggers that are activated when a message received meets specific criteria.
- Triggers that are activated when a message received isn't handled by any other trigger. This is called a "Catch-all" trigger.
For now, click the “Message Received” trigger.
Step 4: Define the criteria that will trigger your reply.
For the "Message Received" trigger, you can specify the criteria as follows:
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The message STARTS WITH a specific keyword (or list of keywords).
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The message EXACTLY matches a letter, number, emoji or phrase.
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The message is from a phone number in a particular country/region.
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The message is AUTOMATICALLY labelled as <insert label>.
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The message is from a user with a specific profile.
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To understand the differences better, take a look at our article about the different automation triggers.
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Before moving on to the next step, we want to highlight the most important thing you need to know about triggers:
Step 5: Next, you can specify the action your chat service must take when you receive the trigger.
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As with triggers, there's a list of actions you can choose from:
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Reply with a message.
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Update a field on a contact's profile.
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Call a webhook.
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These are explained in further detail in our article on the different types of automation actions.
Step 6: Once you've specified your trigger and action, you’ll be able to give your automation a title and click the “Activate” button.
Congratulations! 🎉 You now know how to set up basic automations in your chat service.