Getting started with Workflows

Workflows let you automate tasks, so you can stay organized and focus on what matters.

This guide will explain how they work, what can be automated and how to create your first workflow.

Here are a few examples we offer as ready-made templates:

• Chat to qualified deal: AI reads each chat. Hot leads become deals, and warm leads get a follow-up task.
• Bad-rating recovery: after a thumbs-down rating, AI summarizes the chat, creates a call-back task and alerts your team in Slack.
• First-response SLA guard: Slack alerts your team when a ticket has no reply after 4 hours.
• Won deal to onboarding: when a deal is won, the workflow creates an onboarding card in your pipeline and a kickoff activity.

For more examples, see What can I automate using workflows?

Note:

• The Workflows product is currently in Beta. That means features and views may evolve and change.
• Only property admins can create and manage workflows.

A trigger starts the workflow. A workflow can have more than one trigger. When a trigger event happens, the workflow runs. For every trigger and its options, see Choosing what triggers a workflow.

When you click Choose a trigger, you can pick:

• An event that happens in your property in one of the following product areas: Conversations, Omnichannel Inbox, Pipeline, Activities, Contacts or Feedback.
• Schedule: the workflow starts at times you set. Like every Monday at 9:00.
• Webhook: the workflow starts when your website or another system calls its webhook URL.
• AI agent: your AI agent starts the workflow during a conversation. See Letting your AI agent run workflows.

Steps are a sequence of, well, steps performed by your workflow.

There are four step types:

• Action: does something. For example, create a ticket, deal or task, send an email, SMS or Slack message, update a contact or call another app.
• Condition: checks your data and sends the run down one branch (IF, ELSE IF or ELSE).
• Wait: pauses the run for a set time, or until a specific event occurs.
• AI step: follows written instructions using runtime data. Note: An AI step needs AI Assist set up on your property, and uses AI credits each time it runs.

For every step and its options, see Building workflow steps: actions, conditions, waits and AI steps.

Runtime data gives each step live details about the run, for example the visitor's name in a Slack alert. See Using runtime data in workflows.

Each time the workflow runs, it keeps a record of the run: its status, its result and each step. See Testing, monitoring and troubleshooting workflow runs.

Start from a template, or build your own from scratch. Templates are ready-made workflows for common tasks, and the fastest way to start.

1. In your dashboard, click Automations (the lightning icon).

2. Click Workflows.

3. Choose how to start:

• From a template: click Start from a template (or Browse templates if you already have workflows), then click the template that you want.
• From scratch: click Create workflow (or Start from scratch on the templates page), choose a trigger, then add your steps.

4. If you started from a template and see Finish setting up this template, complete each item. Click the item, then select your option in the panel on the right, for example a pipeline or a Slack channel. If you do not use Slack, click the trash icon next to Slack channel.

5. Click Create. With a template, you can click it only when the checklist is complete. The workflow is saved, but it stays off.

For a full example built from scratch, see Creating your first workflow, step by step.

1. Click the Settings tab.
2. Toggle Enabled.
3. Click Save.

The workflow now runs each time its trigger fires.

Important: The switch on each trigger card in the Builder turns only that trigger on or off. It does not enable the workflow.

You can do a test run once the workflow is enabled, even without a trigger firing for some workflows.

Important: Testing your workflow may result in real output. Make sure to review your workflow steps and inputs before running your first test.

Here are the steps to test your workflow:

1. Click the Runs tab.
2. Click Run now. (The workflow must be enabled)
3. In the window that opens, confirm by clicking Run now.
4. Click the new run to see its status, its output and each step.

Note: If the run fails with workflow_trigger_record_unavailable, the workflow's trigger requires real input data, for example, Omnichannel Inbox events. To test the workflow, perform the respective trigger event, then check the Runs tab in that workflow.

The Workflows page shows each workflow as a card. Each card shows:

• the name
• the status: Enabled or Disabled
• the description
• the Next run time (for workflows that run on a schedule)
• a label such as 3 failed (7d), if runs failed in the last 7 days. Click the label to see these runs.

Click a card to open a saved workflow. It has three tabs:

• Builder: the trigger and the steps.
• Runs: a list of all runs, and the Run now button for tests.
• Settings: the name, the description, the Enabled switch, outputs, failure alerts and the Delete workflow button.

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