A welcome message answers a customer’s very first message on a channel, so nobody waits in silence while your team is busy.
- Open Automation and press New automation.
- Under When? choose A new customer writes.
- Edit the suggested reply. For a dental clinic: “Hi {customer_name}! Thanks for writing to Riverside Dental. Tell us what you need and a good time to call you — we answer within the hour.”
- Decide about the AI. If the AI replies on its own on this channel, it can answer the same message after your welcome. Switch on Pause the AI for this message if you want only the welcome.
- Want more? Add + Tag (for example “new-patient”) or + Email me to hear about every new customer.
- Under Where should it run? choose All channels or Only some, then press Save automation.
Good to know
- “New” means new on that channel. Someone who has written before on that channel never gets the welcome again. The same person writing on another channel does.
- {customer_name} becomes the customer’s name, or “there” when the name is unknown.
- If their first message also contains the word of an automation that starts on A message contains…, both automations answer. Keep one of them short.
- A menu of buttons (“Prices”, “Book”, “Talk to a person”) is a visual flow: press Visual and start from Welcome + menu.