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How to set up basic automations

Pippa Updated by Pippa

One of the major advantages of creating a chat service using the WhatsApp Business API is that you can set up automated responses to user queries. This makes it easy to have impactful conversations at scale.

Adding content to Turn.io is one of the first steps in creating your chat service. To make this content easily accessible to your users, you can now set up triggers and actions (i.e. automations) to automatically send your messages.

Let’s show you how to set up your first automated message:

1. Got to the Automation section in Turn

  • Log in to your account and navigate to the “Automation” section on the left-hand side.
  • Click on the “Add automation” button top right.

2. 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.
  • Triggers that are activated when a follow up timer countdown completes.

Most of the time you will use the “Message Received” trigger. You will be prompted to define the criteria that will trigger your reply.

For the "Message Received" trigger, you can specify the criteria as follows:

  • The message STARTS WITH a specific keyword (or list of keywords).
  • The message EXACTLY matches a letter, number, emoji or phrase.
  • The message is from a phone number in a particular country/region.
  • The message is AUTOMATICALLY labelled as <insert label>.
  • The message is from a user with a specific profile.

To understand the differences better, take a look at our article about the different automation triggers.

Before moving on to the next step, we want to highlight the most important thing you need to know about triggers:

Important: Triggers are global!
This means you can only use a trigger once across your entire chat service. You can’t, for example, use the number “3” as a trigger in your main menu and use the same number for another message in a sub-menu. 

3. Define the action your chat service must take when you receive the trigger.

As with triggers, there's a list of actions you can choose from:

  • Reply with a message.
  • Update a field on a contact's profile.
  • Call a webhook.

These are explained in further detail in our article on the different types of automation actions.

4. Name and activate your automation

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.

Turn.io makes it possible to add multiple triggers and actions to chat-service messages to deliver highly personalised conversations. Continue reading the advanced automation guide.

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