Most of the messages a business gets in a day are the same: "what time do you open", "where are you", "what have you got today", "how much is it". This guide builds a flow that answers those four questions end to end: from a blank canvas to publishing, and on to the improvements you make a week later. Follow it in order to see how the panel's screens fit together.
💡 The example business: a neighbourhood bakery. Its Instagram account is connected and the account's opening hours are filled in under Settings › Business hours. If your business is different, change the texts; the steps stay the same.
What you will find in this article
- Step 1: creating the automation
- Step 2: adding the triggers
- Step 3: writing the greeting
- Step 4: building the four branches
- Step 5: adding the out-of-hours branch
- Step 6: handing the rest to a person
- Step 7: testing
- Step 8: publishing
- Step 9: a week later
- Keeping the daily information fresh
Step 1: creating the automation
- Press New automation on the Automations screen.
- Look through the category tabs in the gallery. If a ready-made template fits, start from it; in this example we choose the Start blank card.
- When the editor opens, switch to the Settings tab.
- Name: "Daily information — Instagram". Press Save.
For details: Creating a new automation.
Step 2: adding the triggers
Go back to the Flow tab and click the Start box on the canvas.
- Add trigger → Keyword.
- Into Keywords, add the words your customers actually type:
hours, open, what time, address, where, price, today, menu. Add each with Enter or a comma.
- Leave Match on Contains: that way "what have you got today" is caught too.
- Leave Channel on All channels (the account only has Instagram anyway).
⚠️ Note: Write the keywords in the customer's words, not yours. Nobody types "opening hours"; people type "what time do you close".
Step 3: writing the greeting
- Add step at the top left of the canvas → Message.
- Write: "Hi {{contact.first_name}}, welcome! What can we help with?"
- Use Add button to add four buttons: "What's on today", "Opening hours", "Address", "Prices".
- Go back to the Start box and, in the Connections section, wire its Then exit to this message.
Placeholders are covered in Variables and placeholders. Remember the name may be empty; {{contact.first_name|there}} is safer.
Step 4: building the four branches
Each of the four buttons opened its own exit. Now connect a message to each:
- Click the message step and scroll to Connections.
- Press the plus button on the What's on today row → Message. Write today's products into it.
- Repeat for the Opening hours, Address and Prices rows.
- Put two buttons under each new message: "Another question" and "Thanks".
- Wire the "Another question" buttons back to the first greeting message.
- Wire the "Thanks" buttons, via Add and connect a step, to an End step.
For details on adding and connecting: Adding, connecting, moving and deleting steps.
⚠️ Note: Wiring "Another question" back to the greeting creates a loop. This loop is safe because every turn waits for the person to tap a button. A loop that cycles without waiting for a reply gets stopped by loop protection (The automation stopped: loop protection).
Step 5: adding the out-of-hours branch
The bakery is closed at night. Sending "what's on today" to someone writing at 2am is wrong.
- Put a Condition step between the Start and the greeting: first Add step → Condition, then wire the Start box's Then exit to that condition.
- In the condition's editor, press Add rule and pick Business hours as the rule kind, left on inside.
- Wire the condition's True exit to the greeting message.
- Wire its False exit to a new Message step: "We're closed right now. We open at 7am; write to us and we'll reply as soon as we're in."
Conditions are covered in Condition. Business hours are read from the account's Settings › Business hours screen; if that is switched off the condition always says "inside hours" and the editor warns you about it.
Step 6: handing the rest to a person
If none of the four buttons covers the customer's need, the flow must not leave them hanging.
- On the greeting step, tick Wait for a written reply. A new Reply exit appears on the step.
- On the Reply exit, press Add and connect a step → Action.
- In the action step, press Add action → Hand over to a person.
- Add a second action to the same step: Add tag →
needs-team.
From now on, if the customer writes instead of tapping a button, the automation stops and the conversation goes to the team. Handover is covered in Taking over from an automation and handing it back.
Step 7: testing
- Switch to the Test tab.
- Type "what time do you open" into the simulator and press Send. The flow should start, the condition note should appear and the greeting should arrive.
- Tap the Opening hours button and check the right message comes back.
- Tap Another question and confirm you land back on the greeting.
- Press Reset, and this time write "do you have gluten-free bread" without tapping any button. The notes should show the flow handing over to a person.
- Finally, use Try on a real channel to send it to your own account and see how the messages look on a phone.
For details: Test runs.
Step 8: publishing
- Check the issue button at the top left of the canvas. If it is red, open the Pre-publish check list and fix the errors.
- Read the amber warnings; they do not block publishing but you should pass them deliberately.
- On the Settings tab, leave Can the same person enter again? on Every time: this is an information flow and should run whenever someone asks.
- Press Publish at the top right. The notice reads v1 published.
For details: Publishing, turning off and automation states.
Step 9: a week later
The flow is running. Now it is time to improve it:
- Open the Stats tab. The Sessions number tells you how many people entered the flow.
- In the By step table, look at the greeting's Clicks column: which button was tapped how often? Move the most tapped one to the front.
- If a button was never tapped, rename it or remove it.
- On the Logs tab, set the filter to Interrupted and Error and check for problems.
- Read the conversations that were handed over: what are customers writing? Add a fifth button for the most common question.
- Once you have made the changes, press Publish again. v2 appears.
For details: Automation stats and Automation logs.
The "what's on today" message changes every day. There are two approaches:
- Update the text by hand every day. Open the step, change the text, press Publish. Every publish creates a new version, so nothing is lost (Versions and rolling back).
- Keep the text fixed and move the detail outside. Write the message as "Today's list is in our story" or give a link; then you do not have to publish every day.
The second approach reduces the daily workload to zero and removes the risk of publishing a broken version by accident. If you do update by hand, do it first thing in the morning; an update at noon is too late for that day.
⚠️ Note: Publishing every day makes the version list long. To make finding the right version easier when something breaks, read the difference summaries: the row that says "2 steps changed" is the publish where you changed the text.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
- Writing the keywords in corporate language. Customers do not type "opening hours"; they type "what time do you close".
- Forgetting the out-of-hours branch. Someone writing at night gets "fresh bagels today".
- Leaving no route to a person. Every question the buttons do not cover falls into a void.
- Using six or seven buttons in the greeting. Customers do not read them. Four is the ceiling; put the rest on a second level.
- Forgetting to publish. The amber dot in the list means the flow is still running its old version.
- Never looking at the stats a week later. Only the numbers tell you whether the flow is working.
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