All Action Types: Complete Reference

Action Types Overview

Actions are the building blocks of your automation — they define what happens when the trigger fires. You can chain multiple actions together and add conditions and delays between them.

💬 Send WhatsApp Message

Sends a WhatsApp template message to the customer.

Configuration

• Template text — your message with {{variables}} for dynamic content
• Template name — unique name in snake_case (e.g., order_bevestiging)
• Language — nl_NL, en_US, en_GB, de_DE, fr_FR, es_ES, it_IT
• Category — UTILITY, MARKETING, or AUTHENTICATION
• Emoji picker — 100 emojis available to include in your message

Your template is submitted to Meta for approval. You can see the approval status on the automation card.

Note: the 24-hour window

The Send Message step on WhatsApp shows a warning: a normal message only arrives within 24 hours of the customer's last message. Want to reach the customer later (after an order, after a delay, …)? Use Send WhatsApp template (below). For more details, see Reply windows: 24 hours and 7 days.

📄 Send WhatsApp template

Sends a WhatsApp template approved by Meta to the customer. This lets you reach the customer outside the 24-hour window too. This step works with every trigger (WooCommerce, Lightspeed, Picqer, Returnless, MyParcel, Sendcloud, bol.com, forms, Zapier/API/webhook, ticket closed, email received …) and after a delay step.

Add the step via Add Steps or via the insert menu between two steps.

Configuration

• Template — pick an approved template, or create one right away via + New template.
• Variables — for each {{1}}, {{2}}, choose a variable from the { } menu, or type fixed text. The menu only shows variables that the trigger really fills, for example:
  • WooCommerce: customer name, order number, order total, order date, products, track & trace link
  • Form: submitter name, form name, ticket number
  • MyParcel/Sendcloud: name, order number, tracking link, tracking code, carrier
  • Zapier/webhook: also any incoming field as {{fieldname}}
• If {{1}} comes right after "Hi", it's already set to the customer name.
• Preview — a live preview with example values.

Good to know

• Empty fields are sent as "-".
• If the chosen template is no longer approved, you'll see a warning. The step is skipped until you pick another template.
• The message is sent from your connected WhatsApp number and appears in the customer's WhatsApp conversation in the inbox.
• If there was no conversation yet, it's created as closed (a proactive message isn't a ticket). When the customer replies, the conversation comes back.

You create and manage templates under Channels → WhatsApp → Templates. See Managing WhatsApp templates.

📱 Send SMS

Sends an SMS text message to the customer via your connected Twilio phone number.

Configuration

• SMS message — your message text (max 1600 characters)
• Character counter — shows current character count and how many SMS segments will be sent (1 segment = 160 characters)

Plan requirement: Pro plan. Requires a Twilio account with an SMS-enabled phone number.

📧 Send Email

Sends an email using one of your saved email templates.

Configuration

• Select template — choose from your email templates (created in the email editor)
• The email is sent via your configured provider (Resend or Microsoft 365)

Plan requirement: Pro plan for email automation templates.

📋 Interactive Menu

Sends a WhatsApp interactive menu — a structured message with selectable options that the customer can tap.

Configuration

• Header text — title at the top of the menu
• Body text — main message explaining the options
• Footer text — small text at the bottom
• Menu items — each item has:
  • Title — button label
  • Description — extra context
  • Auto-tag — automatically tag the conversation when selected
  • Priority — set conversation priority when selected
  • Requires agent — flag for human handoff

Plan requirement: Pro plan.

👤 Assign to Team

Automatically assigns the conversation to a specific team.

Configuration

• Select team — dropdown of your organization's teams

📦 Send Track & Trace

Sends tracking information (tracking number and URL) to the customer.

Configuration

• Custom message — optional additional text to include with the tracking info

Works with MyParcel and Sendcloud tracking variables.

🛍️ Send Product Info

Sends product information from an order to the customer.

Configuration

• Custom message — optional additional text

🏪 Send Catalog Link

Sends a link to your product catalog.

Configuration

• Custom message — optional additional text with the catalog link

❓ Check Condition

Creates a Yes/No branch in your workflow based on criteria.

Configuration

• Menu option IDs — which interactive menu option was selected by the customer
• Yes branch — actions to execute when the condition is true
• No branch — actions to execute when the condition is false

Each branch can contain its own chain of actions, delays, and even nested conditions.

⏱️ Delay

Pauses the workflow for a specified duration before continuing to the next action.

Configuration

• Value — a number (e.g., 1, 2, 24)
• Unit — hours

Use delays for follow-up messages (e.g., send a review request 3 days after delivery).

😊 Only if the customer is happy

Only lets the rest of the flow continue when the customer seems happy. Put this step before a review request, so only happy customers get one.

The flow stops when

• the customer has an open ticket that was active in the last 30 days;
• the customer gave a satisfaction score of 3 or lower in the last 30 days.

The step has no settings. Bugalou looks up the customer by the trigger's contact, phone number or email address.

🔍 Check Order Status

Checks the current status of a WooCommerce order and routes the flow accordingly.

Configuration

• Stop on statuses — statuses that should halt the flow (e.g., "processing", "completed")
• Continue on statuses — statuses that should continue (e.g., "pending", "on-hold", "failed")

🤖 AI Categorize & Assign

Uses AI (GPT-4o-mini) to automatically categorize an email and route it to the right team.

Configuration

• Auto-assign team — automatically assign to the suggested team
• Auto-set priority — automatically set conversation priority
• Auto-add tags — automatically add suggested tags

Plan requirement: Pro plan. See AI Email Categorization & Smart Routing for details.

🏁 End Flow

Terminates the automation. No configuration needed. Use this to explicitly mark the end of a branch or flow.

📦 Send Bol.com Message

Sends an automated email to the customer based on a bol.com order event. Used with bol.com triggers (Order, Shipment, Return).

Configuration

• Select template — choose from pre-built bol.com templates (Order Received, Shipping Confirmation, Return Confirmation, Review Request) or create a custom message
• Message body — your email text with dynamic variables like {{klantnaam}}, {{ordernummer}}, {{productnaam}}, {{totaalprijs}}, {{bezorgadres}}, {{datum}}
• Send after — optional delay before sending (value + unit: hours, days, or weeks). Use this to send review requests 48 hours after delivery, for example
• Attach invoice — optionally attach the order invoice to the email

Plan requirement: Pro plan.