Building Automations

Automations Overview

Automations let you automate messages, assignments, and actions based on triggers. Navigate to Automations in the sidebar. Available on Starter and higher plans.

Your Automations List

The main page shows all your automations as cards. Each card displays:

• Name and description
• Status badge — Active (green) or Inactive (gray)
• Trigger info — what event starts the automation and any delay
• Actions — Edit, Activate/Deactivate, or Delete

Creating a New Automation

You have two starting points:

• "+ New Automation" — opens the builder with a blank canvas
• "📚 Browse Templates" — browse pre-built templates organized by category

Template Categories

Templates are organized into these categories:

• WhatsApp — order confirmations, shipping notifications, Track & Trace, welcome messages, away messages, discount codes, cart reminders
• WooCommerce — order received, shipped, completed, cancelled
• Business — appointment reminders, payment reminders
• Email — order confirmation, abandoned cart, shipment tracking, review requests, AI email categorization (Pro)
• Instagram — automated responses for Instagram DMs
• Messenger — automated responses for Facebook Messenger

The Visual Builder

The builder is a visual, node-based workflow editor where you connect steps together. For a deeper look, see Visual Builder and Workflow Canvas.

Trigger Node (starting point)

Every automation starts with a trigger. Trigger types include:

• 💬 WhatsApp — incoming WhatsApp message
• 🛒 WooCommerce — order events (created, updated, completed)
• ⚡ Zapier — triggered by a Zapier webhook
• 📨 Event — custom events (contact created, message received, etc.)
• 📧 Email received — incoming email
• ⏱ WhatsApp window expired — you replied last and the customer stayed silent until the 24-hour window closed (Pro)
• 📵 Missed call — a customer called (Twilio or WhatsApp call) and nobody answered (Pro)

Action Steps

Add steps from the left sidebar panel Add Steps, or via the insert menu between two steps. Available actions:

• 💬 Send Message — send a WhatsApp message (only arrives within 24 hours of the customer's last message)
• 📄 Send WhatsApp template — send a WhatsApp template approved by Meta, also after 24 hours
• 📋 Interactive Menu — let the customer choose from options (Pro)
• 🏷️ Add Tag — tag the contact
• ⏱️ Delay — wait before the next step
• 🔍 Check Order Status — stop if the order is already paid
• 😊 Only if the customer is happy — stops the flow on an open ticket or a low satisfaction score (put it before a review request)
• ❓ Condition — branch logic based on criteria (Yes/No paths)
• 👤 Assign to Team — route the conversation to a team member
• 📦 Send Track & Trace — auto-fetch tracking info from the order (Pro)
• 🛍️ Send Product Info — auto-fetch product details from order history (Pro)
• 🏪 Send Catalog Link — invite the customer to browse products (Pro)
• 📧 Send Email — send from an email template (Pro)
• 🏁 End Flow — mark the end of the workflow

Variables

Use dynamic variables in your messages. For WooCommerce automations you can use variables like {{klantnaam}}, {{ordernummer}}, {{product}}, {{bedrag}}, {{leverdatum}}, and tracking variables from MyParcel or Sendcloud.

WhatsApp messages after 24 hours

On WhatsApp, the Send Message step shows a warning: a normal message only arrives within 24 hours of the customer's last message. Sending a message later (after an order, after a delay, …)? Use Send WhatsApp template instead. See Reply windows: 24 hours and 7 days.

The Send WhatsApp template 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. To set it up:

1. Add the step via Add Steps or the insert menu between two steps.
2. Pick an approved template, or create one via + New template.
3. For each {{1}}, {{2}}, choose a variable from the { } menu, or type fixed text. The menu only shows variables that the trigger really fills. If {{1}} comes right after "Hi", it's already set to the customer name.
4. Check the live preview with example values.

Empty fields are sent as "-". If the chosen template is no longer approved, you'll see a warning and 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.

Using a template from the library that uses WhatsApp? When you save, the builder submits the recipe text as a new template, and you pick a variable for each {{n}}. Bugalou translates the recipe's variables to the trigger's data. If a variable has no data (for example the delivery date for WooCommerce), "-" is sent, never "{{…}}".

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

Automatic follow-up: with the trigger WhatsApp window expired you automatically send a follow-up template when the customer stayed silent for 24 hours after your reply, and close the ticket after a set number of days without a reply. Start from the recipe Nog hulp nodig? (Pro). See Automation Templates Library.

Proactive messages (Pro)

With these triggers you send the customer a WhatsApp template before they contact you. They are available on Pro and Enterprise; each has a ready-made recipe in the Automation Templates Library.

• Shipment Delayed (event for MyParcel and Sendcloud) — the shipment is on its way but hasn't had a new status for a number of days. You set how many days on the trigger (default 3). Bugalou checks every hour and sends one message per delay; if a new status comes in and it goes quiet again, another message can go out. Shipments older than 30 days are ignored.
• Missed call — a customer called and nobody answered: for Twilio when no agent was available or nobody picked up, for WhatsApp calls when the call ended without being answered. Once per call. You also get a "Missed call" notification.
• Return received and Refund processed (events for Returnless) — based on the return status in Returnless (e.g. "Received" or "Refunded"). Each automation runs once per return, even if Returnless reports the status more than once.

For a review request, use the existing event Delivered (MyParcel or Sendcloud) with a delay of a few days, followed by the step Only if the customer is happy. That step stops the flow when the customer has an open ticket (active in the last 30 days) or gave a satisfaction score of 3 or lower in the last 30 days.

Saving & Publishing

Click "Save & Publish" in the top right to save and activate your automation. The step counter shows how many steps you've used out of the 100-step maximum.