Smart Delay step allows to create and add a customizable delay to a flow. Let's have a closer look.
How to create and set up a Smart Delay step?
To create a Smart Delay step, click on a round button in the upper-right corner of the screen or just double-click any empty space in Flow Builder. After that select a Smart Delay step from the drop-down list.
Click on the step to see a menu - in there you can adjust delay settings to your needs. Note that the maximum delay duration is equal to 365 days.
After that, you can adjust your delay by using advanced time interval options. You can set up a time interval after which the contact will receive the next message. Keep in mind that you won't be able to publish the flow if the time value in the left-field is less than in the right one in the Smart Delay step (for example: from 12:00 to 6:00).
Additionally, you can select days of the week when the next message will be sent - for example, the next step can be sent only on the weekend.
There is also an option to change the Delay type to Date so that the block expires by a certain date and time as opposed to being set to an abstract timer.
The Smart Delay statistics reflect what people are going through which stage of the delay.
- Overall stands for the number of people who entered the Smart Delay;
- Waiting stands for the number of people who are currently going through the Smart Delay and haven't yet passed it to receive the follow-up messages;
- Passed, as the name implies, stands for the number of people who have successfully passed the Smart Delay and have supposedly received whatever follow-up messages scheduled to send after the
Finally, you have to select a flow that will fire after a delay. To do that, simply click on the step's connection dot and drag the line to another step.
Keep in mind:
- Delay uses contact's Time Zone.
- If automation was paused due to the admin's actions (sending a message to a contact, for example), then the pause time will be added to the Smart Delay time.
- A Smart delay does not reopen the 24-hour window! This means, for example, that if an FB contact interacts with a bot and then enters a Smart Delay that lasts longer than 24 hours – the follow-up message marked as "Other" will not send.