Flow Designs: Implement Timers

Timers can improve the customer journey as well as the respondent rate when using correctly. When your chatbot hits the pre-defined time that is set by the timer it will trigger a follow-up. This follow-up can be sending a text, buttons, cards, and many more. That’s all up to you as a Flow-designer.

How do I create a Timer?

To create a timer you can drag and drop the Timer trigger onto your canvas. After that, you can specify the following timer settings in the right pane.

Interval This allows you to set the interval of your timer. You can set this to seconds, minutes, hours, and even days.
Continue on reply When checking this box the bot will continue with the follow up action after the user replies. When unchecking, that follow up action will only be shown when the user is quiet for your pre-defined interval.
Send typing This wil show the user an indicator that the bot is typing (if supported by your channel).

With these options, timers can add great value to your chatbot. Let’s explore 3 common options.

1. Complete registration

A timer is great when you’re using a chatbot as a lead generator or to complete registration. In that case, the bot asks questions but when your customer doesn’t answer the question after an hour the timer will be triggered and you can follow up with an additional message.

Instead of rephrasing the same question or looping your flow , you can try to get answer to question in a slightly different way. Instead of an open question you could now ask a closed variant of the question and add quick replies if supported by your messaging channel.

Measuring the performance of your bot is important. One of ways to measure that performance is by incorporating a Feedback flow. In related article, that is just a simple question like “Was I able to help?”.

To improve the customer experience, that “Was I able to help?” needs a delay. Otherwise, that question will be sent directly after sharing an answer. That’s a bit pushy. You might want to wait 5 seconds to give the user time to read and to give the option to ask another question without triggering that Feedback flow straightaway.

3. Handle waiting time

Does your bot have a handoff to a live agent? In that case, you might want to add a timer after your handoff. That handoff will alert one of your agents to take over the conversation but if, for any reason, no agent assists within a few minutes your customer will probably leave.

To let your customer know that it takes longer than expected, you can work with a timer after your handoff. In other words, we do a handoff and when there is no reply after 2 minutes we follow up with something like: “It takes longer than expected, would like to wait, or do you prefer creating a ticket?”. Now we’ve managed expectations and we offer 2 solutions!

Or perhaps if you’re creative you can come up with a brand quiz while your customer is waiting for an agent to take over.

Timers can improve the customer journey as well as the respondent rate when using correctly. When your chatbot hits the pre-defined time that is set by the timer it will trigger a follow-up. This follow-up can be sending a text, buttons, cards, and many more. That’s all up to you as a Flow-designer.

How do I create a Timer?

To create a timer you can drag and drop the Timer trigger onto your canvas. After that, you can specify the following timer settings in the right pane.

Interval This allows you to set the interval of your timer. You can set this to seconds, minutes, hours, and even days.
Continue on reply When checking this box the bot will continue with the follow up action after the user replies. When unchecking, that follow up action will only be shown when the user is quiet for your pre-defined interval.
Send typing This wil show the user an indicator that the bot is typing (if supported by your channel).

With these options, timers can add great value to your chatbot. Let’s explore 3 common options.

1. Complete registration

A timer is great when you’re using a chatbot as a lead generator or to complete registration. In that case, the bot asks questions but when your customer doesn’t answer the question after an hour the timer will be triggered and you can follow up with an additional message.

Instead of rephrasing the same question or looping your flow , you can try to get answer to question in a slightly different way. Instead of an open question you could now ask a closed variant of the question and add quick replies if supported by your messaging channel.

Measuring the performance of your bot is important. One of ways to measure that performance is by incorporating a Feedback flow. In related article, that is just a simple question like “Was I able to help?”.

To improve the customer experience, that “Was I able to help?” needs a delay. Otherwise, that question will be sent directly after sharing an answer. That’s a bit pushy. You might want to wait 5 seconds to give the user time to read and to give the option to ask another question without triggering that Feedback flow straightaway.

3. Handle waiting time

Does your bot have a handoff to a live agent? In that case, you might want to add a timer after your handoff. That handoff will alert one of your agents to take over the conversation but if, for any reason, no agent assists within a few minutes your customer will probably leave.

To let your customer know that it takes longer than expected, you can work with a timer after your handoff. In other words, we do a handoff and when there is no reply after 2 minutes we follow up with something like: “It takes longer than expected, would like to wait, or do you prefer creating a ticket?”. Now we’ve managed expectations and we offer 2 solutions!

Or perhaps if you’re creative you can come up with a brand quiz while your customer is waiting for an agent to take over.

Timers can improve the customer journey as well as the respondent rate when using correctly. When your chatbot hits the pre-defined time that is set by the timer it will trigger a follow-up. This follow-up can be sending a text, buttons, cards, and many more. That’s all up to you as a Flow-designer.

How do I create a Timer?

To create a timer you can drag and drop the Timer trigger onto your canvas. After that, you can specify the following timer settings in the right pane.

Interval This allows you to set the interval of your timer. You can set this to seconds, minutes, hours, and even days.
Continue on reply When checking this box the bot will continue with the follow up action after the user replies. When unchecking, that follow up action will only be shown when the user is quiet for your pre-defined interval.
Send typing This wil show the user an indicator that the bot is typing (if supported by your channel).

With these options, timers can add great value to your chatbot. Let’s explore 3 common options.

1. Complete registration

A timer is great when you’re using a chatbot as a lead generator or to complete registration. In that case, the bot asks questions but when your customer doesn’t answer the question after an hour the timer will be triggered and you can follow up with an additional message.

Instead of rephrasing the same question or looping your flow , you can try to get answer to question in a slightly different way. Instead of an open question you could now ask a closed variant of the question and add quick replies if supported by your messaging channel.

Measuring the performance of your bot is important. One of ways to measure that performance is by incorporating a Feedback flow. In related article, that is just a simple question like “Was I able to help?”.

To improve the customer experience, that “Was I able to help?” needs a delay. Otherwise, that question will be sent directly after sharing an answer. That’s a bit pushy. You might want to wait 5 seconds to give the user time to read and to give the option to ask another question without triggering that Feedback flow straightaway.

3. Handle waiting time

Does your bot have a handoff to a live agent? In that case, you might want to add a timer after your handoff. That handoff will alert one of your agents to take over the conversation but if, for any reason, no agent assists within a few minutes your customer will probably leave.

To let your customer know that it takes longer than expected, you can work with a timer after your handoff. In other words, we do a handoff and when there is no reply after 2 minutes we follow up with something like: “It takes longer than expected, would like to wait, or do you prefer creating a ticket?”. Now we’ve managed expectations and we offer 2 solutions!

Or perhaps if you’re creative you can come up with a brand quiz while your customer is waiting for an agent to take over.

Flow Designs: Implement Timers