Automatic AI Follow-Ups Guide

What This Feature Does

When an AI agent or teammate sends an outbound message and the contact does not reply within your delay window, AI Follow-Up can send a friendly nudge. The follow-up cancels automatically if the contact replies, books, opts out, or otherwise becomes ineligible.

It waits first

You choose the delay: 15 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day, or a custom number of minutes.

It checks meaning

For AI conversations, the system looks for a real follow-up need before creating a waiting run.

It stops safely

Replies, bookings, opt-outs, terminal statuses, and skip rules stop the follow-up before it sends.

Outbound message sent
  |
  +-- no follow-up need / conversation closed -> no waiting run
  |
  +-- follow-up still useful -> Waiting card appears
          |
          +-- contact replies / books / opts out -> Cancelled
          |
          +-- delay expires -> Recheck rules -> Send or Block

Interactive Decision Flow

Choose a scenario to see how the policy decides whether to queue, suppress, block, or send.

Policy Settings That Matter Most

Follow up only when... controls when a follow-up is allowed to queue.

Qualifying incomplete Booking offered, not booked Interested but silent Question unanswered

Never follow up when... suppresses follow-up before a waiting card appears.

Conversation closed Lead declined Wrong company/contact Courtesy-only reply Appointment exists Terminal lead status

The recommended default is conservative: if the system cannot clearly tell that follow-up is still useful, it does not queue. This prevents loops like a lead saying "No, nothing", the AI saying "Have a great day", then the system checking in again tomorrow.

Skip Follow-Up When...

Skip rules are your workspace-specific final safety layer. They are checked right before the follow-up sends, using the contact's current record.

Mode	Meaning	Example
Match all	Every condition must match before the follow-up is blocked.	Block only when status is Sold and tag contains Customer.
Match any	One matching condition is enough to block the follow-up.	Block when status is Sold or tag contains Customer.

Common setup: use Match any for independent stop reasons such as Sold, Appointment Set, DNC, Customer, or Do not follow up. Use Match all only when the conditions are meant to work together.

How To Read The Follow-Up Card

Status	What it means
Waiting	A follow-up is queued and will be rechecked when the delay expires.
Queued because...	The reason the conversation qualified, such as qualifying incomplete or the AI asked a substantive question.
Skipped because...	The conversation did not need a follow-up at creation time, so no waiting run was created.
Blocked because...	The run was waiting, but a fire-time rule stopped it before send, such as lead status or cooldown.
Cancelled	The contact replied, booked, opted out, or another cancellation event ended the wait.

Recommended Safe Setup

Create one AI-only policy first.
Use a template message and a short, helpful nudge.
Keep all default eligibility and suppression presets enabled.
Add skip rules for your workspace's terminal statuses or "do not follow up" tags.
Turn the policy on and watch the Activity feed for Waiting, Sent, Cancelled, and Blocked outcomes.

Important: follow-up messages sent by the follow-up engine are marked so they cannot create another follow-up run. That prevents an endless SMS loop.