How the automation builder works

An automation (a workflow) is built on a visual canvas: one trigger at the top, then a chain of steps that branch and rejoin.

The five node types

Node	What it does	Branches
Trigger	Starts the workflow. Exactly one per automation.	—
Action	Does something — sends, drafts, notifies, escalates, updates.	—
Condition	Tests a value and splits the path.	true / false
Survey Response Condition	Waits for a survey response, then routes on sentiment.	positive / neutral / negative / default
Wait	Pauses before continuing.	—

→ Trigger reference · Action reference · Conditions

How a flow is assembled

Every workflow starts with a trigger and flows downward. Each step points at the next one. Condition steps point at two next steps — one for true, one for false — and the Survey Response Condition points at up to four, one per sentiment branch plus a default.

Branches don’t have to rejoin. A negative branch can run a completely different sequence and simply end.

The canvas lays itself out automatically as you add nodes, so you’re arranging logic rather than boxes.

Data flows down the chain

This is the part that makes workflows more than a list of steps. Every step can see the data produced by the trigger and by every step before it.

So a Send Email step placed after a review trigger can reference the review’s rating, the reviewer’s name, and the platform it came from. A step after a Send Survey action can reference the response.

That’s what powers personalisation in emails and SMS — see personalising automated messages.

Categories

Workflows are grouped by category, which is purely organisational: Customer Feedback, Engagement, Feedback Survey, Notification, Onboarding, Recovery, Review Management, Review Request, Review Response, and Other.

Pick the one that matches the job. It’s how you’ll find the workflow again once you have twenty.

Before it can run

Two things gate a workflow going live:

No incomplete nodes. Any node missing required configuration is flagged as incomplete. The workflow can’t be relied on until every node is complete — the builder tracks this for you and tells you which nodes are unfinished.

You’ve tested it. Workflows record whether they’ve been tested. Run a test before switching one on. → Testing and activating

Then flip the workflow active. Until you do, the trigger fires and nothing happens.

Watching it run

Every execution is recorded as a workflow run with a status:

• Waiting for trigger — armed, nothing has fired yet
• Running — currently executing
• Completed — finished successfully
• Failed — something errored

You also get the trigger’s event history, so you can see what came in even when nothing downstream ran. → Troubleshooting an automation

Copying a workflow

Workflows export as JSON and import the same way — useful for duplicating a working setup across locations, or keeping a copy before making significant changes.

Start from a template

You don’t have to start from an empty canvas. → Automation templates