Using the Wait action in the Workflow Builder allows you to hold Contacts before advancing to the next step of a Workflow. This can be useful for many reasons, from appointment bookings/reminders, to follow ups, and more. Now, let’s take a look at how to set up a Wait event.
Step 1: Adding an Action to the Workflow
Click into the Workflow and click the + icon to add an action
Choose the Wait action from the list
Step 2: Under “Wait For” choose the type of Wait action you wish to use
There are several options for customizing the Wait action, categorized as Time-based or CRM events. Here’s a brief description of each type of Wait action you can setup:
Time delay: waits for a set amount of time
NOTE: You can toggle on the “Advance Window which will specify the time frame the wait period actually counts (i.e. Monday-Friday 9am-5pm). If you have a time delay set for 10 minutes, and someone enters the step on a Saturday, but you have a window set for Monday-Friday 9am-5pm, the time will start at 9am on Monday.
Event/Appointment time: waits until before or after the event/appointment time
Choose before or after, and the timeframe
You can move the Contact to the next step, or skip communications
Condition: waits for a specific condition to be met (such as a tag being added) - you can customize filters for this to specify your exact condition
Choose one or more “segment” (condition), and toggle on the timeout if you want to add that feature
Contact reply: waits for a contact to reply to a communication
Choose the “reply to” and toggle on the timeout if you want to add that feature
Trigger link clicked: waits for the trigger link to be clicked
Choose the specific trigger link and toggle on the timeout if you want to add that feature
Email event: waits for specific email events
Choose the step, determine which event(s) you wish the step to run on, and toggle on the timeout if you want to add that feature