Build an automated journey

A journey sends messages by itself, triggered by something a customer does. A
welcome after a first visit, a nudge after a month away: set it up once, then it runs.

Before you start

• Journeys are part of the Customer marketing plan. Without it, the page shows
  Add customer marketing instead.
• The message the journey will send exists as a template. See Write and edit messages.
• If the journey is aimed at a particular group, build that first. See Build a customer segment.

1. Open Journeys

In the sidebar, open Grow and then Journeys. You can filter the list by
Active and Inactive, and by Custom (ones you built) and Predefined
(ones that come with the system).

The predefined journeys are the quickest way to learn: open one, see how it is put
together, and copy the shape.

2. Name it and choose the trigger

Click Create new journey. The editor opens with a canvas: the trigger at the top,
then End.

1. Type a name in the Journey name box at the top. A Description is optional.
2. Click the trigger box, which says Trigger not selected.
3. Pick the event from the Trigger event list. This decides when the journey
   starts for a customer.

Choose carefully: the trigger cannot be changed once the journey is saved.

3. Add the steps

Click ＋ Add step and pick one of six kinds:

Step	What it does
Send SMS	A text message
Send email	An email
Send push	A notification to the customer app
Wait	Holds the customer here before the next step
Condition	Splits the path on something about the customer or the order
Create campaign	Issues a campaign to the customer at this point

Click a message step to set it up. It shows the step name, its Channel (SMS,
Email or Push) and the template it sends. Change picks a different template.

Auto-layout tidies the canvas. The flow check on the canvas says Flow is
valid when every step is set up and connected; if it says Flow has issues,
click it to see what to fix.

A finished journey reads top to bottom: the trigger, the steps, and End. The
Order ready journey is three boxes: the trigger, one message and the end.

4. Save and switch it on

Click Save. Save stays greyed out until the journey has a name and a trigger.
A Journey created message confirms the save.

Back on the Journeys list, check the journey's status. If it shows Inactive,
click Start. Stop pauses it again. A journey with a manual trigger has
Run instead: it runs once, for every customer or only the segments you choose.

The journey messages the customer on the order, so an order rung up as
Anonymous has nobody to message.

If something goes wrong

What you see	What it means	What to do
Save is greyed out	The journey has no name or no trigger	Add a name and choose a Trigger event
Flow has issues	A step is not set up or not connected	Click it to see which step
The journey never sends anything	It is inactive, or its trigger has not happened yet	Check it is Active, then open History
The message is wrong	Journeys send templates	Edit the template rather than the journey