Follow-Ups & Auto-Resolve
Nudge quiet customers with automated follow-ups you control through bot rules and workflows, and automatically close email conversations that are truly resolved.
When an email conversation goes quiet, it usually means one of two things: the customer's issue is done, or they're still waiting on something. This feature handles both. Instead of every idle conversation sitting open until it's force-closed, the bot reviews it and acts:
- Resolved? Close it. This is the auto-resolve half — it keeps the inbox clean without prematurely closing conversations that still need attention.
- Not resolved? Follow up with the customer — and what happens on a follow-up is a playbook you control. Out of the box it's a friendly nudge, but through your bot rules and workflows you can make follow-ups do real work: re-ask for a missing order number, proceed with an action the customer never confirmed, or escalate to a human.
Follow-ups currently apply to email conversations. The feature is enabled per bot in Settings → Bot Configuration, under Conversation resolution & follow-ups — see Configuration.
How it works
When an email conversation has been idle long enough to be auto-closed, the bot runs a short review:
- Is it resolved? The bot judges the conversation against your Resolution criteria.
- Resolved → the conversation is closed.
- Not resolved → it moves on to a follow-up.
- Follow up. If follow-ups remain in the budget, the bot receives an internal follow-up event: it's told the customer has gone quiet, why the conversation is considered unresolved, and which follow-up this is (e.g. "follow-up 1 of 2", with the last one marked as final). The customer never sees this event — it just triggers a normal bot turn. On that turn the bot first checks your bot rules and workflows: if any of them describe what to do when following up on a quiet customer, it follows them. Otherwise it sends the default — one brief, friendly nudge. See The follow-up playbook.
- When the budget runs out. Once the maximum number of follow-ups has been used and the conversation is still unresolved, the deterministic terminal action you chose runs: close the conversation, or hand it off to a human.
The follow-up counter resets whenever the customer replies — so a customer who responds and then goes quiet again gets the full budget again.
A note also appears on the conversation timeline each time a follow-up is triggered (e.g. "Customer inactive — automated follow-up 1/2"), so your team can see what happened.
Configuration
Configure the feature per bot in Settings → Bot Configuration, under Conversation resolution & follow-ups.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Enable auto-resolve | Master switch for this bot. Off (default): idle conversations are just closed. On: idle conversations are reviewed and followed up as described here. |
| Resolution criteria | Defines what counts as resolved. Conversations matching it are closed; others get a follow-up. |
| Maximum follow-ups | How many follow-ups the bot may send before the terminal action. 0 skips follow-ups entirely. Resets when the customer replies. |
| Hand off when follow-ups are exhausted | The terminal action once follow-ups run out and the conversation is still unresolved: on hands off to a human, off closes the conversation. |
There is deliberately no "follow-up message" setting here. The default follow-up behavior is built in, and anything beyond it lives where the rest of your bot's behavior lives — in bot rules and workflows. That's the playbook.
For the programmatic settings, see the Configuration reference at the end of this page.
Resolution criteria
Resolution criteria answers a single question: is this conversation done? Keep it focused on that. For example:
A conversation is resolved if the customer's question has been fully answered and nothing further is needed from us. It is not resolved if the customer still needs to confirm or provide something before their issue can be completed.
Leave it on the default unless you have a specific definition of "done" for your business (e.g. treating "awaiting a refund confirmation" as unresolved).
The follow-up playbook
A follow-up is a normal bot turn, triggered by an internal event instead of a customer message. That's the key design decision: it means everything you already use to shape the bot's behavior — bot rules, workflows, actions — works on follow-ups too.
What the bot is told
On each follow-up turn, the bot receives an event that looks like this (internal — the customer never sees it):
The customer has gone quiet and the conversation looks unresolved, so an automated follow-up was triggered.
Why it's considered unresolved: The customer was asked to confirm the cancellation but has not responded.
This is automated follow-up 1 of 2 (1 more allowed after this one).
How to handle this: if your workflows or additional rules describe what to do when following up on a quiet customer, follow them. Otherwise, send one brief, friendly nudge that references the last topic discussed and asks the customer for whatever is still needed to move their request forward. Never claim an action has been taken, and do not treat the conversation as resolved.
On the last follow-up in the budget, the event says so explicitly: "the FINAL allowed follow-up. After this, no more follow-ups will be sent."
So your playbook can key off three things: that this is a follow-up, why the conversation is unresolved, and which follow-up it is (including whether it's the final one).
The default behavior
With no customization, the bot sends one brief, friendly nudge: it references the last topic, asks the customer for whatever is still needed, keeps it concise, and never claims an action has been taken. It does not hand the conversation off — a guaranteed handoff is what the Hand off when follow-ups are exhausted toggle is for.
Customizing with bot rules
Bot rules apply to every turn, including follow-up turns, so they're the lightest way to steer follow-ups. Examples:
When following up on a quiet customer, always write in the same language the customer used, and offer a direct link to our returns portal if the conversation was about a return.
If you are following up and the customer never confirmed a subscription cancellation they asked for: on the second follow-up, proceed with the cancellation, tell them it's done, and let them know they can reach out to undo it.
That second example is the pattern to notice: the customer asked for something, went quiet before confirming, and your playbook decides that silence-after-two-nudges means proceed. The bot can execute it because a follow-up turn can call any action the bot normally has.
Customizing with workflows
For a fuller playbook, write a workflow that matches the follow-up event. In When to follow, describe the event:
Follow this when you receive an automated conversation event saying the customer has gone quiet and the conversation is unresolved (an automated follow-up).
Then put your playbook in the instructions, for example an escalating ladder:
On the first follow-up, send a short friendly reminder referencing the last topic. On the final follow-up, summarize what we're still waiting for, set the expectation that we'll close the conversation if we don't hear back, and if the request can be completed without the customer's input, complete it and say so.
Because it's a regular workflow, it can do anything a workflow can — call actions, look up an order, gather data, or hand off to a human.
Workflow-driven vs. guaranteed handoff
There are two ways a follow-up can end with a human, and they behave differently:
- From your playbook (e.g. "on the final follow-up, hand off" in a bot rule or workflow) — the bot decides in the moment. This is flexible and conditional, but, like any AI instruction, it's followed most of the time, not every time.
- The "Hand off when follow-ups are exhausted" toggle — deterministic. Once the budget is spent and the conversation is still unresolved, it's handed off (or closed) automatically, with no dependence on the AI.
By default, follow-ups themselves never hand off — the bot is explicitly told not to unless your rules or workflows instruct it. Use the toggle when you need a guarantee ("these must always reach a human"). Use the playbook when you want nuanced, conditional behavior. They compose: the playbook handles the in-conversation moves, and the toggle is the backstop once the budget runs out.
Examples
Close quietly, no follow-ups. Enable auto-resolve on, Maximum follow-ups 0, toggle off. Idle conversations the bot judges resolved are closed; unresolved ones are closed too — the bot just stops sitting on dead threads. Simplest setup.
One nudge, then close. Enable auto-resolve on, Maximum follow-ups 1, toggle off. The bot sends a single follow-up; if the customer still doesn't reply, the conversation is closed.
One nudge, then hand off. Maximum follow-ups 1, toggle on. The bot sends a single follow-up; if the customer still doesn't reply, it's handed to a human instead of closed — good for higher-touch queues.
Hand off immediately instead of nudging. Maximum follow-ups 0, toggle on. Unresolved conversations go straight to a human, with no follow-up message.
Two nudges with a playbook. Maximum follow-ups 2, plus a bot rule or workflow like "On the final follow-up, if this looks like a billing dispute, hand off to a human; otherwise send a final reminder." Pair with the toggle on if you also want a hard guarantee that anything still unresolved after two nudges reaches a person.
Silence means yes. Maximum follow-ups 2, plus a rule like "If the customer requested a cancellation but never confirmed it, proceed with the cancellation on the second follow-up and tell them it's done." The bot nudges once, then completes the request instead of letting it die.
FAQ
Does the customer see the internal follow-up event? No. The event is internal to the bot; only the follow-up message the bot writes is sent to the customer.
Do I need to create a workflow for follow-ups to work? No. The default nudge behavior is built in. Bot rules and workflows are only for customizing what happens beyond that.
What if I disable auto-resolve later? Idle conversations go back to simply being closed. Any follow-up rules or workflows you authored stay in place (they just won't be triggered) — you can delete them if you don't plan to use them again.
Why isn't the bot following up? Check that (1) auto-resolve is enabled for the bot, (2) the conversation is on email, and (3) the bot — not the customer — sent the last message (if the customer spoke last, there's nothing to nudge and the conversation is closed). If all of that holds and follow-ups still aren't firing, contact us.
Configuration reference
For integrators and admins configuring follow-ups outside the dashboard.