Follow-ups

What it is

Follow-ups are reminders to a customer who has stopped replying. You set up a sequence once — for example, "in 2 hours, in 1 day and in 3 days" — and Chato sends these messages by itself if the customer stays silent. Once they reply, the sequence stops right away.

A sequence can have up to 8 messages, or "touches". You write the texts yourself: follow-ups work without AI and send exactly what you set.

When it helps

• A customer asked about the price and disappeared — a couple of hours later you can gently check whether they have any questions left.
• A manager sent an offer and got no reply — a reminder the next day and again a few days later.
• A customer left a request but never got to paying — the follow-up stops by itself as soon as a Kaspi payment comes in through Chato.

How to set it up

Open Automation → Follow-ups and click New rule.

1. Basics. Give the rule a name (for example, "Follow-up after a lead") and choose the channels. By default the rule works in all channels except telephony.

2. Count time from. Choose the starting point:

• Client’s last message — the customer wrote and went quiet.
• Manager’s last message — the manager replied and the customer is silent. Replies from the AI assistant and auto-replies don't count.
• Last message in the chat — the last message from either the customer or the manager.

3. Touches. For each touch, set how many hours or days later to send it, and what to send:

• Own message — text, to which you can attach a photo, video, voice note or file.
• WABA template — an approved template from the "Message templates" section. The {{1}} variable is replaced with the customer's name. Templates with an image in the header or with two or more variables can't be selected. In channels without templates (for example, regular WhatsApp), the template text goes out as a regular message.

Each touch is timed from the starting point, not from the previous touch. For example, "2 hours, 1 day, 3 days" means 2 hours, one day and three days after the message. Each next touch must be later than the previous one, and the latest can be no more than 60 days out.

4. When to stop. Set up the stops (details in the next section).

5. CRM conditions. This block appears if CRM is turned on in Chato. You can follow up only deals in the selected stages, and stop the follow-up when a deal moves to a given stage, is won or is lost.

6. Working hours. Tick the days and hours when it's OK to message customers (by default — weekdays from 09:00 to 18:00). If a touch falls outside working hours, it goes out at the start of the next working window.

7. Preview. At the bottom, Chato shows on an example exactly when each touch will go out if the customer wrote today at 14:00 — taking working hours into account. Check that everything looks the way you intended and click Save.

When a follow-up stops

• The customer replied — always, this can't be turned off.
• The manager wrote themselves — on by default, can be turned off.
• A Kaspi payment came in through Chato — on by default.
• The chat was moved to a folder — if "Don’t follow up chats in folders" is ticked.
• The deal moved to a stage selected in the CRM conditions, or was closed ("Won" and "Lost" are on by default).
• The customer wrote a stop word. By default these are «не пишите» ("don't write"), «не надо» ("no need"), «уже купил» ("already bought"), «отписаться» ("unsubscribe") — the list can be changed. After a stop word, this customer is never followed up again under any rule.

Besides that, follow-ups never write to group chats or blocked contacts, and at least 30 minutes pass between touches in one conversation.

When a new message that matches the starting point comes in, the countdown starts over. For example, with the "Manager’s last message" starting point, every new reply from the manager restarts the sequence from the beginning.

Badge in the chat

While a follow-up is running in a conversation, a badge is shown in the chat header — for example, "Follow-up 2/3 · tomorrow 10:00": which touch is next and when it will go out. Click it to:

• Stop the follow-up — only in this conversation and only this time;
• Never follow up with this client — never follow them up again under any rule. You can undo it in the same place: "Allow follow-ups again".

How to know follow-ups are working

Each rule's card shows statistics: how many sequences were started and are running now, how many customers replied and after which touch, how many sequences were stopped by CRM, by payment, manually, and how many customers asked not to be messaged.

Tips

• Start with 2–3 touches. For example: after 2 hours — a short check-in, after a day — something useful or an answer to a common doubt, after 3 days — a last reminder.
• Don't repeat the same text. Each touch should add something new: a photo, a review, a condition, an answer to a question.
• Write like a human, and keep it short. "Is this still relevant for you? I can find an option" works better than a long advertising text.
• Keep the stop words. If a customer asks you not to write, it's better to stop — that means fewer complaints, and in the WhatsApp Business API complaints lower the number's quality rating.
• Check the preview. Especially if touches are set in days — it's easy to miss that one of them lands on a weekend and moves to Monday.