# Follow-ups

> Automatically message a customer who went quiet — three content strategies, a silence delay, and guardrails that stop it becoming spam.

- Source: https://support.unifunl.io/en/help/leads-automations/follow-ups
- Category: Leads & automations (`leads-automations`)
- Language: en
- Updated: 2026-08-20

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A follow-up sends a new message to a customer who stopped replying, or when a conversation reaches its natural end. It is the simplest way to recover revenue that is already within reach.

![Automations, Follow-Ups. The switch at the top right enables or pauses all follow-ups.](https://support.unifunl.io/help/screenshots/10-followups.png)

> **Owner and admin only** — Automations does not appear in the sidebar for members.

## The three content strategies

| Strategy | How it works | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Smart** | Uses a template matched to the promotion's context, falling back to an AI message. The recommended default. | *Hello! Take advantage of our special offers this week.* |
| **Static** | Sends exactly the same message to everyone, as you wrote it. | *Hello, we have 10% off all our products. Enjoy!* |
| **AI** | Generates a personalised message from each customer's own conversation. | If the customer had asked a product's price: *Hello! You asked about the price of [product]. It is currently available with 10% off.* |

## The silence delay

The **Send after X hours of customer silence** slider sets how many hours of silence trigger the follow-up. Around **20 hours** works well: long enough not to seem pushy, short enough to reach the customer before they buy elsewhere.

## The guardrails

> **A follow-up only goes out when all three conditions are met** — the conversation has at least **4 messages**, so a bare greeting is never followed up; there is **one follow-up per conversation**, never two; and the follow-up is **skipped** if the customer placed an order or opened a ticket in the **last 7 days**. In other words, follow-ups do not repeat daily, and your best customers are not harassed.

## Measure the result

Four counters sit at the top of the page: **Sent** with the number of failures, **Replies** with the reply rate, **Converted** with the conversion rate, and **Attributed revenue** — the orders placed within 7 days of a follow-up. **Recent follow-ups** at the bottom of the page lists the latest sends.

Follow-ups work on WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger.

## FAQ and troubleshooting

### Are follow-ups sent every day?

No. A follow-up is sent once per conversation, after the number of silent hours you set. It does not repeat.

### A customer did not get a follow-up

Check the three guardrails. The most common reason is a conversation shorter than 4 messages, or a recent order or ticket within the last 7 days.

### Which strategy should I start with?

**Smart**. It adapts to the promotion context without you writing anything, and it falls back to an AI message when no template fits.

## What's next?

Follow-ups react to silence. Campaigns let you reach out first.

[WhatsApp campaigns](https://support.unifunl.io/en/help/leads-automations/whatsapp-campaigns)

## Related articles

- [Comment replies](https://support.unifunl.io/en/help/leads-automations/comment-replies.md): Answer comments on your posts, reels and ads automatically — publicly, in a DM or both — and keep the phone numbers people leave.
- [WhatsApp campaigns](https://support.unifunl.io/en/help/leads-automations/whatsapp-campaigns.md): Broadcast an offer to the leads most likely to buy — the four-step wizard, the three campaign types, audience scoring and how to read the results.
- [Leads CRM](https://support.unifunl.io/en/help/leads-automations/leads-crm.md): Everyone who writes to you becomes a contact, scored automatically by purchase intent. Filter, search and act on them.
- [Lead scoring](https://support.unifunl.io/en/help/leads-automations/lead-scoring.md): New, Warm, Hot, Converted and Customer — what each status means, how the agent assigns it, and the one step you set yourself.