Business Rules for Email and SMS

Business Rules allow you to automate and organize text-based messages with ease. Whether you want to send emails after hours or assign SMS messages to a specific department, Business Rules get these processes up and running in a matter of minutes.

In this article:  

• What is a Business Rule?
• Creating a Business Rule 
• Choosing the Type of Business Rules
• Choosing Actions
• Activating the Rule

What is a Business Rule?

Today’s customers expect timely responses, even when you’re not around. Set up a Business Rule to respond to your customers 24/7. Business Rules can also be used to trigger chatbots when a visitor lands on a certain page of your website. 

Step 1: Creating a Business Rule

To get started, go to Settings > Workflows > Business Rules and select 'New Rule'.  

A pop-up menu will appear. Choose whether you want to set up an SMS or Email Business Rule. 

Email 

To set an email Business Rule, select the Email option from the Channel drop-down.  

Give your Email rule a name and add a description. From the Entry Point drop-down, select the inbox, or a variety of inboxes, that you want your messages to be sent from. For more on setting up email inboxes, view Setting Up Email.   

SMS 

To set up a SMS rule, select the SMS option from the Channel drop-down.  

Give your SMS rule a name and add a description. From the Entry Point drop-down, select the VoIP number you want your messages sent from. For more on setting up a VoIP, view How to Set Up VoIP for Calls & SMS. 

Hit the ‘Create’ button. You’ll then be redirected to the workflow page. 

To begin constructing a sequence of Actions, click the plus button (‘+’) at the bottom of the branch.  

The Add an action menu will appear and display the following options: 

• Archive Email
• Add a Condition 
• Operating Hours
• Assign Tags
• Send a Reply
• Assign an Agent 
• Assign a Department 
• Action Group
• Assign Bot

Use Archive SMS or Email to review conversations at a later time.  

Noticing a common issue? Organize it with Assign Tags so your support team has easy access. 

Use Assign an Agent or Assign a Department to direct a customer to a helpful expert or sales agent.  

Check if a message was sent within Operating Hours and direct it appropriately.  

Need to check for a particular word or specific sender information? Use Add a Condition to match information and provide curated responses to urgent issues.  

Note: Certain words will provide default messages, including CANCEL, END, HELP, INFO, QUIT, START, STOP, STOPALL, UNSTOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, and YES. Learn more about reserved words → 

For some automated tasks, you’ll want to Send a Reply or use the SMS-only action, Assign Bot, to provide helpful information.  

Use Action Group to create a sequence of Actions. Actions are ways to group behavior. Keep in mind that not all actions may be groups together. For example, only one bot may be used in an action group. 

In the example below, the Condition Action checks an incoming email for the term “Urgent Issue.” If it finds the term, an email is sent to the customer. If not, the customer’s email is directed to the Customer Success Department  

Step 4: Activate the Business Rule 

Once you’ve selected your Action(s), click ‘Add Action’ from the action menu. When your Business Rules sequence is set up, click ‘Save Flow’. 

Change the Status Slider from red to green (alternately, from left to right). This setting changes the Business Rule from inactive (red) to active (green).  

You can also control the Status Slider in the Business Rules main menu.  

You’ve now set up a Business Rule to help save your customers (and yourself) some time! Having trouble? Reach out to support@acquire.io.