Automation, lead routing and response SLAs

Automation does the routine follow-up for you. It sends each new lead to the right salesperson, watches how fast your team responds, escalates leads nobody answered, and runs follow-up sequences such as a thank-you after delivery. There are two places to set it up:

• Settings › Workflows: the built-in switches (new-lead assignment and notification, reminders and alerts).
• Marketing › Automation: routing rules, response targets (SLAs), message templates and follow-up sequences.

Before you start #

• Marketing › Automation and most workflows need a plan with automation (Pro and Enterprise). New-lead assignment and notification work on every plan.
• Automated emails and texts to customers need a live email or SMS provider (see messages) and the customer's consent (see consent).
• Only the dealership owner can turn on automated customer messaging.

Built-in workflows #

Open Settings › Workflows to switch these on or off and change their timing:

The automation overview #

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1. Automation tabs: Overview, Routing, Response SLA, Templates, Sequences, Enrollments and Activity.
2. Automated customer messaging: the master switch for sequence emails and texts to customers.
3. Pause all sequences holds every enrollment where it is. Resuming continues with the next due step.
4. Quiet hours and frequency limits: automated messages wait until quiet hours end, and each customer gets at most the number you set per day and per week.

While automated customer messaging is off, sequence steps that would email or text a customer are skipped and recorded. Staff tasks, routing, SLAs and stale-lead alerts still run.

Route new leads #

1. Open Marketing › Automation › Routing.
2. Under Teams, create a team (for example "Pre-owned") and add members. For each member you can set working hours and an Away until (optional) time.
3. Select + New rule and give it a Name. Under When the lead matches, choose the conditions (leave a group empty for any): Source, Website form, Vehicle type, Vehicle condition, Makes, a price band (Price from / Price to), Languages, Days and a time window (Between, dealership time). Use Applies to leads at to limit the rule to one rooftop.
4. Under Then, choose the Action: one Person (assign), or Team (round robin). Add a Fallback person or Fallback team.
5. Select Save rule. Back on the list, use the arrows to put rules in order.

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1. New rule adds a routing rule.
2. Teams for round robin.

New leads are checked against the rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches and finds someone available assigns the lead. People are skipped when they are suspended, marked away, outside their working hours, do not cover the lead's rooftop or cannot receive leads. When no rule assigns the lead, the standard round robin runs. Each lead's Automation panel shows which rule won, or why each rule was skipped.

Set response targets (SLAs) #

1. Open Marketing › Automation › Response SLA.
2. Under New policy, enter a Name and Respond within (minutes). Optionally pick a Location and a Lead source, and choose whether only business hours count (the policy's own hours, else the rooftop's opening hours).
3. Set the escalation. The assignee is notified at the deadline. Notify managers after a further (minutes) adds a manager alert, and Reassign after (minutes past the deadline; blank = never) hands the lead to the next available person.
4. Select Add policy.

The most specific policy wins: rooftop and source, then rooftop, then source, then the default. A lead's clock is met by the first stage change out of New or by booking an appointment. The Compliance report shows on-time, missed and waiting leads by rooftop, source or salesperson, with the average first response. Once a policy exists, the dashboard shows "Leads answered on time (30 days)" and "Response overdue now".

Write message templates #

1. Open Marketing › Automation › Templates and select + New template.
2. Enter a Name, choose the Channel (email or text) and the Category (marketing or transactional), and optionally a Location.
3. Write the Subject (email) and Message with merge fields such as {{customer.first_name|there}} (with a fallback), {{vehicle.title}}, {{salesperson.name}}, {{dealership.phone}} or {{appointment.time}}.
4. Select Preview with sample data to check it (the preview uses a made-up customer, never a real one), then Save template.

Every change saves a new version, and you can restore an older one. Texts get "Reply STOP to opt out." unless they mention STOP, and texts longer than six segments are refused. A template for one rooftop replaces a dealership-wide one with the same name for that rooftop's leads.

Build a follow-up sequence #

1. Open Marketing › Automation › Sequences and select + New sequence.
2. Enter a Name, pick the Trigger (new lead, no response after a number of days, missed appointment, quote sent, sale delivered, service visit, or manual) and the Category. A new-lead sequence can be limited to some sources.
3. Under Steps, select + Add step for each one. A step Waits a delay after the previous step, then sends an email or text from a Template, or creates a Task for staff.
4. Under Stop the sequence when, tick the exit conditions: customer replied, appointment set, sale, or lead closed.
5. Select Save sequence, then activate it from the sequence page.

To enroll a lead by hand, open the lead and use Enroll in its Automation panel, or use Enrollments. A lead is in each sequence at most once at a time. Opt-outs, unsubscribes and erasure always end an enrollment. Customer steps wait for quiet hours and frequency limits; a step without consent is blocked.

Turn on automated customer messaging #

1. Sign in as the dealership owner and open Marketing › Automation.
2. Read the notice, tick the acknowledgement and select Turn on automated customer messaging.

Anyone who can manage automation can turn it off again.

Tips #

• Start with routing and one response target. Add sequences once the basics work.
• Watch Activity for the first week to see what the automation did and why.
• Every automated email has an unsubscribe link and one-click unsubscribe headers (see consent).

Permissions #

Limitations #