# Greet and qualify customers with flows

A flow is a scripted bot that greets customers, asks questions, shows buttons and products, and passes the conversation to the AI or your team.

A flow is a script the bot follows step by step: say hello, ask what the customer needs with buttons, collect a phone number, show a few products, then hand the conversation to the AI assistant or to your team. Flows answer instantly and always say exactly what you wrote, which makes them a good front door for every channel.

## Where flows fit

When a customer writes, Ha Tang tries in this order:

1. **Flows.** If an enabled flow matches the message, or a flow is waiting for this customer's answer, the flow replies.
2. **The AI assistant**, if no flow replied and the assistant is on. See [How the AI assistant works](https://hatang.dev/help/ai/ai-overview).
3. **Your team**, through your [distribution rules](https://hatang.dev/help/automation/routing-rules).

Flows never run in a closed conversation or after an agent clicked **Stop AI** in that conversation. In a conversation a person on your team owns, only a flow that person ran by hand runs (see [Run a flow from the inbox](#run-a-flow-from-the-inbox)).

## Start from a template

Go to **Customer Support → Automation**. Under **Templates** you find ready-made flows: **Chào hỏi & phân luồng** (greet and route with buttons), **Xin số điện thoại** (collect name and phone), **Ngoài giờ làm việc** (after hours), **Tư vấn sản phẩm** (product cards then the AI), **Kiểm tra đơn hàng** (order status), **Đặt lịch hẹn** (booking), **Menu câu hỏi thường gặp** (FAQ menu) and **Xin đánh giá** (ask for a rating).

1. Click **Install** on a template. It is added to the list, turned off, so you can edit the wording first.
2. Click its name to open it and adjust the texts.
3. Tick **Enabled** and click **Save flow**, or click **Turn on** in the list.

![The Automation page with three flows and the templates](https://hatang.dev/help/img/en/automation/flows.webp)

The list shows for each flow its trigger, website, number of steps, and how many times it **Started** and **Completed**.

## Create a flow

1. Go to **Customer Support → Automation** and click **New flow**.
2. Enter a **Name**, choose the **Site** (or **All sites**) and tick **Enabled**.
3. Under **When does it start?**, choose the **Trigger** and narrow it if needed (see below).
4. Under **Steps**, add steps with **Add step:** and fill them in.
5. Click **Create flow**.

![A flow that greets the customer, asks what they need with buttons and branches on the answer](https://hatang.dev/help/img/en/automation/flow-editor.webp)

### Triggers

| **Trigger** | Starts when |
|---|---|
| **First message of a conversation** | The customer sends the first message of a new conversation |
| **Visitor's message contains a keyword** | The message contains one of the keywords, ignoring accents and capitals |
| **Visitor is on a page** | The visitor's page address contains the text you enter (website widget) |
| **Manual / from the inbox only** | Never on its own: an agent runs it from a conversation (see [Run a flow from the inbox](#run-a-flow-from-the-inbox)), or your developers start it through the API ([developer hub](https://hatang.dev/docs/guides/support/automation)) |

Every trigger can be narrowed by **Office hours** (any time, only within, only outside), by **Channels (none ticked = any)** (tick the channels it applies to), and to visitors who came from a campaign link with **Only from campaign / ref (optional)** (matches `utm_source` or `?ref=` in the page address). When several flows match, the first one in the list wins.

### Steps

Steps run from top to bottom. Each has a **Step id** that other steps can jump to. A flow has up to 60 steps.

| Step | What it does |
|---|---|
| **Send a message** | Sends a text, with optional quick reply buttons |
| **Ask a question & save the answer** | Asks, waits for the reply and saves it to the visitor's name, phone or email, a customer field, or a flow variable. **Validate** can require a phone number or an email address; the question is asked again up to twice if the answer does not fit. |
| **Send product cards** | Sends products from your catalog, chosen by id or by a search such as `{{last}}` (the customer's last message) |
| **Branch on the answer** | Goes to a step when the last answer (or a variable) contains certain words, or when conditions on the customer or the conversation hold; otherwise goes to another step |
| **Wait** | Pauses up to 86,400 seconds (one day) before the next step |
| **Add tags** | Adds tags to the conversation |
| **Assign to an agent** | Gives the conversation to one agent, or to the distribution rules; the flow ends |
| **Notify a webhook** | Sends an event to your webhooks, for developers. See [Webhooks](https://hatang.dev/help/integrations/webhooks). |
| **Jump to a step** | Continues at another step |
| **Hand to the AI assistant** | Ends the flow and lets the AI take over (the assistant must be on) |
| **Hand to a human** | Optionally says something, then hands the conversation to the distribution rules. In a flow an agent ran by hand, the conversation simply stays with that agent |
| **End** | Ends the flow; the next message goes to the AI or an agent as usual |

In texts, `{{name}}`, `{{phone}}` and `{{email}}` insert the customer's details, `{{last}}` their last answer and `{{var.order_ref}}` a saved variable. Add a fallback after a bar: `{{name|bạn}}` writes "bạn" when the name is unknown.

> [!NOTE]
> While a flow pauses on a **Wait** step, messages from the customer go to whoever answers next (the AI or an agent), not to the flow.

## Run a flow from the inbox

A flow with the **Manual / from the inbox only** trigger is a script your agents start when they need it, for example to collect a phone number or an order code in the middle of a chat. You need the **Work** level on the Customer Support module.

1. Open the conversation in **Customer Support → Inbox**.
2. Click **More** at the top of the conversation, then **Run a flow**.
3. Click **Run** next to the flow.

The list shows the enabled manual flows of the conversation's website. The flow's messages go to the customer at once, and when it asks a question, the customer's answer goes to the flow, not to the AI. The conversation stays yours the whole time, and a **Hand to a human** step leaves it with you. **Run a flow** is not offered in a closed conversation.

## Tips

- Keep the first message short and give two or three buttons. Customers on Zalo and Messenger tap more than they type.
- End every branch with **Hand to the AI assistant** or **Hand to a human**, so no one is left talking to a script.
- Use **Only outside office hours** for an after-hours flow, and a separate greeting for working hours.
- Check **Started** and **Completed** after a week: a flow that many start but few complete asks too much.