Flows: Overview

What is a Flow?

A Flow is a rule-based, automated message sequence that a trigger starts. It runs entirely in the background, so nobody has to send anything by hand and it stays active around the clock. A Flow can be single-step, with one message, or multi-step, with several messages spread out over time. You build it in the Flow Builder and manage it from the Flow dashboard. Because a Flow applies to every contact that meets its conditions, one Flow runs for any number of contacts simultaneously.

What is a Flow made of?

Every Flow follows the same structure, built from three kinds of block:

• Starting point — defines when the Flow starts and who enters it. The trigger, the filters, the contact labels and revenue tracking are all configured here.
• Messages block — one or several messages in sequence. A message can carry Quick replies, links, phone numbers and media.
• Delay block — an optional waiting time between two Messages blocks. Contacts wait inside the Delay and continue when it elapses.

Because trigger, filters and labels are combined in one Starting point, you steer the audience precisely: the trigger decides what starts the Flow, the filters and labels decide who actually enters it.

Which events can start a Flow?

Five trigger types, from four sources — two Shopify events, one Keaz-internal trigger, one external and one on WhatsApp itself:

• Contact purchase — Shopify. A contact places an order in your shop.
• Abandoned checkout — Shopify. A contact begins a checkout and does not complete it.
• Smart activation — Keaz-internal. Keaz decides when to reach each contact.
• Webhook — external. Another system calls Keaz and starts the Flow.
• Chat-in — WhatsApp. The contact writes to you first.

Smart activation is worth a closer look, because it behaves differently from the others. It works out the best sending moment for each contact automatically, in order to keep spam reports low and protect the quality of your WhatsApp account. Depending on what the system judges to be safe and sensible, it may send several messages in a day or only a few. You do not set a fixed time — Keaz handles the timing in the background.

How do Flows keep communication compliant?

A Messages block can carry Quick replies that change a contact's opt-in level when they are tapped, so consent can be given or withdrawn inside the conversation rather than somewhere the customer has to go looking for. What each level allows is set out in how subscribing and unsubscribing works. For the wider question of how to collect that consent in the first place, our guide to GDPR-compliant WhatsApp opt-in covers the rules behind it.

What can you measure?

Each Flow reports live metrics at block level, so you see where contacts move on and where they stop, instead of only how the Flow did overall. Alongside those sits the Flow finish rate, which tells you what share of contacts reached the end of the sequence — a completeness measure that a per-message open rate cannot give you. Revenue is attributed through a discount code: you create one for the Flow in Keaz, Keaz creates it in your shop system, and orders that redeem it are attributed to that Flow. Revenue tracking with discount codes explains why every Flow should have its own code.

Flow or newsletter — which one?

A Flow reacts, a newsletter announces. A Flow is triggered by an event, sends to individual contacts continuously, and times itself in real time or through Delay blocks. A newsletter is created by you, goes out once to a whole segment, and is sent immediately or at a scheduled time. Used together they cover the whole lifecycle: Flows keep the always-on communication running from first purchase to winback, newsletters carry the campaigns you decide to run.