Follow-ups

Follow-ups are a schedule of steps a lead works through when a moment on the automations timeline happens: messages, tasks, notes and stage moves. Open a step under Settings → Automations and they sit under Follow-ups, beside any booking messages the step has. You'll usually keep standard follow-ups on each step and give a few treatments their own — implant leads on New enquiry, for example.

When follow-ups start

The step and tab you put them on decide when they start — see the steps. Each step's page says it in full in its Runs when line, above the sections. A few need more explanation.

New enquiry → Every enquiry runs when a lead lands in New: every new enquiry, whichever way it arrived, and a lead someone moves back to New.

New enquiry → Also for ad enquiries runs once for a new enquiry whose first source is a paid ad — a lead form on Meta, Google or TikTok, an enquiry from someone who came from one of your ads, or a lead added by hand for a patient whose lead source is on a paid channel, such as Facebook / Instagram Ads. Changing a lead's source later doesn't start it. It runs as well as Every enquiry, not instead of it, so it suits a reply only ad leads should get: paid leads go cold in minutes.

The fast reply for ad leads (UK)

New practices get an Ad lead fast response set of follow-ups on New enquiry → Also for ad enquiries, switched off: a text and an email straight away, then one more text three hours later, during opening hours. When a UK practice builds an ad campaign with Text new enquiries within a minute on, Smileline switches it on, in one save. If you deleted it, or your practice joined before it existed, it is created again from the library. If other follow-ups already answer every ad lead, nothing changes. Building the campaign needs permission to edit automations.

Practices in the US don't get the fast reply yet: their marketing starts on soft opt-in, which US law on automated texts doesn't recognise.

After a call on Today

Couldn't reach them and Spoke to them follow the answers your team records on Today, on the web or in the mobile app:

• First try runs when the lead moves to Contact Attempted — the first I called but didn't speak to them (under No answer, or its Call back row) or I didn't call — I sent a message on that enquiry.
• Try 2 to Try 10 run when I called but didn't speak to them is recorded on that attempt. The tries sit on one row in call order — First try, Try 2, … Later tries — each saying what it sends. The + on the row adds the next missing try (Add try 3), which is saved with its first message; to remove a try, archive its follow-ups from the … menu. The attempt is the same count Today shows on the lead (3 attempts): every try to reach them on that enquiry, including AI calls that rang and I didn't call — I sent a message, and counting the one being recorded.
• Later tries runs on every later attempt without a tab of its own, including any after the tenth — never on the first try.
• Thinking about it and Call back later run when They're thinking about it or They want to be contacted again later is recorded under We spoke.
• First conversation runs when the lead moves to Contacted, the first time someone speaks to them. When that same answer has call-result follow-ups of its own, those run instead.

Booking, going ahead, not proceeding, attending and not turning up aren't call results here, because they also happen away from Today — online booking, the board, the diary, your practice system. Their follow-ups are on Booked, Going ahead, Not proceeding, After the visit and Didn't turn up, which start however the lead got there.

How follow-ups are chosen

When a step's moment happens, Smileline picks one set of follow-ups that is switched on:

1. The lead's treatment's own follow-ups on that step and tab win.
2. Otherwise the Standard ones run.
3. Neither — nothing sends.

For I called but didn't speak to them, the attempt is checked first: a Try for that exact attempt wins over Later tries, and only then does the lead's treatment decide. An implant lead's second unanswered call runs the standard Try 2 follow-ups rather than implant Later tries ones.

A treatment's own follow-ups count only while they're switched on — switch Own follow-ups for the treatment off and it gets the standard ones again. Switched on with every step removed, they still win, so that treatment gets nothing on that step.

Add follow-ups to a step

The row above the steps holds the on/off switch (Own follow-ups for the treatment, in a treatment view), whether they stop when the patient replies or the lead moves on, and how many leads are in them now. Follow-ups that cover several treatments say Also used for and name them: a change applies to all of them.

Reading the steps

The steps are a schedule. Every step has one time, counted from the moment the follow-ups start — Immediately, Day 2, 4 hours, Day 1 · 4 hours — and the list keeps itself sorted by that time. Two steps at the same time go out together: an email and an SMS both Immediately is exactly how you send on two channels at once.

Open a step to change when it runs. Under When, choose Immediately, or After a wait and set a number and a unit (minutes, hours or days) after the follow-ups start — for example 2 days. Beside it is Only during opening hours. Change the time and the step moves to its place in the list.

For a new enquiry, set Create a task to Immediately so your team has a task in Today as soon as the follow-ups start. The acknowledgement can also be Immediately, while a later message waits three days.

An SMS or WhatsApp step that comes due outside the practice's quiet hours waits and goes out when they next open, however far away that is — a step due on Saturday night goes out on Monday morning. If staff keep moving the quiet hours and the same step is held back eight times, it is skipped and logged on the timeline.

A step you haven't finished — a message with no template, a stage move with no stage — isn't saved, and nothing else on the list saves either until you finish or remove it. The step is marked Not saved yet and a banner at the top of the list says what's holding it up: Show me scrolls to the step and puts you in the field it's missing, and Remove it deletes it.

Step kinds

Each step has its own pause switch — a paused step is marked Skipped and passed over without stopping the follow-ups.

Which sender a message step uses

The Channel picker shows each channel with the connection it will actually send from — Email · Dental By Design, SMS · +44 7700 900123 — read from Settings → Channels. A step stores the channel, not the connection, so follow-ups built before a number is connected start sending the moment one is.

• Email always sends from the practice's built-in sender, on your verified sending domain when you have one. A connected Gmail or Outlook mailbox is for the inbox only and is never used by an automation.
• SMS and WhatsApp use the connection assigned to the patient's location when there is one, otherwise the connection set to All locations, otherwise the oldest active number. A practice with one number never has to think about this.

A channel with nothing connected reads SMS · Not connected in the picker, the step shows a SMS not connected badge on its row and on the timeline, and the step is skipped for every lead until a connection exists. The follow-ups keep running their other steps. The picker links straight to Settings → Channels to fix it.

WhatsApp templates awaiting approval

Outside the 24-hour window after a patient's last message, WhatsApp only delivers templates Meta has approved (see Templates). You can still save a WhatsApp step whose template isn't approved yet: the picker warns you and the row shows a Not approved by WhatsApp badge. Until Meta approves it, the step reaches only patients who messaged you in the last 24 hours; everyone else skips that step — the skip is recorded — and the follow-ups carry on. Once the template is approved, the step sends to everyone without you saving anything again.

Follow-ups are service messages, like booking messages. They go to every lead whatever marketing consent the lead has given — even when your outbound-marketing policy is explicit consent only — and carry no STOP line or unsubscribe link. An opt-out still counts, one channel at a time: before every send, Smileline checks whether the patient opted out of that channel — replied STOP, unsubscribed, answered No to a lead form's consent question, or was marked opted out by your team or your practice system. If they did, or they have no address for the channel, the step is skipped, the skip and its reason appear on the timeline, and the follow-ups move on to the next step — a patient who opted out of texts still gets your emails. An opt-out that arrives after a step has already queued its message still stops that message before it leaves; the conversation shows it as not sent. A WhatsApp template Meta files as marketing keeps the marketing rules: it reaches only patients your outbound-marketing policy allows.

Booking date and time in a sequence

Booking date ({{appointment.date}}) and Booking time ({{appointment.time}}) from the Fields menu fill with the lead's next booked consultation — from your diary or practice system, or the date typed on Today when the consultation was booked without a diary. They're written the way your practice's country writes dates (see Merge tags).

If nothing is booked, an email or SMS shows a blank where the field was, and a WhatsApp step outside the 24-hour window is skipped — Meta rejects an empty placeholder — with the skip recorded on the timeline. A consultation imported by your practice system's first sync, from before Smileline was connected, and never linked to the lead also shows blank.

Follow-up date, time and who calls back

When a call ends with They want to be contacted again later on Today, the follow-up you set there can go straight into a follow-up message. Pick these from the Fields menu:

• Follow-up date ({{followUp.date}}) and Follow-up time ({{followUp.time}}) — when the call back is due, written the way your practice's country writes dates, like the booking fields.
• Follow-up assigned to ({{followUp.assignee}}) — the first name of the team member the follow-up is assigned to, or of whoever recorded the call when it's assigned to no one. It's the first word of their name in Settings → Team, so a name saved as Dr Sarah Patel reads Dr.

For example, Hi {{patient.firstName}}, {{followUp.assignee}} from {{practice.name}}. I'll give you a ring on {{followUp.date}} at {{followUp.time}} as agreed. sends as Hi Sarah, Devon from Bright Smiles Dental. I'll give you a ring on Friday 17 July at 14:30 as agreed.

The fields use the lead's newest follow-up. If it has already been done or cancelled, or is due before the message sends, they are blank — and a WhatsApp step outside the 24-hour window is skipped, as with the booking fields.

The lead owner's name

Lead owner first name ({{owner.firstName}}) from the Fields menu fills with the first name of the lead's owner when the step sends — the first word of their name in Settings → Team, like Follow-up assigned to. Share new leads out under Settings → Assignment and every new lead has an owner before its first message goes, so a welcome email can say I'm Feria, one of the treatment coordinators.

If the lead has no owner, an email or SMS shows a blank where the field was, and a WhatsApp step outside the 24-hour window is skipped, as with the booking fields.

Messages about the visit

A follow-up's times count from when it starts, not from the appointment, so it can't send the day before a visit. Put messages about the visit itself under Booking messages — on Booked, Before the visit, After the visit and Didn't turn up — which count from the booking and follow it when it moves. See Booking messages.

When follow-ups stop

A lead drops out of its follow-ups when:

• the patient replies on any channel (if they're set to stop when the patient replies — the default);
• a team member messages the patient manually — the human owns the conversation now;
• the journey leaves the stage the follow-ups belong to (and on any stage change, if they're set to stop when the lead moves on);
• the journey is going ahead or not proceeding, or someone presses Stop on the lead's enrollment chip;
• for follow-ups a call result started, someone records a newer call result or undoes that result on Today (below).

Opting out of a channel doesn't stop follow-ups: only that channel's steps are skipped.

A lead never runs the same follow-ups twice at once, but can start them again after a past run ended — a lead that regresses and comes back through the stage gets nurtured again.

The latest call wins

Follow-ups started by a call result run only until the next one. When anyone records a new result on Today for the same enquiry — another No answer, We spoke, a booking or an attendance answer — the follow-ups the earlier result started stop, and the new result's follow-ups, if you have some, start. Two unanswered calls after the first try run your Try 2 follow-ups, then stop them and start Try 3.

Undo on Today, within its window, stops the follow-ups that result started. Follow-ups the undone result had already stopped stay stopped.

A result can also move the lead to a stage — the first I called but didn't speak to them moves a new lead to Contact Attempted, the first They're thinking about it moves them to Contacted. When the result has follow-ups of its own, those run instead of the stage's (First try or First conversation), so one answer never starts both. Follow-ups that started from a stage move aren't stopped by a later call result; they end by the usual rules above.

When a step keeps failing

If Smileline repeatedly cannot process a follow-up step because of a technical error, it does not retry forever. After ten failed or interrupted attempts in a row, or once its automatic retries run out, it pauses the follow-ups instead of stopping them. The lead stays enrolled with no next step scheduled, the patient's activity shows Sequence paused for review with the reason in one sentence, for example Smileline paused this sequence because a step failed with an error several times in a row., and an Automation step item appears under Couldn't be processed in the review queue.

• Try again on that item resumes the same enrollment straight away, from the step it paused on (quiet hours still hold an SMS or WhatsApp step). Sequence resumed on the timeline names who pressed it. A message is never sent twice.
• If the step is still being worked on, Try again says so: press it again in a few minutes.
• Paused follow-ups still count as running. The lead can't start the same follow-ups again on that enquiry until this run ends or is stopped, and any of the reasons above still stops it. If that happens first, Try again has nothing to resume, so mark the item as handled.
• Mark as handled leaves the follow-ups paused. To end them, press Stop on the lead's enrollment chip.

Editing templates

Message steps use templates from Settings → Templates, edited through the same dialog as the library — click Edit template on the step.

Email templates open in a visual editor: plain paragraphs read like a personal email, and typing / inserts layout blocks (headings, lists, buttons, dividers, sections, columns) when you want a designed one. Image below the editor adds a picture from your practice's image library. Press Escape once to close the / menu, and again to close the dialog. The canvas is 600px wide — the email standard — and shrinks to fit a narrow screen.

Prefer to write the markup yourself? Switch Visual to HTML above the editor and paste your own HTML, with a preview tab beside it. See Message templates for how the two modes differ.

Merge tags like {{patient.firstName}} and {{location.phone}} are literal text in the template; they resolve when each message sends. Insert them from the chip row under the editor, in either mode.