Sequences

Multi-step nurture that starts when a lead enters a stage and stops the moment a human takes over.

A sequence is an ordered list of steps that runs for each journey it matches. You'll usually have one per treatment group per stage — "Implant enquiry nurture" on the New stage, for example.

How a sequence is chosen

When a journey enters a stage (or is created, won or lost), SmileLine looks for one enabled sequence with that trigger:

A sequence bound to the journey's treatment wins.
Otherwise the default sequence (one with no treatments selected) runs.
No match — nothing sends.

One enabled sequence per trigger, stage and treatment: the editor blocks overlaps and tells you which sequence already covers the combination.

Settings → Automations → Sequences lists each sequence once, with the treatments it covers shown as chips on its row and the number of leads currently mid-sequence beside them. The Active | Archived switch above the list decides which set you're looking at.

Archiving a sequence stops it matching new leads and stops every lead currently mid-sequence, so you're asked to confirm — the confirmation tells you how many leads that affects.

Create a sequence

Go to Settings → Automations and click New sequence (or click the ⚡ icon on a stage column of the journeys board).

Name it, pick when it starts (entering a stage, new enquiry, won, lost) and which treatments it covers — leave it on all treatments to make it the default.

Add steps with Add step, or with the + that appears between two steps when you hover the rail. Each step is one of five kinds (below).

Reading the steps

Steps run top to bottom on a rail. Delays sit between steps rather than as steps of their own, and a running day scale — Day 0, Day 2, Day 5 — marks where each message lands relative to the start.

Drag a step by its grip to reorder it. Delays stay where they are on the rail, so reordering changes what is sent at each point without changing the cadence.

A delay set to resume during opening hours can only ever land later than its nominal offset, never earlier — a two-day wait starting on Friday evening resumes on Monday morning. The day scale reads Day 2 or later to say so.

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.

Step kinds

Step	What it does
Send a message	Sends a template by email, SMS or WhatsApp. WhatsApp steps need a template with an approved Meta (HSM) reference.
Wait	Puts a delay of minutes, hours or days between the steps either side of it. Toggle opening hours only to resume during the practice's opening hours.
Create a task	Creates a task (assigned to the journey owner or a chosen team member), with an optional note for whoever picks it up.
Move to stage	Moves the journey to another stage — if that stage has its own sequence, the lead continues there. This is how sequences chain. A sequence can't move leads into its own stage.
Add a note	Appends an internal note to the patient timeline.

Each step has its own pause switch — a paused step is marked Skipped and passed over without stopping the sequence. A paused delay waits for nothing, so the day scale ignores it.

Sequence messages are marketing messages. Before every send, SmileLine checks the patient's current preference for that channel against the practice's outbound-marketing policy. Missing or withdrawn evidence holds the step for a later recheck; it is never inferred from the enquiry itself. Marketing SMS includes the practice identity and STOP instruction, and marketing email includes an unsubscribe link and one-click unsubscribe headers. Appointment reminders remain transactional and use their separate reminder rules.

When a sequence stops

A lead drops out of a sequence when:

the patient replies on any channel (if Stop when the patient replies is on — the default);
a team member messages the patient manually — the human owns the conversation now;
the journey leaves the stage the sequence is scoped to (and, if Stop when the journey changes stage is on, on any stage change);
the journey is won or lost, the patient opts out, or someone presses Stop on the lead's enrollment chip.

A lead never runs the same sequence twice at once, but can re-enter it after a past run ended — a lead that regresses and comes back through the stage gets nurtured again.

Sequences send from your connected channels (Settings → Channels). A step whose channel has no active connection — or whose patient has no email or mobile number — is skipped and logged on the timeline, and the sequence continues.

If SmileLine repeatedly cannot process a sequence step because of a technical error, it does not retry forever. After ten consecutive failed attempts, the sequence stops and the patient timeline shows Sequence stopped for review so a team member can investigate and follow up manually. A later matching journey trigger can create a fresh sequence run; the failed run itself stays stopped for audit history.

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.

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.