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Follow-up — Automated Re-engagement

Purpose

This page explains HUPH's Follow-up system: automation that sends re-engagement messages to leads who fall silent at critical funnel stages (e.g. applied but forgot to pay). Intended for marketing staff and counselors who configure re-engagement rules and monitor the send queue.

Prerequisites

  • Logged in as marketing or counselor
  • Understand Leads pipeline — stages and enum
  • Aware of the WhatsApp 24h window constraint (explained below)

The WhatsApp 24h Window Constraint

The WhatsApp Business API (360dialog) has strict rules:

  • Within 24 hours of the last user message → free-form text allowed (anything)
  • After 24 hours → must use pre-approved Template Messages (Meta review takes 2–7 days)

HUPH's follow-up system accounts for this — re-engagement rules always check the last-message timestamp and pick the right template.

Steps

1. Open Follow-up

Click Follow-up in the sidebar (URL: /admin/follow-up). The page has 3 tabs: Queue, Rules, Stats.

2. Queue tab — send queue

 ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
 │ Follow-up — Queue                                 │
 │                                                    │
 │ Target         Rule             Scheduled  Status  │
 │ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────  │
 │ Rudi H.        apply-remind-24h 10:30      queued  │
 │ Siti A.        qualified-day2   11:00      sending │
 │ Budi S.        drop-day3        09:15      sent    │
 └───────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Possible statuses:

  • queued — waiting for scheduled send
  • sending — in flight (usually < 5 seconds)
  • sent — delivered successfully
  • failed — error (check the error column for the reason)
  • responded — user replied after receiving (success!)
  • opted_out — user previously asked to stop; rule not executed

The queue auto-refreshes via realtime trigger (Socket.io) — new rows appear without reload.

3. Rules tab — re-engagement rules

Around 24 rules are deployed covering key funnel transitions. Each rule has:

  • Trigger condition — e.g. lead stage = new and no counselor message in the last 24 hours
  • Delay — how long to wait before sending (e.g. 1 hour, 1 day, 3 days)
  • Template — message template to send (free-form within the WA 24h window or Meta-approved template)
  • Active toggle — on/off

Click a rule row to edit it. Marketing can change delay, template, or toggle off a rule that fires too often.

4. Stats tab — effectiveness metrics

The Stats tab shows:

  • Total follow-ups sent this week
  • Response rate per rule (what % of users respond after receiving a follow-up)
  • Opt-out rate (must be watched for WA compliance)
  • Conversion: how many leads advance a stage after a follow-up

Rules with response rate < 5% or opt-out rate > 2% should be reviewed or toggled off.

5. Manual follow-up trigger

Sometimes a counselor wants to send a follow-up to a specific lead right away without waiting for the scheduler. From the lead detail page (/admin/leads-v2/[id]) there is a Send Follow-up Now button → pick a rule → send. A queue entry is created with status=queued and the next scheduler tick will execute it.

6. Hourly scheduler job

The scheduler runs every hour in the background. On each tick:

  1. Evaluate all active rules
  2. Query leads matching the trigger condition
  3. Check the 24h window → pick the appropriate template
  4. Check opt-out → skip opted_out users
  5. Insert into queue with status=queued
  6. The worker picks up queued entries → sends via 360dialog → updates the status

Because it runs hourly, there is up to a 60-minute lag between the trigger condition and message delivery. For instant sends, use the manual trigger (step 5).

Example scenarios

Re-engage a lead that applied but hasn't paid in 3 days. The rule apply-paid-day3 fires automatically: lead with stage qualified (derived from "already applied" analysis) but with no payment confirmation. Template: "Hi {name}, your UPH application is almost complete. Please pay the form fee so we can process it". Marketing monitors stats: 18% response rate, 7 out of 40 sent leads converted to enrolled.

Toggle off an annoying rule. The rule daily-checkin sends a message daily to new leads — response rate only 2%, opt-out rate 4%. Marketing clicks the rule → Toggle Off → pending queue entries still go out (not auto-canceled), but no new entries get queued.

Troubleshooting

Queue doesn't auto-update. Symptom: new entries don't appear. Cause: Socket.io trigger follow-up_queue is disconnected or the tab is stale. Fix: refresh the page; if recurring, contact dev team (trigger is registered in the DB).

Follow-up fails with "session window expired". Symptom: status failed, error mentions 24h window. Cause: the user hasn't chatted in the last 24 hours and the rule doesn't use a Meta-approved template. Fix: mark the rule's template as Meta-approved; or create a new rule that only uses Meta templates.

Opt-out rate suddenly spikes. Symptom: stats show opt-out rising from 1% to 5% in one day. Cause: a new rule that is too aggressive (too frequent / wrong timing) or template that feels too salesy. Fix: toggle off the suspicious rule, review the template with marketing, re-enable after revision.

Manual trigger doesn't send immediately. Symptom: click "Send Follow-up Now" but status is stuck at queued for more than 1 hour. Cause: scheduler hasn't ticked yet (hourly). Fix: wait for the next tick. For emergency sends, contact dev team to manually trigger a scheduler run.

See also