Follow-ups — re-engage silent leads

What it is

When a lead stops replying, ZeroChats sends automatic follow-up messages to reactivate them. You define when they fire and, at each step, you choose whether the AI writes the message or you use fixed text.

Meta's 22-hour window after the lead's last message. Past that point, you can't message them until they reply again.

Meta’s 22-hour limit

Instagram and WhatsApp only allow outbound messages within the 22 hours after the lead’s last message. Past that window, you can’t write to them until they reach out again. Configure all follow-ups inside that range and prioritize the most important ones at the start.

How to configure it

Configuration lives in two places:

1. In the business settings, under Wait hours for follow-up messages, you define how many hours after the lead’s last message each follow-up fires (between 1 and 23). Press Configure follow-ups to open the list and Add follow-up to create a new one.
2. In each follow-up you specify:
   • After N hours — trigger time, counted from the lead’s last message.
   • Uses AI? — if Yes, the AI writes the message and picks the relevant content following your instructions. If No, you write the Follow-up messages one per line and, optionally, attach content.
   • Content — optional. If you add content in manual mode, it’s always sent before the messages.

Instructions for the AI

In AI mode, the AI follows your instructions to write a personalized message and choose relevant content. State clearly when it should respond and when it shouldn’t to avoid awkward re-engagements.

What the AI sees when writing a follow-up

In AI mode, when generating the follow-up the AI only has access to this data about the lead and the conversation:

• Lead name — to personalize the greeting.
• Lead status in the pipeline: Open, Discovering, Qualifying, Proposal, Booked, Client, Postponed, Unqualified, Lost.
• Lead tags (name and description of each assigned tag).
• Recent conversation history (last messages exchanged, trimmed to a short window).
• Time elapsed since the lead’s last message.
• Content attached to that follow-up step (the ones you selected when configuring it), excluding items already sent to that lead. The AI does not see the rest of the library: if you want it to be able to send a content piece at that step, attach it in the follow-up configuration.
• Your instructions from the follow-up field (including the sequence prompt).

The AI does not have access to the main AI Assistant prompt, the Goals, or the global business configuration at this step. Anything you want it to take into account must be in the follow-up instructions, or reflected in the lead’s status/tags.

How to write status- and tag-based instructions

Because the AI knows the lead’s status and tags, the most effective approach is to write the follow-up instructions as clear conditional rules. Recommended pattern:

- If status is `Qualifying`: ask for the missing data point (budget, schedule, urgency).
- If status is `Proposal`: remind them of the offer sent and ask if they need a call.
- If status is `Booked`: confirm the appointment and offer to reschedule if it doesn't suit them.
- If tagged `high-price`: reinforce ROI before pushing the sale again.
- If tagged `cold`: don't insist more than once; offer a valuable piece of content and close.
- If tagged `returning-customer`: switch the tone to familiarity, don't pitch from scratch.
- If no rule matches: open, soft question to restart the conversation.

The more specific the rules (by status, by tag, by combination), the more consistent each re-engagement will be. Avoid generic instructions like “do a friendly follow-up” — the AI will end up repeating itself across very different leads.

Conditions to NOT reply

Take advantage of the fact that an empty follow-up is valid. In the instructions you can say when the AI should stay quiet — for example: “if the lead’s last reply was a clear refusal, don’t send a follow-up” or “if tagged do-not-disturb, return an empty message”.

Follow-up by state

Instead of writing the conditional rules yourself, in AI mode you have the Follow-up by state button. It opens a panel with one field per pipeline state, where you simply describe — in plain language — what the AI should do for each one. On Save prompt, ZeroChats automatically generates an optimized prompt so the AI replies differently depending on the lead’s state, and places it in the follow-up instructions field.

The panel shows one field per state where follow-up is enabled:

• Discovering
• Open
• Qualifying
• Proposal
• Booked
• Paid

The Lost, Unqualified and Postponed states do not appear in the panel: follow-up never fires in those states, so there’s no point defining any logic for them.

Panel rules:

• Only the states you fill in are included. An empty field is skipped: for that state the AI gets no specific instruction.
• You can combine it with the rest of the prompt — the button is available whenever the follow-up is in AI mode.
• If you reopen the panel on a follow-up that was already saved by state, it restores what you wrote in each field so you can edit it.

When to use it

Use Follow-up by state when your re-engagement depends mainly on where the lead sits in the pipeline. If your rules depend more on tags, write the instructions by hand as in the previous section.

Sequence reset

In Reset follow-up sequence you decide what happens if the lead writes back:

• Enabled: a new message from the lead resets the sequence from the start. The 22 h window also resets.
• Disabled: if a follow-up has already been sent to that lead, it won’t be repeated even if the conversation continues.

Operating rules

• Follow-ups are only sent within the configured Business hours.
• They’re only sent to leads in Automated mode; Manual leads are excluded.
• They’re not sent if the lead’s status is Lost, Unqualified or Postponed.
• They’re not sent if the last message in the conversation is from the lead (you owe them a reply, not a re-engagement).
• The AI never repeats messages it already sent in previous follow-ups.
• Content already sent to that lead is filtered out automatically — the AI cannot resend it.
• An empty follow-up is valid: the AI decided it wasn’t the right moment to write.
• If all follow-ups fall outside the 22 h window, they simply aren’t delivered.

Best practices

• Start with two or three steps: one early (2–4 h), one middle (8–12 h) and one final close to the limit (18–20 h).
• Combine AI and fixed text: let the AI handle the first contextual re-engagement and save a more direct fixed text for the last attempt.
• If you sell with links, remember that content is always sent before messages in manual mode.
• Review Business hours: if they’re very narrow, follow-ups can get blocked even if they’re within the 22 h.