How to nudge and close idle conversations

Video guide

An introduction to effectively managing inactive customer conversations by automatically nudging and resolving idle tickets. The following guide covers:

• Why and when to follow up on idle conversations
• Setting up automated nudge templates
• Configuring triggers and channels
• Creating wait times and response checks
• Setting up conditional responses
• Sending followup nudge messages
• Closing unresolved conversations and publish workflow

Step-by-step guide

This flow is especially useful for WhatsApp, where there's a 24-hour customer care window. Within that timeframe, you can freely message your customers — but if they stop responding, you’ll need to use approved templates to reach out again. This automation helps you nudge customers and clean up inactive conversations.

Step 1: Go to templates and save your nudge idle conversations template

1. Go to Workflows in your Bird dashboard.
2. Click on Template Flows.
3. Scroll to Customer Service and select Nudge and Close Idle Conversations.
4. Click Save to my library to start editing.

Step 2: Set your trigger

1. Click Tree view for a clearer view of the flow structure.
2. The trigger is pre-set to start the flow when a new message is received.
3. Click Save to confirm the default trigger.

Step 3: Add a wait step

1. Add a Wait step to pause the flow for 1 hour after receiving a message.
2. If the customer responds within that hour, the flow ends.
3. If they don’t respond, the flow moves forward.

Step 4: Send a nudge message

1. After the 1-hour wait, add a Send plain text message step.
2. This sends a gentle nudge to the customer reminding them the conversation is still open.
3. You can customize the message directly in the step’s panel.

Step 5: Add another wait step

1. Add another Wait step, this time for 5 minutes.
2. If the customer replies during this window, the flow ends.
3. If not, continue to the next step.

Step 6: Add a Conditional Step (optional, but recommended)

1. Insert a Conditional element to make the flow smarter.
2. This allows you to split the journey into different paths based on whether the customer responded after the nudge.
3. In the step details panel, you can:
4. Route to a "Send another follow-up" if needed.
5. Or simply end the flow if no further action is required.
6. This gives you flexibility to personalize the follow-up experience.

Step 7: Add a final message and close conversation

1. If the customer still hasn’t replied, send a final message letting them know the conversation will now be closed.
2. Then use the Close conversation action to remove the thread from the agent's view.
3. This helps keep the Assigned to Me tab clean and focused.

Step 8: Publish your flow

1. When you're ready, click Publish Draft in the top-right corner.
2. Your Nudge and Close Idle Conversations flow is now live and active.