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A flow's trigger node decides what starts it: a word a customer types, any message at all, a tag landing on a contact, a contact matching a saved segment, a form submission, or one of three appointment events. This article covers all six trigger categories, exactly what each one's fields do, and how the platform checks for a match behind the scenes.
Flow triggers: first 5 of 7 steps
- 1Open the flow's trigger node
- 2For Keyword / Inbound Message
- 3For Contact enters a Segment
- 4For Contact receives a Tag
- 5For the three appointment triggers
Before you start
- The trigger dropdown groups options by category: Messaging (Keyword / Inbound Message, Contact enters a Segment), Tags (Contact receives a Tag), Appointments (Appointment Booked, Appointment Reminder, Appointment Completed), and Forms (Form Submitted).
- Only Active flows evaluate triggers. A flow left in Draft never fires, no matter how its trigger is configured.
- Segment-entry and appointment-reminder triggers run on a schedule (hourly and every 5 minutes respectively), not instantly. Every other trigger fires the same second the underlying event happens.
- A trigger that targets a contact with no WhatsApp number (a website chat visitor, a Calendly booking made with only an email, or a Meta DM contact) is skipped, since there is nowhere for the flow to send a WhatsApp message.
Steps
- Open the flow's trigger node and choose a Trigger Type from the dropdown.
- For Keyword / Inbound Message, enter one or more comma-separated keywords (matching is a case-insensitive "contains" check by default), or leave the field blank to catch any inbound message that no keyword flow already claimed.
- For Contact enters a Segment, pick a saved segment from the dropdown. The flow runs once for each contact the first time they match that segment's filter, checked hourly.
- For Contact receives a Tag, pick a specific tag, or leave it on "Any tag" to fire whenever any tag is applied to a contact.
- For the three appointment triggers, optionally scope to one service; leave it on "Any service" to catch every appointment. Appointment Reminder additionally needs an "Hours before appointment" value (1 to 168 hours), checked every 5 minutes.
- For Form Submitted, optionally scope to one specific form, or leave it on "Any form" to fire on every submission across every form in your workspace.
- Activate the flow and confirm it fires by triggering the event yourself: message the keyword, book a test appointment, submit the test form, or add the tag to a test contact.
A salon that wants three different automated moments does not need three different tools: an Appointment Booked trigger sends the confirmation the instant the slot is taken, an Appointment Reminder trigger fires a day ahead with the service name and price already filled in, and an Appointment Completed trigger asks for a review once the visit is over. Each is its own flow with its own trigger node, so editing the reminder wording never risks breaking the confirmation.
What you will see
A matching keyword or catch-all trigger starts a flow execution the instant the message is processed, visible as a new run on the flow's list entry within a second or two. A segment-entry or appointment-reminder trigger takes up to an hour or 5 minutes respectively to notice a new match, since those run on a schedule rather than instantly. Every trigger passes useful context into the flow as variables you can reference with {{variable_name}}: an appointment trigger provides service_name, service_price (booked) or service_duration (completed) and appointment_at; a form trigger provides every field the customer answered.
None of this requires you to build any of the matching logic yourself. A keyword flow does not need you to write a webhook handler that checks incoming text against a list; a reminder flow does not need you to run your own cron job that scans a calendar every few minutes. Choosing a trigger type and filling in its two or three fields is the entire setup on your side.
Settings and options
| Trigger type | Category | Fields | Fires |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keyword / Inbound Message (with keywords) | Messaging | Keywords (comma-separated), match type | Instantly, when an inbound message contains (or exactly matches) a keyword |
| Keyword / Inbound Message (blank) | Messaging | None | Instantly, as a catch-all for any inbound message no keyword flow already claimed; suppressed while the contact has an active sequence running |
| Contact enters a Segment | Messaging | Segment | Hourly, for each contact matching the segment for the first time |
| Contact receives a Tag | Tags | Tag (optional; blank matches any tag) | Instantly, the moment the tag assignment is saved |
| Appointment Booked | Appointments | Service (optional) | Instantly, right after the appointment is created |
| Appointment Reminder | Appointments | Service (optional), Hours before appointment | Every 5 minutes, for appointments whose reminder offset falls in the current window |
| Appointment Completed | Appointments | Service (optional) | Instantly, the moment an appointment's status changes to completed |
| Form Submitted | Forms | Form (optional; blank matches any form) | Instantly, right after the submission is saved |
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| A keyword flow never fires for a real customer message | The message did not contain the exact keyword text, including a typo, extra punctuation, or a different word entirely | Broaden the keyword list with common variations, or switch to a blank catch-all trigger if precision is not critical |
| A segment-entry flow has not fired for a contact you can see clearly matches | The hourly check has not run yet, or the contact already matched the segment before the flow was created | Wait for the next hourly cycle; a contact that matched before flow creation never triggers it retroactively |
| An appointment reminder never sends | The service filter is scoped to a different service than the one actually booked, or the appointment was cancelled before the reminder window | Check the trigger's Service field, and confirm the appointment is still in "scheduled" status |
| A form-submitted trigger does not start a flow | The contact has no WhatsApp number (a widget-only submission with no phone field), or the form filter is scoped to a different form | Add a phone field to the form if you need WhatsApp follow-up, and confirm the trigger's Form dropdown matches the form that was actually submitted |
| Two flows both respond to the same keyword | Both flows are active with overlapping keywords | Rename or disable one so only one flow owns that word |
| A tag-added trigger fired once but not again for the same contact | This is expected; the trigger only fires on the instant a tag assignment is created, not on every later save of a contact that already carries it | Remove and re-add the tag to fire it again, or use a different trigger for repeatable automation |
Related reading
Once your trigger is set, add the nodes that make up the conversation itself; see the flow node reference for every field, or the broader Flow Builder guide for wiring nodes together and testing the result.