Automate with workflows

New to this? Start with the idea, not the buttons. A workflow is a set of instructions you write once, and Exabloom follows them for you — automatically, every time, day or night. Think of it as a reliable teammate who never forgets a follow-up and never sleeps.

Every workflow boils down to one simple sentence:

You won't write code. You build the workflow by drawing a flowchart on a canvas — dropping in boxes (we call them nodes) and connecting them top to bottom in the order they should run. Once it's switched on, contacts flow through that chart one step at a time, all on their own.

The single biggest beginner mistake is opening the canvas and dragging nodes around hoping a flow appears. It won't. The people who build good workflows always plan in plain words first, then translate that plan into nodes. Here's a four-question method you can use every single time.

1. 1What starts it?Name the exact moment this should kick off — “a new lead replies”, “a lead moves to Qualified”, “every Monday morning”. That moment becomes your trigger.
2. 2What's the outcome?Finish the sentence “by the end, I want…”. For example: “…the lead either booked a call, or a rep has been told to step in.” Knowing the destination keeps the middle honest.
3. 3What happens in between?Write the steps as a numbered list in everyday language — reply, wait two days, check if they answered, follow up. Don't think about node names yet, just the story.
4. 4Where does it fork?Find every “if… otherwise…” in your story. Each fork is a branch (an If/Else). “If they replied, hand to a rep. If not, send one more nudge.”

Do that and you've already done the hard part. Building is just transcription — each line of your plan becomes a node. Here's the same plan, written out and then translated to the canvas side by side:

You've seen the shape already — one trigger that decides who enters and when, then a chain of nodes that run once they're in. This section names the actual pieces you get to choose from, so the rest of the guide has a vocabulary to lean on.

Triggers come in two flavours: event triggers that fire when something happens, and a scheduled trigger that enrols people on a timetable.

Nodes group into a few families — and you'll meet them as we go:

• Messaging — Send WhatsApp, Telegram, or Facebook Messenger; Wait for reply.
• Contacts & leads — Create / update / find a lead, Assign owner, Add tag, Add note, Update contact.
• Data & AI — AI Agent, AI Model, Retrieve Knowledge, Transform Text.
• Control flow — If/Else, Loop, Wait, Go To, Remove from workflow, End.
• Integration — Webhook (call any external system).

Before you build, let's get the lay of the land so nothing feels unfamiliar. When you open a workflow you land on the Editor — the canvas where you draw the flow. Across the top sits a row of tabs and the controls that put it live:

• Editor — the canvas itself, where you add and connect nodes. This is where you'll spend most of your time.
• Settings — the rules for who can enter and when people leave (we cover these in Level 6).
• Logs — a record of every contact that ran through, node by node. Your first stop when something looks off (Level 7).
• Time-Driven Logs — appears only when your trigger is a schedule; it shows each scheduled run.

A brand-new workflow isn't blank for long — it starts with a single dashed Add new trigger box. Click it, pick what starts the workflow, and you're away. From then on, every connecting line has a small + button on it — click one and the Actions drawer slides in from the right.

Click any node you've added and a panel opens on the right to configure it. Every node panel starts with a name field (rename it to something you'll recognise later), followed by that node's own settings — the message text, the wait length, the condition to check, and so on.

Let's build the simplest useful thing: an instant reply when a new lead messages. Open Workflows, create a new one, and pick the Contact replied trigger. Add one Send WhatsApp node with a friendly greeting. That's a complete workflow.

One path is rarely enough. The If/Else node splits your flow in two: a condition is checked, and the contact goes down the IF branch when it's true or the ELSE branch when it's not.

What you can test, and how, depends on the field's type. A few of the operators you'll reach for:

You can branch on almost anything Exabloom knows — a contact or lead field, a tag, the pipeline stage, a lead score, the text of the last message, even a true/false value the AI worked out. Need more than one test? Group conditions with AND / OR, and nest If/Else nodes inside branches for finer-grained paths.

Great follow-up is about when as much as what. Two nodes give you control over time:

• Wait for time delay — pause for a fixed duration (say 2 hours or 3 days) or until a specific date and time, then carry on.
• Wait for reply — hold until the contact messages back (with an optional timeout). It tells you whether they replied so you can branch on it.

So far you've scripted every message. The AI Agent node hands the conversation to your AI to handle freely — answering, qualifying, and booking — then tells you how it went. You choose which agent and channel, and the conditions that end its turn.

When the agent finishes, it reports an exit reason — one of the built-ins below, or a custom condition you define. Branch on it to decide what happens next. (Handing off to a human is itself a custom exit, or the agent’s Request Internal Input action — not a built-in reason.)

Workflows don't just talk — they keep your CRM tidy. Lead and contact nodes let automation do the admin your team would otherwise forget:

A classic: the moment a lead reaches your Qualified stage, hand it to the right rep and flag it — using the Lead updated trigger with a stage has changed condition.

As you run more workflows, the most important questions become who enters and when they leave. Get these wrong and you double-message people. The Settings tab is where you tune both. It has three sections: Enrolment Criteria (who can enter), End Workflow Conditions (the stop switches), and Exit Actions (what happens after someone leaves).

• How people enter — a trigger fires, you bulk-add them from a contact or lead list (the Add to workflow bulk action), or a schedule enrols them. Note that re-entry is allowed by default: switch Allow contact to enter workflow more than once off when you only want a single run per person.
• How people leave — they reach an End node, a Remove from workflow node fires, or one of the two stop switches kicks in: Stop when contact replied (your customer messages) or Stop when user replied (a teammate steps in).
• What happens after — Exit Action rules can drop someone into another workflow based on how they left, so you chain small workflows instead of building one giant one.

Building a workflow doesn't make it run. When it's ready, Save your changes and flip the toggle to Published — that's the switch that starts enrolling people. Both controls sit together in the top-right of the builder.

• Published vs Drafted — a Published workflow enrols and runs people; flipping it back to Drafted stops new enrolments. Treat the toggle as your on/off switch. (In the Workflows list the same states read as a Published or Draft badge.)
• Read the Logs — the Logs tab shows every node that ran, for every contact, with its result. When something looks off, this is where you see exactly where and why.
• Edits apply when you save — so change a live, enrolling workflow deliberately, and lean on the roll-out tip below.

Six recipes, roughly easiest to most involved. Each combines pieces you've now met — read them as patterns to adapt, not scripts to copy exactly.

Every term you've met in this guide, in one place. Skim it now, or come back whenever a word doesn't click.

Trigger

The event that starts the workflow for one contact — a reply, a new lead, a stage change, or a schedule. Every workflow has exactly one.

Node

A single step on the canvas: send a message, wait, check a condition, update a lead. You connect nodes top-to-bottom to make a flow.

Branch (If/Else)

A fork in the flow. A condition is tested; the contact goes down the IF path when it's true, the ELSE path when it's not.

Enrol / enrolment

When a contact enters a workflow and starts moving through it. One contact can have its own enrolment running independently of everyone else's.

Stop condition

A rule that ends someone's enrolment early — for example, “Stop when contact replied” so automated nudges go quiet once a real chat begins.

Re-entry

Whether a contact who already went through can enter again. It's on by default — switch it off for one-time sequences.

Exit reason

How an AI Agent node ended its turn (goal achieved, max turns, timeout, or a custom condition). You branch on it to decide what happens next.

Exit Action

A rule that drops a contact into another workflow based on how they left — how you chain small workflows instead of building one giant one.

Published / Drafted

A workflow's on/off state. Published means it's live and enrolling people; Drafted means it's switched off while you edit. (The Workflows list shows the same as a Published or Draft badge.)

Wait

A node that pauses one contact's journey for a set time, or until they reply, before the next node runs. It doesn't hold up anyone else.

• Always set a stop condition on sequences — so the automation goes quiet the moment a real conversation starts.
• Mind double enrolment. Re-entry is on by default — switch it off for one-time sequences so no one gets the same journey twice.
• Mind the clock. A wait fires whenever it elapses, so branch on your business status if a message shouldn't land in the middle of the night.
• Name your nodes clearly. Those names show up in the Logs and when you reference a step's output later — “Ask budget” beats “AI Model 3”.
• Keep workflows small and chained. Several focused workflows joined by Exit Actions are far easier to debug than one sprawling one.
• Test before you scale. Turn it on, enrol a few contacts, read the Logs, then widen.