Why this is not a follow-up
You already follow up. A follow-up asks the same question again: any update? It works on someone who is simply busy, and it does nothing at all for someone who has decided something and has not told you.
Win-back is for the second person. A lead who went quiet after a trial, a quote or a price almost always went quiet for a reason they never said out loud - it costs more than they expected, the timing is wrong, they are comparing you to someone else, or they are slightly embarrassed to say no. Nobody writes “your fees are too high” in a WhatsApp reply. They just stop typing.
So a win-back message does not ask for an update. It guesses the unspoken objection and answers it first, which makes replying cheap: the lead no longer has to explain themselves, only confirm or correct. That is the whole difference, and it is why the message needs to be written deliberately rather than generated as a generic follow-up.
Asks her to do the work of explaining herself. She went quiet because she did not want to have that conversation, so she stays quiet.
Names the objection she never said out loud, and makes replying cheap: one word, no explanation owed.
The shape of the whole thing
On a WhatsApp Business API number there are two approvals, and people mix them up constantly. They are completely separate, they happen at different times, and you need both.
Every win-back message is a template. Meta reads it and approves it before it can ever be sent. Change the wording later and it goes back for approval.
The program proposes a lead and a message. Nothing leaves until a person presses Approve & send in the queue. This is on by default.
Everything else is a daily loop. Once the program is on, it reads your leads once a day, in your workspace’s timezone. For each quiet lead it reads the actual conversation, decides whether going back is appropriate, picks the message that fits, and puts it in a queue. Nothing sends until someone presses Approve.
- Steps 1 to 6 build the program. Nothing exists in your workspace until you press Create, and nothing sends after it either.
- Step 7 gets the templates through Meta. Do this even if you are not ready to go live - approvals can be waiting for you.
- Steps 8 to 10 are going live: dry run first, turn it on second, then work the queue each day.
Open Win-back and start a new program
In the left sidebar, click Win-back, then click New program at the top right.
A setup wizard opens full screen, with the sidebar gone. That is deliberate, not a glitch: setup is one sitting with one question on screen at a time, in three chapters (Who, Messages, Finish), and Leave setup at the top right is the way out. The page you open it from, /win-back, still has the sidebar; only the setup and the program pages after it do not.
A program watches a group of leads, decides who is worth a message and when, writes it, and stops the moment they reply.
Choose who to win back
Leave Every sales opportunity that went quiet selected unless you specifically need a narrower group. Click Continue.
This surprises people, so it is worth being clear: the default is usually the right answer, which is why it says Recommended. It does not mean everyone gets messaged. The AI reads each conversation individually and skips anyone who is not a live sales opportunity - people who already bought, people who said stop, people who clearly declined. The choice here is a coarse net; the AI is the fine one.
Win-back reaches out to people who were interested in buying and then went quiet. The AI reads every conversation first and skips anyone who bought, said no, or was never a sale.
Once someone has been quiet for 14 days, if you last heard from them within 3 months.
2Change258 people talked to you before
176 of them have been quiet for 14+ days, last heard from within 3 months, and have a conversation to read. Those are the ones the AI looks at.
Sarah Lim · Aaron Tan · Priya W.
The AI still reads each conversation before anyone is messaged.
The other three are for a program that means one specific group. Never came for the trial and Went quiet after the trial are common ones, and Someone more specific takes a description in your own words - write it the way you would brief a new colleague: who these people are, what happened, why you think they went quiet, and what you want from them. The more you say about the likely objection, the better the messages come out.
Pick one of those and the AI works out the rules for it - the stages and fields that find those people in your pipeline - once you continue, then shows them under Who matches marked Filled in for you - check it. Open Edit the rules (or Set the rules yourself) to change them. With more than one pipeline you will also be asked which Pipeline these people are in - the stages in your rules belong to it.
When you press Continue, the AI starts writing the rest in the background - the name, and the messages once it knows your business. Each answer shows Writing this for you… while it lands, then Filled in for you - check it. Take the draft: checking it is much faster than writing it.
Check when it reaches out
Read the sentence under When to reach out. Leave it at 14 days and 3 months for your first program. Click Change only if you need something different.
Quiet means nothing said either way - not by them and not by your team. A lead your salesperson messaged yesterday is not quiet, so they are not touched. Someone who replies tomorrow drops out of the program on their own. Change unfolds two controls in place, on the same screen as step 2.
Quiet for
Nothing said either way - not by them, not by your team.
Last heard from within
A message about something from two years ago lands as a stranger’s.
- Quiet for, longer (30, 60 days) means fewer, colder leads and a bigger backlog on the first run.
- Quiet for, shorter (7 days) means more, warmer leads - and a higher chance of writing to somebody your team spoke to last week.
- Last heard from within runs from 1 month to 1 year, or Any time. A window shorter than the quiet period describes nobody, so those choices are greyed out.
Confirm the number it sends from
If you see Which number should the messages go out from?, select your WhatsApp Business number and click Continue. With only one connected number the screen does not appear at all - it has been answered for you.
This choice decides what a message even is. A WhatsApp Business API number sends pre-approved templates, because win-back writes to people outside the 24-hour window and WhatsApp allows nothing else there. Any other channel sends whatever plain text you type. The Finish screen says which number was picked for you, and Decide this later leaves it open - the program can be created without one, but it cannot be turned on until you pick.
It decides what a message is: a WhatsApp Business number sends pre-approved templates, anything else sends what you write.
Picked for you, and the messages below are written for it. Choose another and they are rewritten to suit.
What lands on their phone.
Check the messages, and fill in every blank
Check the About your business card at the top, read each message the AI wrote, fix the wording, then for every {{blank}} fill in what fills it, an example for Meta, and an If empty, use fallback.
By default your messages are sent in order: the first goes once the quiet period is up, the next only if that one gets no reply, and the whole thing stops the moment the lead answers. Each follow-up card carries its own wait - “Sent 7 days after the one before it, if they still have not replied.” Two or three messages is plenty to start; you can have up to seven. Prefer to write messages for different situations instead of a sequence? The link at the bottom, Let the AI pick which message fits each lead instead, switches over - each message then needs a line saying when to use it.
Sent in this order to each person who stays quiet: the first after the quiet period, then the next each time the wait passes with no reply.
Written for Bright Minds
Small-group maths and science tuition for primary school children
Put together from your website and messages your team has sent. Worth a quick check.
This is a new template. Creating the program writes it into your templates as a draft - somebody still submits it to Meta, and it can only send once Meta approves it.
Two or three is plenty to start. Nobody gets the next one until the wait has passed with no reply, and it stops the moment they answer.
Let the AI pick which message fits each lead insteadHi Sarah, it has been a while since Ethan came for the trial. Most parents who go quiet at this point are weighing the fees or the timing. If it is one of those, just say which and I will give you a straight answer.
now
As Sarah Lim would see it.
The About your business card is what every message, and every AI suggestion, is written from - what you sell, who it is for, how your team writes, what sets you apart, your own names for things, and what the messages must never promise. A wrong line there is a wrong line everywhere, so it is worth the minute. It is saved for your whole workspace, so you only do this once. If nobody has given a website yet, the card asks for one first and holds the messages back until you answer (or say you have none); after you press Save it offers Rewrite them with this.
Every message here is a brand new WhatsApp template that the AI wrote for you. You do not have to go and build it yourself - creating the program in step 6 writes it into your template library automatically, named reactivation_… after the message heading (the technical name keeps its old prefix). What it does not do is send it to Meta. That is step 7, and it is deliberate: nothing reaches Meta until a person decides it should.
Name it, check it over, then create it
Read the Program name it suggested and change it if your team would call it something else. Skim the two cards, then click Create program.
Only your team ever sees the name. It is what the program is called in your list and in every report about it, so name it after the situation, not the message - “Trial no-shows, Bishan” beats “Win-back 1”.
It starts paused, with a person approving every message. Nothing is sent until you turn it on.
Written from who you picked. Change it to whatever your team would call it.
Sensible for nearly everybody, and all of it editable afterwards.
- A person approves every message before it sends - the program starts in Review, and only you can change that.
- Once the last message has gone out with no reply, the program leaves that lead alone.
- Somebody who asks to be contacted later becomes a follow-up for a person, never an automatic message.
- Before anyone is messaged, the AI checks their conversation: that they were a sales opportunity, have not bought or said no, and are not waiting on a reply from your team.
Creation is held for the things a program cannot exist without: a name, a pipeline if you wrote rules, at least one message with a heading and its content, every blank filled with an example, a wait of a day or more before each follow-up, and a quiet period of at least a day. Not having a number to send from does not hold it - but the program cannot be turned on without one.
The Also set for you panel is the part to actually read. It states four things nobody asked you about:
- A person approves every message before it sends. The program is created in Review mode. Only you can ever change that - the system never flips it for you.
- It stops chasing once the messages run out. After the last message goes with no reply, the lead is left alone.
- “Contact me in March” goes to a human. A lead who names a later date becomes a follow-up for a person, not an automatic message.
- Every conversation is checked first. The AI confirms the person was a sales opportunity, has not bought or said no, and is not waiting on a reply from your team.
Submit the templates to Meta
Go to Settings → Social Channels → WhatsApp Business → Manage Templates. Find each template starting with reactivation_, open its ⋯ menu, and click Submit for review.
This is the one step people miss, so here it is plainly: the AI writes your templates and files them as local drafts, but it never sends them to Meta on your behalf. A human presses Submit. That is on purpose - it is your WhatsApp number’s reputation, and a template you have not read should not be sitting in front of Meta with your name on it. Until you do, each message on the program’s Overview reads not sent to Meta yet, so it holds.
Connect your communication platforms to start messaging leads directly from the dashboard.
Written by the AI, saved into your library. Nothing has gone to Meta.
You pressed Submit for review. Meta usually answers within minutes.
The message can now be sent. Until then the program holds it back.
Waiting will not fix it. The program overview shows a 1 template rejected by Meta chip - edit the wording and submit again, or point the message at a different template.
Do a dry run while it is still paused
On the program’s Overview tab, click See who it would message. That opens the Approvals tab; click Check leads now. Read what it proposes. Nothing sends - the program is paused.
This is the single best habit in the whole feature, and almost nobody does it. A paused program can still be asked to read your leads. It builds the exact list it would have built, with the exact messages, for the exact people - and then just sits there, because paused means nothing leaves.
Turn it on and it reads your leads every day. Every message it wants to send waits here for your approval first.
Nothing is waiting on you.
The list opens on Win back - the leads the AI judged worth a message. Read ten or so proposals. You are looking for three things: is it picking the right kind of lead, does the message it chose actually fit that conversation, and would you be comfortable if this went out under your name. Choose Any decision in the dropdown to see the people it left alone and why. If the answer to any of those is no, go back into Configure and adjust - it costs you nothing at this stage.
Turn it on
Click Turn it on on the Overview, or flip the Paused switch at the top right. It now reads your leads once a day, in your workspace’s timezone.
The headline changes to “Active, with you approving each message”. That sentence is the whole contract: it works every day, and it still cannot send anything without you. If you have tests in Configure and any are failing, you are warned before it goes on - the warning never blocks you.
Turn it on and it reads your leads every day. Every message it wants to send waits here for your approval first.
It reads your leads every day and holds every message here until someone approves it.
Approve each message, every day
Open the program’s Approvals tab each morning. Work down the list on the left; for each proposal, answer with one of four things.
You do not have to remember to check. A badge on Win-back in your sidebar counts the messages waiting, and the Win-back approvals notification links straight to this tab.
- Approve & send - the message is queued and goes out within a few minutes. This is the common case.
- Send a different message - on a WhatsApp Business number the wording is Meta’s, so the correction on offer is one of your other approved messages rather than free typing. On any other channel the same button reads Edit the wording and you type over it.
- Don’t send this → Skip just this cycle - nothing is sent, the lead stays in the program, and they are proposed again next cycle.
- Don’t send this → Take this lead out of the program - never again. You are asked why, and the answer teaches the program.
Above the list, Send all N messages queues everything currently in view in one press. It is there for the day you have read the drafts and trust them; do not use it as a shortcut for reading. A draft labelled AI nudge is a different thing: a short line the AI wrote for one conversation, following up on a question your team asked and never heard back on. Nudges are not in your list of messages. If a day’s queue is empty, that is a real answer - it means nobody was both quiet enough and worth going back to.
Going further
You can stop after step 10. Everything below lives in the program’s Configure tab, and every program works without you ever opening it.
- Decision tree. How the AI decides what to do with each lead - stop, hand to a person, nudge, wait, or win back - is a tree you can read and edit. Every program starts on the default one, and Try it runs it on a real contact before you change anything.
- When to message. Every wait lives in one card: the Nudge (off, or up to three, each a number of days after your team’s unanswered question), the Win-back message (days of silence, and a different wait per message if you want one) and How far back. They bound each other, which is why they share a card.
- Waiting leads. When someone says “contact me in March”, the default hands it to a person on that date; you can choose to message them on the date instead.
- Workflows. The Win-back reply received trigger starts a workflow when a lead answers a win-back message, so a reply can assign an owner or open a task.
Good to know & pitfalls
- Sends are spaced a few minutes apart per number. Approving forty messages at once does not fire forty messages at once. Win-back traffic is the kind most likely to draw blocks, and a block costs your number’s quality rating - which every program and every human on that number shares.
- A quiet lead can still be skipped for a good reason. The program holds back anyone currently in a workflow, anyone with an open follow-up in Actionables, anyone with a message already queued, and anyone none of your approved messages fits. Each hold ends by itself.
- Editing the audience after a cycle has run. The queue will warn you that its proposals were built from the previous settings, and offer Rebuild the list. Rebuilding discards the un-reviewed proposals and runs a fresh cycle; nothing in the queue has been sent, so nothing is lost.
- The program can pause itself. If replies to it start looking wrong, it stops and the header reads “Paused itself”. Look at what went out in Monitor before turning it back on - that pause is information, not a glitch.
- A reply ends everything, immediately. The moment a lead answers, they are out of the program. There is no scenario where someone gets a follow-up after replying to you.
- Changing a template’s wording means Meta again. Approved templates are frozen. Rewriting one sends it back for review, so the message holds until the new version clears.
- One goal per program. Resist building one program that chases trial no-shows, old quotes and lapsed customers together. Three small programs each write better messages than one program trying to serve three unspoken objections.
Want help writing the first program?
Tell us what your quiet leads went quiet about, and we’ll help you shape the goal and the messages before you submit a single template.