At Tidio, an action is a flow node instructing the flow to perform a specific task, enabling you to create an interactive and automated conversation. Discover how to utilize actions effectively and explore the extensive range of actions.

In this article, you'll learn:

Silent walkthrough. Add actions to a flow: a chat message, a question with email validation, Create ticket with a subject and message, a coupon code, a one-day delay and a Flow ended message.

How to use actions

Each flow in Tidio starts with a trigger, indicating when the flow should start, and an action, defining what the flow should do. With over 20 different actions to choose from, you can tailor your flow to meet the specific needs of your business.

Available actions

You can build your flow with the following actions:

You'll see all the actions in the Actions tab of the menu on the right of the flow editor - simply drag the one you need onto the board. Shopify stores see a separate Shopify group at the bottom of the list.

The flow editor with the menu on the right open on the Actions tab, scrolled to show Send a coupon code, Send an event to Google Analytics, Send a form, Create ticket, Update session variable and Data transformation

Send a chat message

The Send a chat message action allows the flow to send a simple message to your website visitor. It can include text or images. You can also include a contact property, like the visitor's name to greet them in a more personalised way.

The "Send a chat message" editor inserts the {name} contact property into a greeting, with the property picker open.

There is also the option to set a delay for any action that comes next. You can use this to allow your visitor more time to read the flow's message, without getting distracted by any upcoming message. Please note: this option allows a maximum of 15-second delay; if you need more, feel free to add a Delay action separately.

The chat message Setup panel sets "Delay the next action" to 15 seconds and leaves visitor feedback switched off.

Send an email

This action allows you to create an email that will be sent to the visitor - for example, with more information about the product, your services, policies, etc.

If your project has Campaigns, you can choose from two modes inside the action: Rich content or Plain text. The plain text version allows for basic text and image formatting, while the rich content version allows much more detailed formatting and flexibility, and the content is edited inside the Campaigns editor. Without Campaigns, the action uses Plain text only - and a flow that still sends a rich-content email will show the message "Rich content is no longer available. Please consider using a Plain text or remove this action."

You can also choose from the available templates or create new content from scratch. The templates can be previewed and edited directly from the flow editor, without interrupting your flow creation process.

The "Send an email" action has "Rich content" selected, with custom template previews and links to browse templates or add from scratch.

Naturally, any rich-content email that you send through your flows will be listed in the Campaigns > My campaigns section, along with other campaigns you may have. This allows you to track the email's deliverability, open rate, and other stats. Any campaign that is sent from a flow will be listed under My automated flows:

The Campaigns page has "My campaigns" selected and lists a flow-generated email under "My automated flows".

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Starting June 17th 2024, the Campaigns tool is available exclusively to Plus subscribers and to users of the legacy Campaigns subscription.

Ask a question

The Ask a question action allows you to ask your visitor a question. You can create individual flows' paths to each successful or failed answer based on the answers.

An "Ask a question" node branches into separate "Success" and "Fail" paths leading to chat message actions.

Send a form

The Send a form action gives you the option to collect various data from your website visitors through a form included in the widget. It also allows the visitor to upload files. You can learn more about this action in this article.

The "Send a form" editor configures a text field called "Your name...", with options to require it and save its answer to a contact property.

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At the moment, the Send a form node is available for widget use only. That means the form will not work for Instagram, WhatsApp, or Facebook Messenger flows.

Decision (Quick Replies)

Decision (Quick Replies) asks the visitor to select a preset option, allowing you to build e.g. an FAQ flow that will answer a chosen question. The node will enable you to create a list of selectable options (quick replies), which branch out of the node to connect with appropriate actions. You can rearrange the buttons in your preferred order anytime, by using the 'move' option next to each button.

The decision node supports up to eleven answers!

Please note: due to technical limitations, WhatsApp users will only be able to see the first 3 buttons you create in this action.

Decision (Buttons)

Decision (Buttons) gives you an option to ask the visitor to select presented options (buttons). You can rearrange the buttons in your preferred order anytime, by using the 'move' option next to each button. Moreover, in the Decision (Buttons) action, you can add clickable links to its buttons.

The "Decision (Buttons)" editor sets a button to the URL option and links it to the Tidio pricing page.

You can only add up to 3 buttons in this node; consider using the Decision (Quick Replies) node described above if you need more options.


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Please note that the buttons won't disappear after they are clicked on, so the visitor can return to them during a conversation.

Decision (Card Messages)

Decision (Card Messages) allows you to send out messages with a number of separate cards, which can be scrolled and browsed horizontally - you can create up to 10 such cards. Each card includes a title, a bit of text, an image, a clickable link, and up to 3 clickable buttons (you can change the order of these buttons as well). All this provides an excellent way to give your visitors a lot of detailed choices in one flow message.

The chat widget scrolls through product-category cards with photos and clickable buttons such as "Pots", "Pans", and "Cutting boards".

Delay

The Delay action allows you to delay any action that follows, and you specify the exact amount of time - anywhere from 1 second to 30 days. Please note: both the Send a chat message and Send a coupon code actions include their own built-in delay option (but limited to a maximum of 15 seconds).

Randomize

The Randomize action allows you to randomize the flow's flow experience. You can, for example, send different welcome messages to your website visitors.

A "Randomize" node connects to three different "Send a chat message" actions.

Update contact property

The Update contact property action allows you to adjust an existing contact property for the current visitor, or create a new one.

The "Update contact property" action is configured to set the email property to a contact's email address.

Update session variable

The Update session variable action allows you to adjust an existing session variable for the current visitor, or create a new one. Session variables are temporary pieces of information which you can generate through API with Lyro Actions .

The "Update session variable" action sets the numeric "Current team size" variable to 23.

Add a tag

This action allows you to add a tag to the visitor. Later, you can see the tags during the chat conversation or on your contacts list. These tags are also referred to as customer tags, as opposed to ticket tags (which are only associated with ticket threads, not users).

Remove a tag

The Remove a tag action gives you an option to remove a previously added customer tag.

Data transformation

The Data transformation action allows you to do some basic math, e.g. subtraction or multiplication, as well as calculating the number of days between two specified dates, etc. You can add multiple such transformations within a single action.

For the transformations' values, you can use existing Contact Properties or session variables or create new ones, as well as put in values directly. The results can be saved as either Contact Properties or session variables as well.

The Data type menu offers "Date" for date calculations and "Number" for arithmetic transformations.

Use the Date option if you want to output a number calculated from two specified dates, or add/subtract some time from a specific date:

The "Data transformation" action calculates "Days between" a Date value and "Today (UTC)", saving the result as "Days since purchase".

Use the Number option for basic calculations (adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing):

The "Data transformation" action adds 15 to a Number value and saves the result as "New number".

Send to Zapier

The Send to Zapier action gives you a chance to send collected data to the Zapier system and later on to other external apps. You can learn more by checking our article about integration with Zapier.

Open website in modal

With this action, you are able to show a separate window with a specific page, in popup form - without leaving the current page or browser tab. This can be especially useful when you need to show some information quickly while keeping your visitor's focus. The action allows a title, description, and a button (with the URL linked to it), which will present the popup when clicked.

The "Open website in modal" action contains a "Tidio Pricing" card with a "Show me the pricing" link button.

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Tidio uses iframes to open these pages within a modal, so the target page needs the correct headers to allow this functionality. Please note that tweaking page headers can be rather complicated and requires web development knowledge.

Flow ended message

Add the Flow ended message action at the end of your flow to let your visitors start another flow. It sends the Flow ended chat message together with your Flow buttons - you write that message once, in the Flows launcher at the bottom of the Flows menu (see The Flows launcher).

Inside the action, you can also turn on the Transfer to agent message, sent when a visitor types a reply instead of clicking one of the buttons. Learn more in The "Transfer to agent" message.

The Flow ended message action selected in the flow editor, with its settings on the right: the info text pointing to the Flow Launcher and the Transfer to agent message switch with the "Adjust the message here" link

Subscribe for Mailing

The Subscribe for Mailing action allows you to sign in the visitor to your mailing list. That means the user gives you consent to be on your mailing list. Please remember to ask the visitor for consent first - for example, by using the ask a question node.

The "Subscribe for Mailing" instructions show a decision leading to an email question and then a mailing subscription action.

Disable text input

The Disable text input action prevents visitors from typing when a flow is running. The action blocks the text input field, so the user can't write to you when the flow is running. You can learn more about it here.

Enable text input

The Enable text input action returns the typing field into the chat widget, allowing your website visitors to contact you. You can learn more about it here.

Send notification

The Send notification action will send a web notification to the agents when they're online - this acts similarly to receiving a brand new chat request for agents. You customize the notification message inside the action itself. Your website visitors will not see the notification; it is only meant for agents.

The "Send notification" action has the message "A customer is awaiting your response" entered in Setup.

If all agents are offline, an email will be sent to their configured inboxes as well (only if the email notification was enabled in Settings > Notifications).

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Apart from generating a notification, this node will simultaneously re-open the conversation if it had been solved. This improves the conversation's visibility for your agents.

Assign to an agent

The Assign to an agent action allows your flow to immediately transfer the visitor to the Unassigned conversations folder, where any available agent will be notified. Of course, if your project uses automatic chat assignment (Round Robin or Load Balancing, set in Settings > Workflows), then the chat will be transferred to the appropriate agent right away instead - the action tells you which method your project uses. Please note that this action ends the flow; no other nodes can be connected after it.

You can also edit the Log message (by default, "Transferred from Flow."). It's added to the conversation for your agents only - visitors can't see it.

The "Assign to an agent" action shows load balancing enabled and an agent-only log message reading "Transferred from Flow."

Reassign to a Department

The Reassign to a Department action can transfer the chat conversation to a selected team/department. To learn more about departments, see our article on how to use departments.

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Please note: departments are available on the Plus plan and above. Without them, the action shows an upgrade message instead of the list of departments. If you haven't added any departments yet, add one in Settings > Team > Departments first.

Create ticket

The Create ticket action turns the current conversation into a ticket, so your team can follow up later. You set the Ticket subject and Ticket message, choose whether to include the Conversation transcript, and pick the department in Assign to department.

The visitor needs an email address saved in their Email contact property before this action runs - for example, collected earlier in the flow with Ask a question. See Create a ticket from a Flow for the full setup.

The Create ticket action selected in the flow editor, with its settings on the right: the note about the Email contact property, Ticket subject, Ticket message, the Conversation transcript checkbox (ticked) and Assign to department set to Current conversation department

To another Flow

This action allows you to create portals: connect one flow with any other target flow of your choice. The target flow does not require any special trigger or setup - you can connect any flow this way! See this article for more details on using this functionality.

The "To another Flow" action selects "FAQ for Online Store" as its destination and shows how two flows connect.

Send an event to Google Analytics

This action allows you to send a custom event to Google Analytics. This will require an enabled integration with Google Analytics in Tidio's integration section.

API call

This action allows you to make HTTP requests. That means you can send data from Tidio to external systems (such as a CRM or an email marketing tool), and to get external data into Tidio during live chat interactions. This makes not only for a great lead generation tool, but is also a flexible way to present necessary external information to your Tidio chat visitors.

The action has two outputs, Success and Fail, so you can plan what happens when the request doesn't go through. Please see this dedicated guide to learn more about API calls in Tidio.

Send a coupon code

The Send a coupon code action gives you the option to send a well-looking coupon code to your visitors, with a short message. It comes in two versions, depending on your store:

  • If your Tidio project is connected to a Shopify store, you'll find the action in the Shopify group. You can create a new coupon code or pick one of your store's codes, and they automatically sync with your Shopify store. Learn more in Coupon Code (flow action).
  • Any other store gets the general version among the regular actions. Click on Add coupon code and type in a code that already works in your store under Coupon code name - customers must enter this code at checkout.

Please note: similarly to the Send a chat message action, this action includes the built-in option to delay any action that comes next.

The general Send a coupon code action in a non-Shopify project: the message field with the default text, the coupon button showing a typed code, and the Coupon code name field with the "Customers must enter this code at checkout" hint

Check order status (Shopify only)

The Check order status action will answer the questions about your customers' orders, and after providing an order number or email address, the client will learn about their order status.

Check product availability (Shopify only)

The Check product availability action will answer your visitors' questions about the availability of particular products from your store. After providing the product's name, the client will learn whether the product is available.

Check shipping details (Shopify only)

The Check shipping details action will answer your visitors' questions about the delivery locations of your products. The action will ask your visitors about their location and, based on that, provide the information on whether the delivery to that place can take place. Please make sure your delivery settings are set correctly in your Shopify account, so that the flow can work properly.

Recommend products (Shopify only)

The Recommend products action will automatically offer your visitors a set of products similar to those they interacted with in your store previously (they've added a certain product to their cart). You can choose how many products should be displayed, and visitors can add the recommended products to their carts directly from the widget.

You can learn more about setting up this feature in this guide.

Further reading