Pause Contacts for a Delay, a Date, a Schedule or an Appointment

The Wait action holds each contact until the moment is right. This article covers the time-based wait types. Wait-for-reply and condition waits are covered separately.

Time-based options

• A set period of time: choose a number and a unit (seconds, minutes, hours or days). Use the three-dot menu to switch between Standard and Dynamic, which reads the value from a custom variable. Turn on Advance Window to resume only on chosen weekdays, between chosen hours, or with an additional date filter.
• A specific date and time: a fixed date, or one pulled from a contact field. Choose whether the contact proceeds on, before or after that date, and what happens if it has already passed.
• A recurring schedule: weekly, monthly or yearly, with a time. A preview lists the next five occurrences.
• An upcoming appointment or booking: for appointments, service bookings or invoice due dates, wait until at, before or after the time, in months, days, hours and minutes.

If the date has already passed

Choose Continue to next action, Exit Contact from automation, Go to specific step, or Skip all outbound communication actions until the next wait or event start step.

Set it up

1. Click + and choose Wait.
2. Name it clearly, such as "Wait 1 day after sign-up".
3. Choose the wait type and fill in its settings.
4. Save and publish.

Examples

• Wait 2 days, but resume only between 9 AM and 5 PM on weekdays.
• Wait until 1 hour before the appointment, then send a text.
• Wait until the renewal date field, minus 30 days.

Good to know: Editing a Wait does not change contacts already waiting in it, but later steps do apply to them when they continue.