How to set custom rules with Triggers, Conditions, and Actions

In this article you will learn about setting custom rules with various Triggers, Conditions, and Actions. 

Custom rules enable you to automate actions in response to various global triggers in Manychat. These rules execute specified actions when certain events occur with a contact.

Here are some examples:

• Send a confirmation email or update contact details in your CRM as soon as the contact's email address is changed;
• Send a birthday message to your contacts or remind them about the upcoming event;
• Notify admins when someone gets a particular tag in one or multiple automations;
• Send a WhatsApp Message Template to a newly created contact.

⚠️Please note that this is a Pro feature and is not available on accounts with a free subscription plan.

💡 If you don’t see a Rules tab, please go to Settings → Display and activate it by clicking here:

How to create a new rule

To create a new rule, please navigate to Automation > Rules > New Rule:

On this page, you can select a specific trigger and determine the subsequent action:

Triggers

Here is an overview of all available triggers:

• Date/Time based trigger — goes off when at the set time or date and time (note that the trigger uses a contact's time zone)
• Log conversion event — goes off when a contact performs a certain action on your website, integrated with Manychat Pixel
• Tag applied — goes off when a particular tag is applied to a contact
• Tag removed — goes off when when a particular tag is removed
• Subscribed to a sequence — goes off when someone gets subscribed to a particular sequence
• Unsubscribed from a sequence — goes off when someone gets unsubscribed from a particular sequence
• Custom field value changed — goes off when the value of selected custom user field is changed
• System field value changed — goes off when the value of selected system field is changed
• New contact — goes off when someone subscribed to a Manychat account (not working for the re-subscribed contacts)

These triggers allow you to perform all the actions you have in the action step inside flow builder. The cool thing is you can create automatic events in Manychat outside of your automations, all the events will be performed globally.

Now you can select the desired triggers and actions. For example, you can subscribe them to a sequence as soon as they get a tag. You can apply this tag in different automations and everyone who gets it will get subscribed. 

⚠️The rule is currently designed to be activated only when a Tag is applied manually or through an automation. This is to prevent it from being triggered via Bulk Actions, as a measure to avoid potential spam.

Select your Trigger in the dropdown menu:

Select the Action that will be performed after the tag is applied. You can perform this action once per contact or any number of times (you can set it above theaAction group).

Save the rule using the Save button, and then activate it by toggling the switch in the upper right corner:

You can add several triggers in one rule. For example, you can perform an action as soon as any of these tags are applied. You can also create multiple actions inside one rule:

Conditions

To enhance your automation setup and make it even more effective, consider using condition blocks, which are compatible with certain triggers.

In the example provided, we set up a Zap event action to send a confirmation email to a contact as soon as the value in their system field changes. Additionally, we include a condition that only triggers this action for contacts who meet a specific criterion — those subscribed before a designated date.

Date/Time based trigger

This trigger type is based on Date / Date & Time stored in custom fields and system fields (e.g., date of subscription or last interaction) and uses the contact's time zone.

Here's an example of how to set it up: 

• First, choose the Date/Time-based trigger and specify when it should activate — either on the exact date and time, before, or after the date in a custom field. 
• Then, from the drop-down menu, select the desired custom user field (or a system field). 
• Next, determine the time you want the trigger to activate. You can use the time stored in the custom field or select a specific time from the list. Finally, select the action.

Actions

Actions in the rules are similar to those you can configure within an automation, with two notable exceptions:

1. The actions available on the Free plan will only be available on the Pro plan within the rules tab.
2. In addition, there is a Start Automation action that allows you to send a certain automation right away.

Triggers within flow builder

Configure triggers directly within flow builder by navigating to automations, clicking New Automation, and selecting New Trigger on the first step:

Then select one of the triggers from the Events section:

Lastly, configure the specific event trigger. You have the option to include conditions at this stage as well:

Important notes

💡Remember to select the "This event repeats every year" checkbox to send messages on recurring dates, such as birthdays, since these dates do not change annually.

💡The same rule will trigger for the same contact only once every 30 seconds, even if the conditions to trigger it occur more frequently within a brief period.

💡It's important to note that if you apply a rule trigger to a contact through Bulk Actions in the Contacts tab, the rule will not activate. This precaution helps prevent the simultaneous triggering of rules for thousands of contacts, which could potentially overload your Automation system.