AI Agent: Follow-up with Customer after Inactivity
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Wong Yi Teng
Business Problem:
Right now, when the AI Agent responds to a customer and the customer goes quiet, the conversation just stays open. The AI doesn’t follow up, escalate, or close — and there’s no built-in way to handle this idle state.
This might lead to:
- Lost leads if customers drop off
- Cluttered inboxes with inactive convos
- Missed chances to act when engagement stalls
Desired Outcome:
Add smart inactivity handling for AI Agent conversations by enabling the following behaviors:
- Follow-up Message After Inactivity: If there’s no reply from the customer after a set period (e.g., 3 minutes), the AI Agent should automatically send a follow-up message to re-engage them
- Conversation Closure After Continued Inactivity: If the customer still doesn’t respond within another predefined duration, the system should automatically close the conversation.
- Optional Escalation to Human Agent: As an alternative to auto-closing, business should also have the option to assign the conversation to a human agent for review if the customer remains inactive.
Use case (Capture, Convert, Retain):
- Capture: Prevent potential leads from being lost due to inactivity or non-responsiveness
- Convert: Re-engage prospects to move them further down the funnel
- Retain: Show existing customers you’re attentive and proactive
Jerry (CEO)
Game-changing AI feature 🚀
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Nabilah Binti Salleh
marked this post as
complete
🤖💬 Smarter follow-ups, fewer lost leads! Your AI Agent now follows up automatically when customers go quiet—keeping conversations active and leads engaged.
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Ivan Huertero
In the sales process, it is extremely important that we can provide timely follow-up based on the downtime of our leads... because based on these times, a lead can be closed or lost!!
Currently, the only way to follow up for inactivity is manually using the periods of inactivity that some elements of the workflow have, segmenting our contacts based on the last incoming message and creating broadcast messages to be able to establish communication with leads again... ALL OF THIS IS 100% MANUAL
Jerry (CEO)
Ivan Huertero: Check out the new function (released today) and let us know if it's what you were expecting!
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Ivan Huertero
Where can I review this functionality?
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Nabilah Binti Salleh
Ivan Huertero: Hi Ivan, you can review this functionality over at our AI Agent module. See here on how to write effective follow-up prompts: https://respond.io/help/ai-agents/how-to-write-effective-ai-agent-prompts#writing-prompts-for-follow-ups
Alex Kemsley
Can we have a days and months option for longer sales cycles.
Alex Kemsley
Thanks Jerry (CEO) for the new feature. Can we have some more characters in the prompt to be able to properly execute the new feature.
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Nabilah Binti Salleh
Alex Kemsley: Hi Alex, we have a separate request on this - https://respond.canny.io/feature-request/p/ai-agent-increase-character-limit-for-instructions. We'll keep you updated there once there's progress :)
Alex Kemsley
This would be game changing.
Jerry (CEO)
Alex Kemsley: Agreed, and it's live today! :D
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Shi Hui
marked this post as
in progress
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Nabilah Binti Salleh
Merged in a post:
Follow up with customers who leave us in sight
Ferdy Oliva
when a customer leaves us in sight or doesn't read the message, the AI agent tries to act like a sales professional to reopen the conversation.
N
Nabilah Binti Salleh
Merged in a post:
Follow up with customers who leave us in sight
Ferdy Oliva
when a customer leaves us in sight or doesn't read the message, the AI agent tries to act like a sales professional to reopen the conversation.
N
Nabilah Binti Salleh
Merged in a post:
AI Agent Automatic Follow-up for Lead Re-engagement
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Isaac Meneses
Details
Business Problem:
When a prospect does not reply after the first interaction, the lead often goes cold and the sales opportunity is lost. Currently, the AI Agent does not have an automated way to re-engage leads who stop responding.
Desired Outcome:
Enable the AI Agent to automatically send a follow-up (re-engagement) message after a configurable period of inactivity. This would help maintain the conversation alive, improve conversion rates, and reduce manual workload for agents.
Example:
If a customer requests a quote but does not reply within 2 hours, the AI Agent should be able to automatically send a personalized follow-up message (e.g., “Just checking in — do you still need help with your insurance quote?”).
Impact:
This feature would increase lead conversion, prevent missed opportunities, and ensure a more consistent customer experience.
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Isaac Meneses
Forgot to mention — it would also be very useful if this feature could be triggered multiple times on a recurring basis, with different time intervals between each follow-up. This way, the AI Agent could send more than one re-engagement message over time, making the automation even more effective.
Jerry (CEO)
Isaac Meneses: Yes, it can! Give it a try and let us know what you think! :D
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