How a campaign picks a call, a text or an email
A list of steps, in order
A campaign does not weigh up each shopper and choose the channel they would like best. It works down an ordered list of steps, each with a delay, and every shopper in the campaign starts at the top of the same list. You can read that list under Outreach Sequence, and you can change it.
Every new campaign starts with this one:
| Step | Waits after the step before | Time since the shopper left |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Call | Goes when the run starts | 30 minutes |
| 2. Text | 5 minutes | 35 minutes |
| 3. Email | 1 hour | 1 hour 35 minutes |
| 4. Call | 1 day | 1 day, 1 hour 35 minutes |
| 5. Text | 4 hours | 1 day, 5 hours 35 minutes |
| 6. Email | 1 day | 2 days, 5 hours 35 minutes |
| 7. Call | 2 days | 4 days, 5 hours 35 minutes |
| 8. End of campaign | 2 days | 6 days, 5 hours 35 minutes |
Each delay counts from the moment the step before it went out or was skipped. So when one step has to wait, every later step moves back by the same amount, and the gaps between messages stay as you set them.
What makes a step skip or wait
ACR checks each step again just before it runs. A missing requirement skips that step for good. A timing problem makes it wait. Anything that ends the run cancels whatever is left.
| What ACR finds | What the step does | What happens to the rest |
|---|---|---|
| No phone number | Calls and texts skip | Email steps still run |
| No email address | Email steps skip | Calls and texts still run |
| No recorded consent on that channel | That channel’s steps skip | Channels with consent still run |
| Channel switched off under Outreach Channels | Its steps skip, even if they are still in the list | Other channels still run |
| Address on your suppression list | That channel’s steps skip | Other channels still run, unless the entry covers all of them |
| A country the campaign does not allow | Calls and texts skip | Email is not limited by country |
| Outside the shopper’s allowed hours | Waits for the next allowed minute | Later steps move back with it |
| A state’s daily call limit is used up | The call waits until the limit clears | Later steps move back with it |
| An order arrives | Cancelled | The run ends and nothing else goes out |
| The shopper opts out or asks for a person | Cancelled | The run ends and nothing else goes out |
Here are two examples in the shopper’s local time. A shopper with consent on every channel leaves at 8:40 pm, so the window ends at 9:10 pm, after the recommended schedule closes at 9 pm. The call waits until 8:00 am, the text follows at 8:05 am and the email at 9:05 am. State rules can narrow those hours further.
A second shopper has no call consent and leaves at 2:00 pm. The first call is skipped at 2:30 pm and the text goes at 2:35 pm.
If no channel in the campaign can reach a shopper at all, the run never starts, and the reason goes into their history under Leads.
Why many Shopify shoppers skip the first call
Shopify checkouts record consent for texts and for email marketing, and nothing about calls. With the consent check on, which is the default, a Shopify shopper’s call steps skip unless you have recorded call consent another way. Email steps skip for anyone who has not opted in to email. On default settings, then, the sequence many of your shoppers actually receive is shorter than the table above.
This one is your store's decision
Consent settings can be changed, and changing them is a legal and business call for your store. One switch lets text-message consent cover calls, and it fits only if your checkout’s consent wording names calls. The compliance page explains each setting.
Where AI comes in
AI has two jobs in a campaign. The agent holds the calls and writes any text or email whose step has no fixed template. And when a shopper replies, AI reads the reply and sorts it as positive, undecided or negative. That sorting decides which list the run follows next, and the list still names the channels:
| Reply | Recommended follow-up | On by default |
|---|---|---|
| Positive | Text after 2 hours, call 1 day later, email 1 day after that | Yes |
| Undecided | Call after 1 day, text 1 day later, email 2 days after that | Yes |
| Negative | One email after 3 days | No |
A follow-up that is on replaces what is left of the main sequence. With it off, a positive or negative reply ends the run, and an undecided reply lets the main sequence carry on.
Changing the schedule
Switch off Recommended sequence and the steps become editable. You can add, delete and reorder them and change any delay, up to 30 steps and 60 days in total, with End of campaign as the last step. A text or email step can also carry a fixed template in place of AI-written copy.
A store that wants a text before any call can move the text to the top and put the first call an hour behind it. A store with an email flow it likes can delete the email steps or switch email off, and our post on running recovery next to email flows covers that choice. Sequence changes stay in draft until you publish.
More in How ACR works, Calls, texts and email, or back to all posts.
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