Using the DND Contact Workflow Action

Introduction

The DND Contact workflow action gives you control over a contact's Do-Not-Disturb (DND) status from within your automation sequences. You can use this action to enable or disable DND for either inbound or outbound communications, applying the setting to all channels or only specific ones. This is particularly useful for respecting contact preferences, managing communication flows after appointments, or blocking unwanted inbound spam.

Configuring the DND Contact Action

To add and configure this action in a workflow, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Automations section and select Workflows.
2. Create a new workflow or open an existing one for editing.
3. Add a trigger to start the workflow, such as when an appointment is scheduled or a custom field is updated.
4. Click the plus sign to add a new action and search for "Enable/Disable DND".
5. Give the action a descriptive name for easy identification.
6. Select the DND Direction: choose between Inbound or Outbound.
7. Choose whether to Enable or Disable DND.
8. Select whether this setting should apply to All Channels or only Selected Channels.
9. Save and publish your workflow to activate the changes.

Common Use Cases and Triggers

Here are some practical scenarios where the DND Contact action can be effectively applied:

Post-Appointment Communication

After a customer completes an appointment, you might want to re-enable communications that were temporarily paused. Use triggers like "Appointment Status Changed" (set to "Completed" or similar status) or "Task Completed" (for follow-up tasks) to disable DND, allowing your system to send post-appointment surveys or thank-you messages.

Managing Contact Preferences

When a contact opts out of specific communication methods, such as SMS, but wants to maintain email contact, you can create a workflow that enables DND for SMS only. This respects their preferences while keeping other channels active.

Blocking Inbound Spam

To prevent spam calls and messages from clogging your pipeline, set up a workflow triggered when a contact is identified as spam (through a custom field, tag, or manual process). Configure the DND Contact action to enable DND for all channels with the direction set to Inbound, effectively blocking future incoming communication from that source.

Action Logging

Whenever this workflow action changes a contact's DND status, the CRM records the event in the conversation and activity logs. The log entry will specify whether DND was enabled or disabled and note that the change was made by a workflow. If a team member manually changes the setting, the log will indicate it was changed by a user, while changes made by the contact themselves will show as changed by the contact.