The Journey module enables you to build automated, multi-step customer communications that adapt based on how each customer behaves. Rather than a one-off send, a journey follows a customer through a sequence of touchpoints, adjusting the path they take based on their actions, so every customer receives the most relevant communication at the right time.
What you can do
Build multi-step, multi-channel journeys combining email, SMS, and push notifications.
Set a trigger to start a customer on a journey automatically based on a specific behaviour or event.
Use decision branches to send customers down different paths based on how they respond.
Apply exclusion rules to control how frequently a customer can re-enter the same journey.
Add wait steps to control the timing between each communication in the journey.
Monitor journey performance with per-step statistics on contacts, opens, clicks, and conversions.
Pause, edit, and reuse journeys without losing historical performance data.
How journeys work
A journey is made up of a series of connected steps. Each step defines either a communication to send or a decision to make based on customer behaviour. When a customer meets the journey's trigger condition, they enter the journey and progress through each step in sequence.
The key building blocks of a journey are:
Trigger: The condition that starts a customer on the journey. Triggers can be based on a customer event (such as a booking, a visit, or a data change), a specific date, or a real-time event received via API.
Communication steps: An email, SMS, or push notification sent to the customer at that point in the journey.
Delay steps: A pause of a defined duration before the next step runs. For example, wait three days before sending a follow-up email.
Decision branches: A split in the journey path based on whether the customer took a specific action. For example, whether they opened the previous email or made a purchase. Customers who meet the condition follow one branch; those who do not follow another.
End step: The point at which the customer exits the journey.
đ Note: A customer can only progress through a journey at the pace of its wait steps. If a journey has a three-day wait between steps, a customer who receives the first communication of the journey today will not receive the second communication until three days later.
Journey triggers
Triggers determine which customers enter a journey and when. The available trigger types include:
Visit-based triggers: A customer makes a visit at a site.
Date-based triggers: A customer reaches a specific date, such as a birthday or anniversary.
Data change triggers A change in a customer's profile data, such as joining a loyalty tier.
Real-time event triggers: An event received from a third-party system via API, such as a booking confirmation or an order placed through a delivery platform.
Decision branches
Decision branches allow your journey to respond differently depending on how a customer behaves. Common branch conditions include:
Viewed: Did the customer open the previous email?
Clicked: Did the customer click a link in the previous email?
Visited: Has the customer made a visit since the last step?
Selection: Does the customer match a specific segment?
Redeemed: Has the voucher code in the previous communication been redeemed?
Customers who meet the condition follow the 'yes' path; all others follow the 'no' path. This lets you send a follow-up offer only to customers who did not respond to the first email, or a reward only to those who visited after receiving a campaign.
đ¤ Tip: Keep your journey logic simple to start with. One or two decision branches is enough for most use cases. Complex multi-branch journeys can be added once you have validated the core flow is working as expected.
Journey performance
Once a journey is active, you can view performance statistics at each step. For communication steps, statistics include the number of contacts who received, opened, and clicked through each message. For decision branches, statistics show how many customers took each path.
Use journey insights to identify where customers are dropping off, which branches are performing well, and where the journey could be improved.
Key things to know
The Journey module is a standard Acteol Enterprise module. Contact your account manager if you do not have access.
A journey must have at least one trigger and one communication step before it can be activated.
Journeys can be paused at any time. Pausing completing allows running cycles to finish before the journey stops; pausing (stop) halts the journey immediately.
You must pause a journey before editing it if it is currently active.
Exclusion rules prevent the same customer from entering the same journey too frequently. For example, no more than once every 90 days.
Journeys work alongside the Campaigns module, one-off campaign sends are handled in Campaigns, while automated multi-step sequences belong in Journey.