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Journeys and Automations in Marketing Cloud Engagement
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            Wait Activities in Journey Builder

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            3. Engagement: Journey Builder and Automation Studio

            Wait Activities in Journey Builder

            To manage the timing of messages in Journey Builder, add wait activities. A wait activity holds customers between activities for a specified amount of time before they move to the next activity. During wait activities, Journey Builder evaluates customers to see if they met a goal, reached criteria for a decision split, or engaged with a message.

            Here are some things to keep in mind when you use wait activities.

            • Plan the timing of waits based on your content and the message cadence expectations that you want to set.
            • Determine the best time of day to reach your customers and an optimal wait duration.
            • Avoid waits that are shorter than 1 hour, except when testing a journey.
            • Avoid unnecessary waits, especially at the beginning of a journey.
            • Don't place two wait activities next to each other on the canvas.
            • If a wait activity at the end of a journey is 3 minutes or less, it’s ignored unless the journey contains a Goal activity.
            • An asterisk next to a time zones in the picklist indicates that the time zone observes Daylights Savings Time (DST).

            Wait by Duration

            Use the Wait by Duration activity to provide a consistent experience for all contacts processing through a journey. A wait ends after a specified amount of time elapses. The default duration is 1 day. To change the duration, add an expiration time and a time zone. When a contact reaches the activity, the expiration date and time of the wait duration begins at the time the contact entered. A contact who reaches this activity after the specified end time remains in the activity until the following day at the configured end time.

            Wait Until Date

            Use the Wait Until Date activity to hold contacts until the day and time that you configure. After the wait expires, the contact immediately proceeds to the next activity. If the contact reaches the activity after the date, the contact immediately proceeds to the next activity.

            Wait by Attribute

            Use the Wait by Attribute activity to hold contacts until the day and time value stored in a contact’s date-based attribute that you select. If the specified day and time passes before the contact reaches the wait activity, or if the attribute value is missing, the contact immediately proceeds to the next activity.

            Wait Until Chat Response

            Use the Wait Until Chat Response activity to hold contacts until they respond to an outbound message or the maximum configured wait time expires. If a contact doesn’t respond with a keyword before the maximum wait time expires, they exit the wait activity and continue along the no response journey path.

            Wait Until API Event

            Use the Wait Until API Event activity to allow an external event to trigger an action mid-journey. Configure the activity to hold contacts until an event, such as a purchase, occurs before moving to the next activity in a journey. You can also create customized experiences for contacts who don’t take the specified action within a defined timeframe.

            Evaluate Goal and Exit Criteria During Wait Activities

            If you configure a goal for the journey, Journey Builder evaluates each contact daily while they’re held by the wait activity. If the contact meets the goal while in the wait and the exit option is selected for the goal, the contact exits the journey. If the goal’s exit option isn’t selected, the contact proceeds to the next activity when the wait expires. When you configure a goal and exit criteria, contacts are evaluated against both criteria when the wait expires. If a contact meets the goal and the exit criteria, the goal is evaluated first. This order of operations ensures that if the contact met the goal during the wait, the journey records goal statistics accurately.

            See Also

             
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