The built-in automations and what each one does

Dispatch Bros automations are ready-made text messages that send themselves when something real happens — a job is created, an appointment is coming up, a call is missed, or a job is closed. You don't build them from a blank canvas: open Automations in the left sidebar, flip a workflow's toggle on, and it starts sending. Each one is editable — the message wording, timing, quiet hours, sender number, and which job sources trigger it.

Before you start

• Your plan must include the automations feature — otherwise the page shows a locked state (what a locked feature looks like).
• Sending texts requires an active phone plan. If yours doesn't cover it, the page shows the warning "Campaign and automation sends are disabled until a phone plan with Two-Way Messaging is active."
• You need at least one SMS-ready phone number (check SMS status).

The four tabs

The Automations page has four tabs:

Customer automations — the Transactional section

These text your customers. Each card in the Transactional section shows its trigger, timing, source filter, and a preview of the message.

• Job confirmation — fires on "When a new job is created". Texts the customer to confirm the appointment details right after you book the job.
• Appointment reminders — two separate reminders, typically 24 hours and 2 hours before the appointment. Both can instead fire "day before at" a fixed clock time in each customer's own time zone (details).
• Missed-call text-back — fires on "When an inbound call is missed". Texts the caller so the lead isn't lost (details).
• Review request — fires on "When a job is completed / closed". Sends your smart review link after the work is done (details).

Your account may include additional customer automations — every card shows a short description of what it does under its name.

Team automations — the Team Notifications section

The Team Notifications section holds automations that text your own people or partners, not customers — for example a repeating "send an update" request while a job is still in progress, a reminder when a technician is assigned, and a dispatcher heartbeat that checks your dispatchers are actually at their desks and escalates to a manager if nobody confirms.

Team workflows have a Recipient Routing panel where you pick who receives the text: Assigned Technician, Dispatcher, All Dispatchers, External Company, or Custom Phone.

Turning an automation on

1. Open Automations → Workflows.
2. Find the card and flip its toggle. A live automation shows the green Active badge; a configured-but-not-live one shows Draft.
3. Click Configure to edit the message, timing, and filters, then press Save Changes.

Making a copy

The copy button on any card duplicates it ("Make a copy of this automation"). The copy opens in the editor immediately, carries a Copy badge, and is completely independent — a common pattern is one copy per job source with different wording (how). Copies can be deleted; deleting warns "This permanently removes the copy and its pending sends. This cannot be undone."

Troubleshooting

• The whole page shows a warning banner — sends are gated on your phone plan. The banner reads "Campaign and automation sends are disabled until a phone plan with Two-Way Messaging is active." Upgrade the phone plan to re-enable sending.
• "No workflows found. Run the seed migration to create default workflows." — the workflow list is empty. Contact support; the default set should be created automatically for every account.
• The toggle is on but customers get nothing — open the Runs tab. Every attempt is recorded with a reason (quiet hours, customer opted out, sender number not ready, and so on). See the Runs tab guide.