Sequences

A sequence is an ordered list of steps that runs for each journey it matches. You'll usually have one per treatment group per stage — "Implant enquiry nurture" on the New stage, for example.

How a sequence is chosen

When a journey enters a stage (or is created, won or lost), SmileLine looks for one enabled sequence with that trigger:

1. A sequence bound to the journey's treatment wins.
2. Otherwise the default sequence (one with no treatments selected) runs.
3. No match — nothing sends.

One enabled sequence per trigger, stage and treatment: the editor blocks overlaps and tells you which sequence already covers the combination.

The sequence list

Settings → Automations → Sequences lists each sequence once, with the treatments it covers shown as chips on its row and the number of leads currently mid-sequence beside them. The Active | Archived switch above the list decides which set you're looking at.

Archiving a sequence stops it matching new leads and stops every lead currently mid-sequence, so you're asked to confirm — the confirmation tells you how many leads that affects.

Create a sequence

Reading the steps

The steps are a schedule. Every step has one time, counted from the moment the sequence starts — Day 0, Day 2, 4 hours, Day 1 · 4 hours — and the list keeps itself sorted by that time. Two steps at the same time go out together: an email and an SMS both at Day 0 is exactly how you send on two channels at once.

Open a step to change when it runs: a number, a unit (minutes, hours or days) after the sequence starts, and Only during opening hours. Change the time and the step moves to its place in the list.

A step you haven't finished — a message with no template, a stage move with no stage — isn't saved, and nothing else on the list saves either until you finish or remove it. The step is marked Not saved yet and a banner at the top of the list says what's holding it up.

Step kinds

Each step has its own pause switch — a paused step is marked Skipped and passed over without stopping the sequence.

Which sender a message step uses

The Channel picker shows each channel with the connection it will actually send from — Email · Dental By Design, SMS · +44 7700 900123 — read from Settings → Channels. A step stores the channel, not the connection, so a sequence built before a number is connected starts sending the moment one is.

• Email always sends from the practice's built-in sender, on your verified sending domain when you have one. A connected Gmail or Outlook mailbox is for the inbox only and is never used by a sequence.
• SMS and WhatsApp use the connection assigned to the patient's location when there is one, otherwise the connection set to All locations, otherwise the oldest active number. A practice with one number never has to think about this.

A channel with nothing connected reads SMS · Not connected in the picker, the step shows a SMS not connected badge on its row and on the sequence in the list, and the step is skipped for every lead until a connection exists. The sequence keeps running its other steps. The picker links straight to Settings → Channels to fix it.

Sequence messages are marketing messages. Before every send, SmileLine checks the patient's current preference for that channel against the practice's outbound-marketing policy. Missing or withdrawn evidence holds the step for a later recheck; it is never inferred from the enquiry itself. Marketing SMS includes the practice identity and STOP instruction, and marketing email includes an unsubscribe link and one-click unsubscribe headers. Appointment reminders remain transactional and use their separate reminder rules.

When a sequence stops

A lead drops out of a sequence when:

• the patient replies on any channel (if Stops early when the patient replies is on — the default);
• a team member messages the patient manually — the human owns the conversation now;
• the journey leaves the stage the sequence is scoped to (and, if Stops early when the lead moves to another stage is on, on any stage change);
• the journey is won or lost, the patient opts out, or someone presses Stop on the lead's enrollment chip.

A lead never runs the same sequence twice at once, but can re-enter it after a past run ended — a lead that regresses and comes back through the stage gets nurtured again.

If SmileLine repeatedly cannot process a sequence step because of a technical error, it does not retry forever. After ten consecutive failed attempts, the sequence stops and the patient timeline shows Sequence stopped for review so a team member can investigate and follow up manually. A later matching journey trigger can create a fresh sequence run; the failed run itself stays stopped for audit history.

Editing templates

Message steps use templates from Settings → Templates, edited through the same dialog as the library — click Edit template on the step.

Email templates open in a visual editor: plain paragraphs read like a personal email, and typing / inserts layout blocks (headings, lists, buttons, dividers, sections, columns) when you want a designed one. Image below the editor adds a picture from your practice's image library. Press Escape once to close the / menu, and again to close the dialog. The canvas is 600px wide — the email standard — and shrinks to fit a narrow screen.

Prefer to write the markup yourself? Switch Visual to HTML above the editor and paste your own HTML, with a preview tab beside it. See Message templates for how the two modes differ.

Merge tags like {{patient.firstName}} and {{location.phone}} are literal text in the template; they resolve when each message sends. Insert them from the chip row under the editor, in either mode.