Operate > IBM Management Center for WebSphere Commerce > Marketing tool > Work with Web and Dialog activities > Activity building blocks: triggers, targets, and actions > Triggers in marketing activities
Trigger: Wait
Use this trigger in Dialog activities to specify a waiting period in the activity. When the waiting period ends, the activity continues and the customer proceeds to the next element in the activity flow. This is an effective way to automate follow-up marketing actions, for example, sending a promotional e-mail to a customer who has not placed an order within a certain period of time since they registered on the site.
Example
Here is an example of a Dialog activity that uses the Wait trigger effectively:When a customer registers with the store, wait for 7 days. Then check the customer's purchase history to determine whether the customer has placed an order since registration. If not, send the customer an e-mail message offering a coupon for 10% off an order placed in the next week. Issue the coupon to the customer.
The Dialog activity looks like this:
Prerequisites for using this trigger
Make sure the site is configured to support the Management Center marketing features.
Guidelines for using this trigger
- In the Activity Builder, place the Wait trigger to the right of another trigger or an action, as shown in the previous example. It is not recommended that you place a Wait trigger as the first element in an activity flow.
- When you set the Start date and End date for a Dialog activity containing the Wait trigger, the duration of the activity must be longer than the sum of all Wait triggers.
In the previous example, the Wait trigger is 7 days long. Therefore, the duration of the Dialog activity must be longer than 7 days; otherwise no customers will receive the e-mail or the coupon because the activity will end before the wait period elapses.
Related concepts
Activity building blocks: triggers, targets, and actions
Triggers in marketing activities
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