Ask Question Step

The Ask Question step sends a question to the customer and waits for their reply. You can validate the response format automatically and save the answer for use in later steps.

When to use this step

Use this step whenever you need to collect information from the customer — email addresses, phone numbers, order IDs, satisfaction ratings, or choices from a menu of options.

Question types

• Text — free-form text input
• Number — numeric input with optional min and max values
• Email — validates that the response is a valid email address
• Phone — validates phone number format
• Website — validates URL format
• Date — collects a date
• Time — collects a time
• Rating — 5-star rating scale
• Multiple choice — presents predefined options for the customer to choose from

Saving responses

You can save the customer's reply in two ways. Save to a workflow variable to use the value in later steps (e.g., pass an order number to a Run Action step). Or save directly to a contact field to update the customer's profile (e.g., save their email to the contact record).

Configuration

• Question — the text to send to the customer
• Question type — the format and validation to apply
• Save to variable — store the response in a named workflow variable
• Save to contact field — optionally write the response to a contact profile field
• Multiple choice options — the list of choices (for multiple choice type)
• Number min/max — value range limits (for number type)

Output paths

• Reply — the customer responded successfully and the answer passed validation
• Timeout — the customer did not reply within the timeout period (optional)
• Delivery failure — the message could not be delivered to the customer (optional)

Timeout branch

Enable the timeout branch and set a duration in minutes, hours, or days. The default timeout is 7 days. If the customer does not respond within that time, the workflow follows the timeout path instead of waiting forever.

Delivery failure branch

Enable the failure branch to handle cases where the message could not be delivered — for example, if the messaging channel is disconnected or the customer has blocked messages.

Example use cases

• Collect an email address before assigning the conversation to a team
• Ask for a satisfaction rating after resolving a conversation
• Present a multiple-choice menu for routing (e.g., "Billing", "Technical Support", "Sales")
• Collect an order number before looking it up via a Run Action step