Narrow a workflow with "only if"
The optional block that stops a good automation firing in the wrong situation — and the cheapest way to control what an automation costs.
"Only if" is optional, and a workflow without one is simpler and easier to trust. But it is also the single most effective control you have over two things: whether an automation embarrasses you, and what it costs.
Because automation actions are counted per step, a workflow that fires on a tenth of the events costs a tenth as much. Narrowing is the cheapest optimisation available, and it usually makes the automation better rather than worse.
Steps
Decide whether you need one at all
If the trigger is already specific, skip it. Conditions added "to be safe" make a workflow harder to reason about later.
Narrow by assignment state
"The chat is assigned to an agent" is a common and useful condition — it distinguishes work a person has taken from work the bot is still handling, which usually deserve different treatment entirely.
Narrow by hours
"It is inside calling hours" turns a noisy automation into a considerate one. An out-of-hours acknowledgement is welcome; an automated chase at 11pm is not.
Narrow by channel
Behaviour that suits WhatsApp rarely suits email. "Only for WhatsApp" is one of the most common conditions for a reason.
Narrow by lead stage
"Only when the lead stage is still open" prevents automations chasing people who have already said no — which is the failure most likely to generate a complaint.
Keep it to one or two conditions
If you need five, you probably want two workflows. Readability is the design goal, and a five-condition workflow is not readable.
Test the excluded case deliberately
Make the condition false and confirm nothing happens. That is the half people forget to test, and the half that protects you.
Check it worked
Compare the run count before and after adding a condition. If it barely changed, the condition is not doing anything and should come out. If it dropped by 90%, check you have not excluded cases you wanted.
The parts people get wrong
- A condition on lead stage is the cheapest protection against automating a message to somebody on DND.
- Narrowing reduces cost proportionally, because actions are counted per step per run.