State action

In inbound email, chat, and messaging flows, a process is defined first in terms of states. States define the pipeline through which work flows. Each state is composed of a series of tasks and actions. States relate to the following:

The queue to which the interaction routes.
The industry-defined portion of a process.
The portion of a process defined by best practices.

In the same way that tasks group actions together into logical units, states group tasks together into logical units. Every interaction process starts with an initial state. If your process is simple, you can leave it at that. For more complex processes, create states to group tasks that occur together, usually at the same stage of your process.

Note: An email, chat, or messaging flow is in exactly one state at a given time. In a flow, you can stack multiple tasks (for example: Task 1 calls Task 2, then Task 2 calls Task 3, and so on); however, you cannot stack states. If the email flow is in one state and then switches to another state, the second state replaces the previous one.

Think of states as stations along an automobile assembly line. At one station, mechanics install the axles, wheels, and steering components onto the chassis. At the next station, workers install the engine and all its related parts. At the next station, the shell of the car body is welded onto the chassis and the doors are installed. At each station, workers do a group of related tasks and then send the car down the line to the next station for another group of tasks to be done. At the end of the line, the result is a finished automobile.

Similarly, an inbound email, chat, or messaging flow process is like an assembly line. At each stage of the process, the system must do various related tasks before the process can continue, and the state groups the tasks so that the process is easy to understand and carry out. At the end of the process, you get the result.

Name	Description
Name field	Type a distinctive name for the State. The label you enter here becomes the state’s name displayed in the sequence.
Set this as the starting state	To set this state as the email, chat, or messaging flow’s starting state, click this button. The state moves to the Starting State section of the flow. When the flow runs, the process begins in this state.