Every time a customer sends your business a message, a 24-hour window opens. Inside it, you can send anything: text, images, buttons, a payment link, a question. The moment the window closes, the only messages you may send are approved templates. This single rule explains most of how a well-built automation behaves.
Inside the window
This is where enquiries get answered, bookings get taken and payment links get sent. Your first 1,000 replies each month are free, and after that Meta charges per message. A good assistant does as much as possible while the customer is engaged: it asks the two or three questions it needs, confirms the booking and sends the link, in the same conversation.
Outside the window
A reminder the day before an appointment is almost always outside the window, so it is a template. The same for a receipt sent hours later or a follow-up a week on. Templates can carry buttons, so the customer's tap on Confirm reopens a window and the assistant can talk freely again.
Why it matters for the owner
If an owner wants to write to a customer personally two days later, that message must also be a template or wait until the customer writes. Dunnflow handles this by letting the owner reply through the assistant while the window is open, and by using a short, approved template to nudge the customer when it is not.
The design rule
Collect what you need while they are talking to you, remind with templates, and give every template a button so the conversation can continue the moment they tap. That is the shape of every flow Dunnflow builds.