Welcome & Win-Back Messages

The first reply sets what they expect from every reply after it

Someone messages for the first time and waits. Nothing arrives for two hours, and by then they have decided what kind of business you are. The same happens to the customer who returns after six months and gets a reply that treats them like a stranger.

Both are automatic replies to an inbound message, so both happen inside the 24-hour service window the customer just opened — no template needed, and no per-message cost from Meta. One triggers on their first-ever message, the other when someone messages again after a gap you set.

Which kind of message this is

Service-window replies. The customer messaged first, so these are free-form messages inside their 24-hour window. This is the cheapest and least restricted messaging on the platform, which is why an automatic greeting is the easiest automation to justify.

How to set it up

1
Start from the Welcome Message quick-start
It uses the first-inbound-message trigger, which fires on a contact’s first-ever message — including contacts you added yourself, not only ones created by an incoming message.
2
Write a greeting that sets expectations
Say when a human will reply. "We will get back to you shortly" is weaker than naming the hours you actually answer.
3
Add the Welcome Back quick-start for returners
It uses the returning-after-silence trigger, set to seven days by default and editable. It measures from the customer’s last message rather than your last campaign.
4
Let a person take over
The greeting buys attention; it does not answer the question. The conversation is in the shared inbox for whoever picks it up.

What goes wrong

— Promising a response time you do not meet. An automatic message that says "within an hour" at 11pm sets you up to fail before anyone has read it.
— Making the greeting do too much. A wall of options is worse than a sentence — people came with a question, not a menu.
— Forgetting it is running. An automation nobody reviews is still greeting customers with last year’s opening hours.
— Treating the win-back trigger as a marketing tool. It fires when THEY message you. Messaging quiet customers first is a different thing entirely, needs a template, and counts as marketing.

Questions

Does an automatic welcome cost anything?

No charge from Meta. The customer messaged you first, so the reply is inside their 24-hour service window, which has not been billed under any version of Meta’s pricing so far.

What is the difference between the two triggers?

First-inbound-message fires once, on a contact’s first-ever message to you. Returning-after-silence fires when an existing contact messages again after a gap you choose — measured from their last inbound message, not from anything you sent.

Will it reply to my regulars every time?

No. The welcome trigger is once per contact, and the win-back trigger only fires after the silence gap you set. Someone messaging weekly triggers neither.

Can I send a welcome to someone who has not messaged me?

That is not a welcome, it is an outbound marketing message: it needs an approved template, marketing consent, and it counts against your messaging limit. The distinction matters more than the wording does.

Try it on your own numbers

Free plan, 100 contacts, no card required.

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