Customer journeys
“Who bought a water purifier last year and still hasn’t taken a service plan?” Most shops can’t answer that without going through old bills. A lead pipeline ends when someone buys; a journey in BizOS starts there. It is a board whose cards are existing customers, and purchase rules move them forward as they buy, so the answer maintains itself.
Why a second kind of board?
Selling once is a transaction; selling again is a relationship. Most local businesses have an obvious second sale: the customer who bought a water purifier needs filters, the one who wired a floor will wire the next one, the one who bought an AC needs a service plan. What is missing is a system for noticing it.
A journey is that system. It costs no ongoing effort, because paid bills move the cards.
How do I set up a journey?
Journeys live on the Customers screen: switch from List to Journeys.
- 1
Create the journey
On Customers, switch to Journeys and tap New journey. You can run several journeys and pick between them from the journey menu.
- 2
Add stages
Use Edit stages to name the steps, for example First purchase, Repeat buyer, AMC candidate, On AMC.
- 3
Write the rules
Open Rules and describe which paid purchases move a customer where: when ALL (or ANY) of these conditions are true, move to a stage and add or remove tags.
- 4
Add customers by hand if you like
Add customer places someone on the board directly. From then on paid bills move them, and you can still move a card yourself.
What can a journey rule check?
A rule reads: when a paid purchase matches these conditions, do these things.
| Condition | Example |
|---|---|
| Bought from category | Bought anything in Water purifiers |
| Bought item | Bought one specific item |
| Item name | Name contains filter |
| Total quantity | Bought 5 or more |
| Invoice amount (₹) | Invoice total above ₹25,000 |
| Last purchase category | The most recent purchase was in a category |
| Last purchased item | The most recent purchase was a specific item |
| Customer tag | Already tagged wholesale |
Operators: is, is not, contains, is any of, greater than, less than, at least, at most. Combine conditions with ALL of these are true or ANY of these is true.
Actions: Move to stage, Add tag, Remove tag.
Forward-only, on purpose
A rule can move a customer to a later stage but never back to an earlier one. Without that guarantee, two overlapping rules would fight over a card every time that customer bought something, and the board would jitter instead of progressing.
When do journey rules run?
When an invoice becomes fully paid. That is the moment a purchase is real, and it keeps the board honest: nobody advances for a quote they never paid for. A bill with no customer (a walk-in cash sale) moves nobody.
Manual moves are always allowed. A card a rule placed carries a “placed here by a rule” mark, so you can tell at a glance which placements a person made and which the rules made.
Worked example: a water-purifier dealer
- 1
First purchase
A rule places any customer here when a paid invoice contains an item from the Water purifiers category.
- 2
Repeat buyer
A second rule advances them when a later paid invoice contains an item whose name contains filter, which shows they came back.
- 3
AMC candidate
A third rule advances them once total quantity crosses a threshold, and adds the tag amc-pitch.
- 4
On AMC
A rule watching for the AMC item advances them and removes the amc-pitch tag, so the sales list cleans itself.
The owner’s job then reduces to working the AMC candidate column: a list that is always current and never assembled by hand.
How do I message customers at a journey stage?
Journeys handle placement, not messaging. The actions a rule can take are move, tag and untag. Two ways to do the talking:
Send to a whole stage. In the campaign builder, pick At a journey stage as the starting set, choose the journey and tick the stages. The AMC candidate column becomes the audience for a WhatsApp offer. Because the rules keep the column current, the same campaign run next month reaches a different, and correct, set of people. Opt-outs and the marketing frequency cap still apply.
React to one customer. For a message that should go the moment someone qualifies, use a workflow: a workflow on Invoice Fully Paid with a condition on the customer’s tag sends the thank-you or the service-plan offer, while the journey rule quietly moves the card. Have the journey rule add a tag and the workflow watch for it.
The audience is a moving target, and that is the point
A campaign built on a journey stage works out its audience when you build it, not when you first saved it. Nobody is frozen into a campaign because they once sat at a stage.
Who can do what
| Role | Journeys |
|---|---|
| Owner, Admin, Manager | Create journeys, edit stages and rules, add and move customers |
| Office staff | Add and move customers on journeys; cannot change stages or rules |
| Accountant, Field technician | No journeys |
In a business with branches, a member limited to some branches sees those branches’ customers on the board, and the last-purchase line counts only their branches’ bills.
Common questions
- What is the difference between a lead pipeline and a customer journey in BizOS?
- In BizOS a lead pipeline holds enquiries that have not bought yet and ends at Won or Lost. A customer journey holds existing customers and tracks the relationship after the first sale, with cards moved forward automatically by what they buy.
- When do BizOS journey rules run?
- BizOS runs journey rules when an invoice becomes fully paid. That is the moment a purchase is confirmed, so nobody advances on the strength of an unpaid quote or invoice.
- Can a journey rule move a customer backwards?
- No. BizOS journey movement is forward-only by design, so overlapping rules cannot fight over the same card each time the customer buys. A person can still move a card by hand.
- Can a customer be on more than one journey?
- Yes. A BizOS customer can hold a position on several journeys at once, for example one for service-plan conversion and one for a product line, each with its own stages and rules.
- Can I move a customer on a journey by hand?
- Yes. Anyone who can work leads in BizOS can add a customer to a journey and move their card. Cards placed by a rule are marked, so you can always tell manual placements from automatic ones.
- Can I send a WhatsApp campaign to everyone at one journey stage?
- Yes. In the BizOS campaign builder choose the At a journey stage starting set, pick the journey and tick the stages. The audience is worked out fresh each time you build the campaign, and opt-outs and the frequency cap still apply.
- Does a journey send messages on its own?
- No. A BizOS journey rule can only move a customer and add or remove tags. Messages go out through a campaign aimed at a stage, or a workflow reacting to a tag the rule added.