Triggered flow: the emails a customer sets off by acting
A campaign goes to a list when the marketer presses send. A flow waits for each customer to do something, then sends its messages on that customer’s clock.
A triggered flow is a series of automated emails or texts that starts when a customer does something, such as signing up, adding to a basket or placing an order, and sends each message after a set wait. A brand sees its own flows in its email platform, while a competitor’s flows reach only the people who did the thing that starts them.
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How a triggered flow works
Klaviyo’s guide Getting started with flows defines a flow as a sequence of automated actions, such as sending messages, triggered by a behaviour or event. It names 5 kinds of trigger. A person joins a list or a segment, or takes an action such as placing an order. A date on their profile, such as a birthday, or a price drop on an item they viewed can start one too. Time delays then set the wait between one message and the next.
- Welcome series: starts when someone subscribes.
- Abandoned cart email: starts when a shopper adds to a basket or starts checkout and doesn’t buy.
- Browse abandonment: starts when a known visitor views a product and leaves.
- Post-purchase: starts when an order is placed, with delivery updates, review requests and cross-sells.
- Win-back: starts when a customer hasn’t ordered for a set time.
Klaviyo’s flow glossary adds flow filters, which restrict who enters a flow by what a profile has done or holds, and notes they are checked again before each message sends.
Why CRM teams compare triggered flows
Flows run every day without anyone pressing send, so they shape what a new customer receives. To see how a competitor treats a new subscriber, a CRM lead needs that competitor’s flows. They show how fast the first email lands, when the discount appears and how many messages follow. Agencies pitching a brand need the brand’s own flows, as a customer receives them, to show what is missing.
Flows also fail quietly. A flow switched off by mistake or a filter set too tight stops a message without any error. Often the first sign is a customer asking why a welcome or basket email never arrives.
How triggered flows are seen from outside
An email platform such as Klaviyo shows a brand its own flows from the inside. From the outside, the only way to see a flow is to set it off. That means signing up or leaving a basket, then logging every message with the time it arrived.
Obsession collects what companies show only to customers, step by step: their screens, emails and texts, member prices, trial limits, quotes and cancel offers, each dated with a screenshot. Teams and AI agents look up any company through the API or MCP, and a company not yet covered is added on request. For a triggered flow, that means each email and text with the minute it arrived after the action that started it. The wait between messages is measured from the inbox.
A campaign is one send to a list at a time the marketer chooses. A flow sends to each person when they do something, on a schedule that starts from their action.
Only by setting them off as a customer would and keeping what arrives. Their email platform’s reports stay private to them.
Email and SMS trackingSources
In the order the page cites them. Every page was read on 11 Nov 2026.