Hold marketing while a customer’s problem is open.
A customer with a late order or an open return stops getting upsells and review requests, then starts again when it’s sorted.
Delivery delayed, so hold marketing for O-9214.
- Reason
- Delivery delayed at the carrier
- Held
- Review request, Trail pant upsell
- Still sending
- Tracking updates
- Resumes
- On delivery, or when REC-241 closes
Why one customer isn’t getting a message, in one record. Your CX lead can read it, and so can the next person.
Sound familiar?
- A customer’s order is late, and the review request arrives first.
- Someone with an open return gets the weekend sale.
- Lifecycle can’t see what support is handling, and support can’t see what lifecycle is sending.
Every message that ignores an open problem tells the customer nobody is looking at their order.
What changes.
- What marketing sees
- “Has ever opened a ticket”Is anything open right now?
- During a problem
- Everything keeps sendingPromotions hold, order updates continue
- After it’s resolved
- Whenever the next campaign landsThe right sequence resumes on resolution
- Mistakes
- Found in a complaintEvery hold has a reason on record
How it works. 6 steps, 4 stages.
- AI1
- Rules and automation3
- Your team2
- Approval
1Listen
Rules and automation
Read order and case events
Delayed deliveries, open and resolved tickets and returns, as they happen.
- Gorgias
- Klaviyo
- Shopify
2Decide
AI
Classify free-text cases
Where tags are weak, reads the ticket to tell a delivery problem from a question. Uncertain ones go to CX.
Your teamApproval
Agree what counts as a problem
Your CX lead decides which cases hold which messages, and for how long.
3Hold
Rules and automation
Hold what shouldn’t send
Reviews, upsells and promotions for that customer pause. Tracking and service updates carry on.
- Klaviyo
- Braze
4Resume
Rules and automation
Resume on resolution
When the case closes or the parcel lands, the right sequence restarts. A reopened case restores the hold.
Your team
Review the holds
Lifecycle and CX check holds that look wrong, and fix stale or mismatched cases.
Wrong holds tighten the rules
What you get. Real work, every week.
| Situation | Would have sent | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Delivery delayed | Review request | Held, then resumed |
| Return open | Weekend sale | Held until the refund |
| Case reopened | Care Kit upsell | Hold restored |
The register of near-misses. Each one is a message that would have landed on the wrong day.
- Order and tracking updatesKeep sending
- Review requestsHeld
- UpsellsHeld
- PromotionsHeld
The rule your CX lead owns: service messages carry on, marketing waits.
How you’ll know it’s working.
Wrong-moment messages per eligible customer
A review request or a sale sent during an open problem, counted at the source.
Time from resolution to the right message
Holds should lift when the problem does, not weeks later.
Complaints about contact
The simplest sign that holds are landing on the right customers.
Baselines agreed before we build.
Works with what you have.
Support
- Gorgias
Email & SMS
- Klaviyo
- Braze
- Attentive
Commerce
- Shopify
- We configure first
- Gorgias sends ticket events to Klaviyo, and Klaviyo and Braze can both exclude customers from journeys. We set those up before building anything.
- We build when
- A hold depends on more than a ticket tag, like a carrier delay, a return and an open order together, and several tools need the same answer.
What a first build includes.
Built in your accounts, around your team. Scope, fee and baseline agreed before we start.
- 1Design
- 2Build
- 3Run it, or hand it over
We build
- A current-state record of open orders, returns and cases
- Hold rules agreed with CX, by message type
- Resume rules that restart the right sequence
- A register of holds and mistakes
We start from
- Helpdesk access
- Carrier and order status
- A list of Klaviyo journeys and campaigns
From your team
- Owner
- Head of lifecycle, with the CX lead
- Involves
- Lifecycle
- Customer service
- Operations
Questions teams ask.
Won’t we end up holding too many messages?
Only for the customer with a problem, and only for the messages that would land badly. Everything else keeps sending. We track the revenue held back, so you can see what the holds cost.
What about someone who opened a ticket once, last year?
That doesn’t count. A hold follows what’s open now: a delayed order, a live case, a return in progress. Stale or mismatched cases are the main risk, so every hold carries its reason and an expiry.
Who owns it once it’s running?
You do. It’s built in your accounts, documented, with training for the people who run it. Ownership usually sits with your head of lifecycle, with the CX lead. We can keep running it with you, or step back.
How do we start?
Usually with a retention review: two to four weeks, a fixed fee credited to the build, and a plan that’s yours. If the job is already clear, we can scope the build directly.
Part of your retention engine. One of 12 use cases, in 6 parts.
See the whole retention engine- Second orders3
- Subscribers3
- Contact that fits1
- Owners & loyalty2
- Lifecycle production1
- Proof & decisions2
In contact that fits
- Service-aware messagingYou’re here
Works with
Know when to stay quiet. Start with a retention review.
We reply within one business day.