Subscribers are "waiting" in your automation...but why?
When you see a notification about "X subscribers waiting here" within a Visual Automation, it typically means those subscribers have completed the previous step, but something is preventing them from moving to the next step.
☝️ NOTE: You can view the list of waiting subscribers by clicking directly on the "X subscribers waiting here" box.
There are a few reasons why this could be happening:
1. Your Visual Automation is inactive
When a Visual Automation is inactive, subscribers already in it will not be able to progress to its next steps. So, they'll be kept waiting before the step(s) they haven't taken yet.
You can check if your Visual Automation is active via the toggle at the top right of the builder. If it is inactive, click the toggle to activate it.
Then, click Activate to confirm the activation.
That's it! Once your Visual Automation is active, those waiting subscribers will start moving along shortly.
NOTE: Because our Visual Automation pages are cached to improve performance, it may take several minutes for the "subscribers waiting here" box to disappear and the stats to refresh after you activate your Visual Automation.
2. Your Visual Automation is active but paused
If an active Visual Automation is paused, subscribers can still enter it but won't be able to progress any further. So, they'll be kept waiting right after the entry point they used to enter the paused Visual Automation.
Any subscribers who had already been in the Visual Automation before it was paused will be kept waiting before the step(s) they haven't taken yet.
If your Visual Automation is paused, you'll see a Resume button next to the Active toggle at the top right of the builder. Click Resume to unpause your Visual Automation.
Then, click Turn it on! to confirm.
Your waiting subscribers should start progressing through the Visual Automation shortly.
NOTE: Because our Visual Automation pages are cached to improve performance, it may take several minutes for the "subscribers waiting here" box to disappear and the stats to refresh after you unpause your Visual Automation.
3. The subscribers are stuck before an event condition
Subscribers will move to event steps only once they meet the requirements. Otherwise, the event will act as a roadblock of sorts. 🚧
☝️ TIP: Events can be identified by their red icon.
For example, if you add to your Visual Automation an event happening at a future date and time, subscribers will be kept waiting until that date and time to progress through the Visual Automation:
(Notice how the Visual Automation above is active and not paused, but the subscriber is still kept waiting.)
Similarly, if an event is waiting for a particular Tag to be added and the subscriber doesn't have that Tag yet, that will also cause them to wait:
Simply put, subscribers will always wait before an event node unless (or until) that event occurs.
Check out our other article to learn more about how events work. We also have a video demonstration on how they can be used strategically in sales sequences!
4. The Visual Automation page is cached
If nothing above seems to explain why your subscribers are waiting, it's possible they actually are moving along just fine, and that the Visual Automation page is simply cached.
If caching is the issue, everything should automatically update within the next several minutes (in rarer cases up to an hour), with no additional action on your part.
☝️ TIP: If you suspect the page might be cached, try clicking on the "X subscribers waiting here" box.
The page that displays the number of waiting subscribers is never cached. So, if the total number you see here doesn't match the number stated in the "X subscribers waiting here" message on the Visual Automation's page, your subscribers are, in fact, moving through it! You just need to wait a while for the cache to catch up.
If it's been more than an hour and the message persists, feel free to contact our support team and we'll help manually clear the Visual Automation's cache.
Still having trouble?
If none of the above seems to explain why your subscribers are waiting, or if it's been longer than an hour and the cached stats still haven't updated, please reach out to us and let us know the name of the Visual Automation so we can take a closer look.