Advanced Settings for Conversation AI in Captivation Hub

Conversation AI's Advanced Settings are where you fine-tune how the bot behaves once contacts are actually talking to it. Reply timing, message caps, sleep mode, and a few other levers all live here. Get these dialed in and the bot will feel a lot more like a polished teammate and a lot less like a script.

What's in Advanced Settings, At a Glance

• Wait Time Before Responding — Adds a small pause before the bot replies, so messages feel typed rather than triggered.
• Maximum Message Limit — Caps how many messages the bot will send in a single thread.
• Send Bot to Sleep — Mutes the bot temporarily — useful when a human is taking over or a workflow needs a clean run.

FYI: If you're running Guided Form bots, the conversational quality features (varied phrasing, tone adapting to the contact, gentle redirects when things go off-topic) are already on by default. They don't depend on the timing or limit settings here.

Step 1 — Set Your Business Name

Captivation Hub pulls your business name straight from account settings, so the bot uses the same name in every conversation without you having to type it anywhere.

Quick example: If your account name is "Tech Solutions," the bot weaves that into its replies — handy for keeping the tone branded and personal even when the bot is running on Auto-Pilot.

Step 2 — Tune the Wait Time Before Responding

Adjust the delay before the bot replies. A small pause makes conversations feel less robotic — the bot reads as someone typing, not as an automation firing instantly the moment a message lands.

What works for most teams

• 5–20 seconds is the sweet spot for most businesses.
• Calibrate the delay to whatever feels normal in your industry — a service-based business might want longer pauses, while a fast-moving e-commerce store might prefer near-instant replies.

Step 3 — Cap the Maximum Message Limit

The Maximum Message Limit determines how many bot messages can go out in a single thread before the bot stops replying. Once it hits that ceiling, the bot pauses until something resets the conversation.

Resetting the Limit

Reactivating the bot resets the message count for that contact. You've got two options for doing it:

• Manually toggle the bot back on from the contact's record.
• Use the workflow action Update Conversation AI Bot and Status to handle resets automatically — handy if you want the bot to pick conversations back up on a schedule or when certain conditions are met.

Concrete example: Set the cap to 10, and the bot will go quiet after sending its 10th message in any one thread.

Pro tip: Reactivation via workflow is the cleanest way to keep the bot from going dark on long-running conversations.

Step 4 — Use Sleep Mode When You Need the Bot Out of the Way

Send Bot to Sleep is a temporary mute switch. Flip it on and the bot stops responding until you bring it back. It exists for the moments when bot replies would actually get in the way.

Good times to put the bot to sleep

• A live agent has jumped into the thread and is handling the contact directly.
• A workflow is in the middle of running a sequence that needs uninterrupted control of the conversation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What if my wait time is set too short or too long?

Too short and the bot can step on customers mid-thought. Too long and conversations feel dead. Test a few values until the rhythm feels right for your audience — there's no single magic number.

The bot stopped responding — how do I troubleshoot?

Two usual suspects: it's in sleep mode, or it hit the message limit. Check both. Resetting the conversation or adjusting the relevant setting will bring it back.

Can I customize the bot's responses for specific scenarios?

Yes. The Prompt section is where you tailor personality, intent, and any extra context the bot needs to handle particular situations differently.

How do workflows interact with these settings?

Workflows can automate quite a bit — marking conversations as read, putting the bot to sleep, resetting the message limit, or kicking off specific bot replies based on triggers in the contact's journey.