A contact receives an automated SMS while in a workflow with a wait step for Customer Reply. If a user then manually sends an SMS to that contact, complications arise.
The core issue stems from SMS limitations compared to email:
Attribution Challenge: The workflow system does not have a way to associate the customer's reply with a specific SMS when multiple SMS messages are involved.
Threading Limitation: Unlike email's threading capabilities, SMS lacks this feature, making it impossible to link replies to specific messages.
Workflow Disruption: When manual SMS interrupts the automated sequence, any customer response may not connect to the original automated message, leaving the contact stuck.
Stuck Contact: The contact will remain at the wait step, even if they have replied because the system cannot properly attribute their response.
Avoid Manual SMS: Do not send manual SMS to contacts currently in workflows with Wait for Customer Reply steps. This prevents attribution errors and workflow interruptions.