Let’s talk about something that trips up a lot of HighLevel users—SMS chatbot responses. 

If you’ve ever set up Zappy Chat to handle FAQs and then wondered why it’s ignoring incoming texts like a ghosted Tinder match… you’re not alone.

This exact issue came up in a recent live session hosted by Mario Aldayuz, our Head of Partnerships at HL Pro Tools. 

The solution is simpler than you think—but only if you know where to look.

Zappy Chat Can Respond to SMS?

Yes, and it’s a game-changer. 

Zappy Chat isn’t just for web widgets and DMs—it can also be wired into your HighLevel workflows to handle inbound text messages. 

So if someone texts “What are your business hours?” or “Do you offer discounts?”, Zappy can fire back with instant answers via SMS. 📲

But here’s the kicker: even when everything seems set up correctly, Zappy Chat sometimes goes radio silent. That’s where the troubleshooting begins.

The Hidden Problem: Legacy Tags 

In the session, a few users reported that Zappy wasn’t responding to common SMS triggers—even though the FAQ setup looked fine.

Mario traced it back to something sneaky: pre-applied legacy tags on contacts. 

These tags were messing with workflow triggers by accidentally disqualifying leads from automation.

 So even though the chatbot was technically “ready to go,” the workflow said, “Nah, not this lead.”

Fixing the Issue

Mario laid out a super practical fix that’s helped us (and our clients) clear this up fast:

🧠 Step 1: Audit Your Workflow Triggers

Check if your chatbot workflow is filtering based on contact tags. If it is, make sure those filters aren’t unintentionally excluding leads that need responses.

🔁 Step 2: Test with a Clean Contact

Create a test contact without any tags and run them through the workflow. If the chatbot works, you’ve found your issue. From there, refine your trigger logic.

✂️ Step 3: Simplify Conditions

Don’t go overboard with tag-based filters unless absolutely necessary. Keep your workflow logic clean so it doesn’t break when tags change or migrate.

Pro Tip: QA Your Chatbot Like a Real User

Too many people build their chat automation, run one test, and call it a day.

But here’s what I do (and recommend you do too): run five to ten different real-world test scenarios using different entry points—SMS, chat widget, even social DMs.

You’ll catch edge cases fast and avoid situations where a lead gets stuck in chatbot limbo with no one responding. 🤖📵

Why This Matters

Let’s be real—first impressions matter. If your bot doesn’t respond via SMS when someone reaches out, you’ve already lost trust. 

And in a world where response time equals revenue, that’s a big miss.

Fixing these tiny workflow quirks makes a huge impact on your customer experience. 

It also saves your team from having to manually respond to every text, which means more time doing what actually grows your business.

If you want help optimizing Zappy Chat, HighLevel workflows, or just want someone to troubleshoot the weird stuff with you—hit me up. 

Or better yet, check out our Snapshots and automation tools built to make this stuff easy at HL Pro Tools.