Omnichannel · Daily operations · 10 min read

Work the inbox

Find, open, answer, assign and close conversations, including the 24-hour WhatsApp rule and internal notes.

Before you begin

• You need omni.inbox.view to open conversations and omni.reply to write. Assigning needs omni.assign. Resolving, archiving, marking spam and blocking need omni.resolve.
• Without omni.inbox.all you see your own conversations, your teams' and unassigned ones. Opening another conversation by its address says 'Conversation not found.'

Find a conversation

1. Go to Omnichannel > Inbox > Unified Inbox. The list shows the channel icon, name (with a star for VIP), preview, time, unread badge, label and SLA chip.
2. Use the entries under Inbox for ready-made views: My Conversations, Unassigned (open or waiting, no owner), Waiting, Mentions (a colleague @mentioned you), Starred and Archived. For spam, use the Spam view in the inbox's left list.
3. Use the tabs All, Open and Resolved, each with a count.
4. Type in Search conversations. It matches name, phone, email, username, company, preview and conversation number such as CNV-00001.
5. Open the filter panel for Channel, Owner, Status, Tag, Customer type, Lead status, SLA, Team, From / To dates and Unread only. Clear removes them.
6. Click Load more for the next 40.

The list updates by itself. A new message moves its conversation to the top with an unread badge. Opening a conversation marks it read; More > Mark unread puts the badge back.

Reply

1. Open the conversation. The header shows channel, name, SLA, status and label.
2. On the Reply tab type the Message. Press Ctrl+Enter or click Send. An empty message gives 'Type a message.' Messages are kept up to 8000 characters.
3. Type / for quick replies. {name} becomes the contact's first name.
4. Attach a file with the paperclip, up to 16 MB. The text becomes the caption. Larger files give 'Files up to 16 MB can be sent.'
5. For a faster finish use the Send menu: Send and resolve, or Send and wait for customer.

Sent messages show ticks for sent, delivered and read. A message that fails shows Not sent with the platform's reason and a Retry button.

The 24-hour WhatsApp window

On WhatsApp you may send free text only within 24 hours of the customer's last message. When the window is closed, a banner appears and Via template is switched on. Free text is refused with 'WhatsApp only allows free text within 24 hours of the customer's last message. Send an approved template instead.' Attachments are refused the same way. Click Send Template, choose an approved template, fill every {{1}}, {{2}} box ('Fill in {{2}} before sending.') and send. When the customer replies, the window opens again.

Marketing templates also need the contact's consent: 'Consent: <reason>. Marketing templates need the contact's opt-in.'

Add an internal note

1. Open the Note tab.
2. Write the note. Type @sara to mention a colleague of this company.
3. Click Add note. Empty gives 'Write the note.'

Notes show in yellow and are never sent to the customer. The colleague is notified and sees the conversation under Mentions.

Assign, take and transfer

• Assign (omni.assign): choose a person from this company, or leave it empty for Unassigned.
• More > Take conversation makes you the owner and needs only omni.reply.
• Transfer to a team: choose the team ('Choose the team.'), add an optional hand-over note (kept as an internal note). The owner is cleared and routing runs again.
• Watch and Star are personal markers.

Status, label and priority

Use the status menu to set Open, Waiting for customer or Waiting internal, and the label such as Qualified. More > Priority sets Low, Normal, High or Urgent and restarts the SLA clock. AI mode can be turned off for one conversation.

Resolve, archive, spam and block

• Resolve stamps the resolved time. Reopen returns it to Open.
• Archive and Mark as spam clear the SLA and move it out of the Unified Inbox.
• Block Contact (Quick Actions) marks all that contact's open conversations as Spam and refuses replies: 'This contact is blocked. Unblock them to reply.' After Unblock, the conversations stay Spam; reopen them by hand.

A customer who writes again reopens a Resolved, Archived or Waiting conversation automatically. A Spam conversation stays Spam.

What happens next

Every send and action is audited and shown in Recent Activity. The first reply sets the first response time for the SLA reports.

Good to know

• The contact panel shows the customer's outstanding and overdue balance only to users with finance rights.
• The AI assistant is in Chatbots and the AI assistant.