Inbox

There are several ways to contact your users: email, chat messages, pop-ups or integrations with social media such as Facebook, Viber, Slack or Telegram.

No matter the channel used for communication, all conversations are kept in the “Inbox” section.

There are three main parts to the “Inbox” section: conversation list, conversation window and the lead card containing user properties.

Channels

Channels help you distribute the conversations by topic, departments, communication channels (live chat, email, social networkings) or segments (audience).

You can get detailed instructions on how to add channels here.

Conversation list

You can see every conversation with your leads in the conversation list. In a conversation preview, you can see the name of the lead, the profile image of the operator assigned to the conversation, the last message from the conversation, whether the lead has read the last messages from the operator or not, the number of messages not yet answered by your operators, the lead’s status (Online/Offline) and the icon of the channel the conversation is assigned to.

Conversation filter

Use a filter to find the needed conversation quickly. The filter is placed above all conversations. 

1. Unanswered conversations:

2. Conversations can be filtered by “Without operators filter”, “Unsorted”, “My conversations and unsorted”, “My conversations”, and by other operators:

3. If any tags are added to conversations, you can quickly filter conversations by tags:

4. Conversations can be filtered by conversation status:

5. You can search conversations by keywords:

Conversation window

Let's see what elements there are in the conversation window:

1. Assigned operator. When a visitor contacts you via chat, their conversation will be marked as unsorted. As soon as an operator replies to it, the conversation gets assigned to that operator. You can reassign the conversation or set the lead bot to auto assign it as well.

2. Conversation channel. The channel this conversation is assigned to. You can read about distributing conversations by channels in this article.

3. Conversation link. Click this button to copy the link to this conversation. You may need conversation links to keep track of communications with your users in other systems.

4. Conversation history. When a visitor contacts you via chat or email, a new conversation is created for them. It’s possible for one visitor to create several chat conversations. You can find every previous conversation with a lead here.

5. "Close the conversation" button. When the question is solved, you can close this conversation to keep your conversation list in order. If your lead decides to continue a conversation you’ve closed, your operators will be notified about a new message.

6. "Hold the conversation" button. You can hold the conversation until to another date or time if you’re expecting further messages from your lead. The conversation will be moved from the “Open” filter to the “Held” filter in the conversation list.

7. “Send conversation transcript” button. An operator can send the content of the conversation to the email used as their login to keep it outside of Dashly or they can send it to the user’s email if the user requests it. 

8. Operator's message. You can see the profile picture of an operator who’d taken a part in the conversation, content of their message, time and the source from which the message was sent: via Dashly web-panel, mobile app, email, social media, etc.

9. Visitor message. Here you can see basically the same data: content of the message, time and source.

10. Tags. Tags are useful for navigation and search. These will also help you memorize the main subject of the conversation and find all conversations with this tag.
    You can create a new tag or choose from the list of available tags. The tag you’ve added will appear in the tag field and in the conversation filter list.

11. Message input field. Type your message and send it with the “Send” button or the Enter or Enter+Ctrl keyboard shortcut.

12. Note. Make notes for yourself and other operators. Visitors will not see them.

13. Saved replies. Do you see the same questions from your visitors too often? Save your replies to these questions to save time. You can add or edit a saved reply in the “Settings” – “Saved replies” tab.

14. File attachment. You can attach files of any format. Drag the file into the conversation window or upload it from your computer.
    Maximum file size: 2 MB
    Allowed file formats: jpg, jpeg, png, gif, pdf, rar, zip, html, csv, docx, doc, xlsx, xls.

15. Emoji. Add emojis to make your conversation more friendly 😃

16. Knowledge base. If you’re using Dashly knowledge base, you can send links to your knowledge base articles without having to open another browser tab to find it. Browse your knowledge base and send links to the knowledge base articles directly from the conversation window.

17. Calendly integration. Send a link for your users to book a meeting in your Calendly profile from the conversation window, just log in with your Calendly account in the integration settings.

18. Zoom integration. Use this button to invite your user to a video meeting. You can log in with your Zoom account in the Zoom integration settings to send a link to the meeting from the conversation window.

Closing a conversation

Clear the conversation list by closing solved conversation in order to make your work with incoming messages more productive. The less visual noise you see – the easier it is for you to work with relevant tasks. 

How the process of closing a conversation works:

1. Operator solves lead's question and closes the conversation; 

2. If the lead doesn't send any messages before the delay before considering the question solved (which can be set in the “Settings” – “Chat” section) expires, the conversation gets marked as a solved one and the evaluation request form gets sent to the lead;

3. If the lead does send a message before the delay expires, the conversation reopens and the whole process repeats.

Set the delay in the chat settings: 

What you need to close conversations for:

• After the conversation is closed, the lead gets a message with the operator evaluation request;

• Closed conversations are moved out of the list of open conversations and doesn’t bother the operators' attention (you can see only open conversations the in conversation list by default, you will be able to find the conversations you’ve closed if you set the “Closed” filter); 

• Closed conversation are counted as solved questions in the "Team performance report" section; 

• When the lead sends a message into a solved conversation again, they'll see an auto reply as their new message creates a new question.

Holding a conversation

Sometimes the question just hangs in the air: you're waiting for someone else's reply, waiting for the feature to get launched, etc. To make sure one of these conversations doesn’t bother you in the meantime, but not to end up abandoning it completely, just hold it for a needed period of time. 

This conversation will be moved out of the list of open conversations (but you'll be able to find it by setting the conversation filter to “Held conversations”). Once the time you’ve chosen to hold this conversation for expires (or if the user or an operator sends a new message into this conversation before that happens), the conversation will show up in the list of open conversations again. Adding a note or assigning an operator to the conversation breaks the hold timer and moves the conversation to the list of open conversations. Adding a tag doesn’t remove the “Held” status. 

Lead card

Use all available data about the lead you're chatting with to solve their issues more effectively. You can find all of the recorded information about a lead (read more about tracking data with Dashly here) in their lead card.

Chat shortcuts

Simplify and speed up communication with your leads with the help of useful shortcuts:

Chat slash commands

Slash commands make operators' work easier. They make it possible to send the lead to CRM or create a ticket without leaving the conversation window.