The inbox: messages, callbacks and conversations

The Inbox is your team's to-do list for everything the assistants could not finish on their own: messages for a person, callback requests, voicemails and leads from calls, and text, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and website chat conversations. Each item has a status, a priority and an owner, so nothing gets lost and two people do not call the same customer back.

What lands in the Inbox

Items from calls are created when the call ends, with the call summary as the text. The assistant can also create a message, callback or lead during the call, with a priority and a due time. An item created when a call ends is marked high priority when the caller seemed upset.

Conversations: one item per request

Texts, WhatsApp messages and chats are grouped. While a person's request is still open and they wrote in the last 24 hours, each new message continues the same item and moves it to the top of the list. Once the item is Done, or after a day without messages, their next message starts a new item.

About ten minutes after the last message, Ringhum writes a short summary of the conversation. It appears at the top of the item with one of these labels:

The summary also lists details the person gave, such as their name, email, phone or preferred time. Click Show the conversation to read the messages themselves.

Working through the list

Open Inbox in the sidebar. The counters at the top show Open, In progress and High priority items. High-priority items are always listed first, then the newest.

• Open shows everything not done yet. Mine shows your own items that are not done. Done and All show the rest.
• Filter by type with All types, and by person with Anyone or Unassigned.
• Search looks in titles and text.
• Export CSV downloads the items that match the current status and type filter.

The list refreshes on its own every minute.

Assign, prioritise and close

Click an item to open it on the right. You can then:

1. Assign it: pick a team member in the Unassigned drop-down. They get a notification and an email. An open item moves to In progress.
2. Change the priority: click Mark high, or Normal priority to lower it again.
3. Call back: click Call followed by the number to dial from your phone. For call items, Open transcript shows the whole call.
4. Add a note: type in Add a note… and click Add. Notes are visible to your team only.
5. Finish: click Done. To bring it back, click Reopen. You can also click the tick (Mark done) next to an item in the list.

Owners, Admins and Members can manage items. Viewers can read the Inbox but cannot change or answer anything.

Reply to texts, WhatsApp and chats

Conversation items have a Reply box. The reply goes out on the channel the person used.

1. Open the item and type in the reply box.
2. Click Send SMS, Send on WhatsApp or Send.

The item moves to In progress. To see the person's full history, click Open the whole conversation, which opens Messages.

Things to know:

• WhatsApp only allows free-form replies within 24 hours of the person's last message. After that, they need to write to you first. See WhatsApp.
• Text messages can be sent on the Solo, Team and Scale plans. On Starter you can receive texts but not reply by text. See Text messaging.
• Website chat replies appear in the chat on your website.
• If the assistant has answered the same person many times in the last hour, it pauses to avoid a reply loop. The item is set to high priority and shows a notice. Reply yourself; the assistant answers again after the hour.

Troubleshooting

"Reply not sent: …" The message says why. Common reasons: sending texts is not included in your plan, the person replied STOP, no number has texting switched on, there is no credit left for messages beyond the plan, or the website chat no longer exists.

"This message has no phone number to reply to." Ringhum does not know where to send the reply. Contact the person another way.

A conversation is marked Done but the customer still needs help. Click Reopen. If they write again, a new item is started.

I deleted a voicemail by mistake. Deleting an item cannot be undone. For a voicemail, the recording is deleted too, including from the call.

Tip: Send inbox items to Slack, Microsoft Teams, a help desk or a task tool, so your team sees them where they already work. See Choosing what gets sent.