Inbox
Read and answer your customers by chat, email and text in one place, and send them custom offers.
The Inbox holds your conversations with contacts. Each contact has one conversation, and it can run over three channels: chat on Lahuta, email and text. You answer on whichever channel suits, and the history of each stays together.
Open Inbox from the sidebar. The number next to it counts conversations with unread messages.
The three channels
| Channel | When you can use it | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Chat | The contact has a Lahuta account. | Customers can write to you with Message seller on one of your service pages or on an order from you. Replies show up in their Lahuta messages. |
| The contact has an email address. | You send from your organization's Lahuta address or a mailbox you've connected. Replies only reach the Inbox from a connected mailbox with Bring replies into the inbox turned on. See Email settings. | |
| Text | Your organization has a texting number and the contact has a phone number. | A text to your number from someone you don't know creates a new contact, named by their number. See Text messaging. |
A connected mailbox only brings in email from people who are already your contacts, so newsletters and other mail don't fill your Inbox.
Find a conversation
- Open and Closed tabs split current conversations from finished ones.
- The channel filter starts on Every channel. Pick Chat, Email or Text to see only conversations where the contact last wrote on that channel.
- Turn on Unread to see only conversations waiting for you.
Each row shows the contact, an icon for the channel they last wrote on, an unread count, the start of the latest message and when it came.
Reply to someone
Select the conversation.
Pick a channel tab: Chat, Email or Text. A channel you can't use for this contact is greyed out. Hover it to see why, for example "No email address on file".
Write your message. To add a file, select the paperclip.
Select Send, Send email or Send text, or press ⌘+Enter. Enter on its own starts a new line.
A few things differ by channel:
- Email has a From line where you choose the address it comes from. The first email in a conversation needs a Subject. Later ones are sent as replies.
- Text shows the number it goes from and that it's signed with your organization's name. A counter shows how many of the 1,600 characters you've used.
- Attachments on email arrive as links at the end of the message. On text, they go with the message as media.
Start a new conversation
Select New message, find the person or company on the People or Companies tab, and select them. The conversation opens, or a new one starts if you've never written to them.
You can also start from a contact: the message button at the top of their panel in Contacts opens your conversation with them.
Close and reopen
When you're done, open the ⋮ menu at the top of the conversation and choose Close conversation. It moves to Closed. If the contact writes again, it reopens on its own. You can also choose Reopen conversation yourself.
See who you're talking to
Select the contact's name at the top, or choose Contact details in the ⋮ menu, to open their contact panel beside the conversation. Press ⌘I to toggle it. It has their details, activity, notes and reminders. Open in CRM takes you to them in Contacts.
Send a custom offer
On the Chat tab with a person, select Send offer to quote them a price for custom work. You set the Service, Brief, Amount, Delivery, Revisions and when it Expires in. They get an email and can accept and pay. See Custom offers.
Get notified about new messages
Emails about new messages are off by default, so a busy Inbox doesn't flood your team. To get one when a contact writes and nobody has read it after a moment, turn on Messages in your notification settings.