Messaging customers
Customer messaging
When a customer replies to one of your texts or WhatsApp messages — “I’m running ten minutes late”, “Could I come at four instead?” — Customer messaging puts the reply in front of your team and lets them answer it. Customers start the conversation by replying. It isn’t a way to message customers out of the blue, or to send campaigns.
What it does
A reply that reaches your business lands in Messaging in the dashboard sidebar, in a conversation with that customer at that location. Your team reads it, sees the customer’s open visits beside it, and answers from the same screen. The answer goes back on the channel the customer used — SMS, RCS or WhatsApp, in every country — and from the number they wrote to. Growth and above
Every business on Queue Join sends from the same shared numbers, so we work out which business a reply is for from the messages we have sent that customer. We send it to the business they have been dealing with, and when we can’t tell, the customer gets an automatic answer instead. See how replies are routed.
On Free and Starter, or with Customer messaging off
Customer messaging is on Growth and above. On Free and Starter, and at any location where it is turned off, replies aren’t shown to your team or kept. A customer who replies gets an automatic answer saying the business doesn’t read replies to these messages, with the link to their visit if they have one and the location’s phone number. Fill in the phone number in the location’s details, or the answer has nothing to point them to.
Turning it on
Customer messaging is off until you turn it on. Go to Account settingsMessaging and switch on Customer messaging. It then applies at every location.
Changing the account’s settings needs the permission messages.update_account_settings (update account messaging settings). Owners and Admins have every permission by default.
A location can turn it off for itself under Location settingsMessaging, but can’t turn it on while the account has it off: the account sets the rules and each location stays within them. Where a switch can’t be used, the page says why — not on your plan, turned off for the account, or the location is locked by your plan’s location limit — rather than hiding it. Restore to account defaults clears a location’s own choices, so it follows the account again.
Changing a location’s settings needs the permission messages.update_location_settings (update location messaging settings). Owners and Admins have every permission by default.
The account page also lists every location, with whether Customer messaging is on there and, if not, why not. Anyone who can view messages can open both pages to look. Every change is recorded in the audit log.
The settings
In Account settingsMessaging:
- Customer messaging — on or off for the whole account. Off unless you turn it on.
- Keep conversations for — 3, 6, 12 or 24 months after a conversation’s last message. 12 months unless you change it.
In Location settingsMessaging:
- Customer messaging — follows the account, unless you turn it off here.
- Unread message alert — after 5, 10 or 30 minutes, or off. 10 minutes unless you change it. See unread message alerts.
The inbox
Messaging in the sidebar lists conversations, newest first, with a count of unread messages beside it. In a location’s view it shows that location’s conversations. In the account view it shows every location you can reach, with a filter to pick one.
Needs the permission messages.view (view messages). Owners and Admins have every permission by default.
Each row shows the customer, or their number if they have no customer record, with the last message, when it was sent and on which channel. Labels mark unread messages, a customer who has Opted out, a reply that was Not delivered, and a Closed conversation.
Four filters run across the top:
- Open — every conversation that hasn’t been closed. This is what the inbox shows first.
- Unread — open conversations with messages nobody has opened yet.
- Closed — conversations your team has closed.
- All — everything.
The inbox updates as messages arrive, without reloading. Customer messaging is text only: a photo or voice note shows as “Sent a photo or file” and can’t be opened.
A conversation
There is one conversation for each customer at each location. Opening it marks it read, and shows the whole exchange in order:
- the customer’s messages, with the channel each one came on;
- your team’s replies, with who sent each one and whether it was delivered;
- the automatic messages that location sent to that number, such as “It’s your turn”, so you can see what the customer is replying to. Older messages, sent before Queue Join kept their wording, show without it;
- notes such as Opted out and Opted in again, when the customer sends STOP or START.
Beside it are the customer’s number, the location, a link to their customer record, and their open visits at that location: a place in the waitlist or an upcoming booking. Open a visit to cancel it, move it or mark them as late.
Replying
Type in the box under the conversation and choose Send reply. Above the box it says how the reply will go: the channel, the number it is sent from and the location it is sent as. That is always the channel the customer used and the number they wrote to, because a reply from another number would reach them as a message from a stranger. If that number has since been taken out of use, the reply isn’t sent from a different one.
Needs the permission messages.send (send messages). Owners and Admins have every permission by default.
Replies are text only, up to 1,600 characters, and each one uses one of your monthly messages, like any other text or WhatsApp message.
Say who you are
Your automatic messages open with your business name, but a reply is sent exactly as you type it, from a number every business on Queue Join shares. Start your first reply with your business name, so the customer knows who is answering, and so somebody who meant to write to another business finds out straight away.
On WhatsApp you can write freely for 24 hours after the customer’s last message. After that, the box offers WhatsApp-approved templates instead. See the WhatsApp reply window.
A reply that couldn’t be sent shows Not sent, and one the network couldn’t deliver shows Not delivered, each with the reason. Phone the customer, or try again once the cause is fixed.
When the reply box is replaced
The conversation shows a note instead of the box when nothing can be sent:
- The customer has opted out, by replying STOP or similar. Nothing can be sent to them, so phone them if you need to. They can send START to receive messages again.
- Your team stopped messaging them, with Stop messaging. If the customer asks, resume messaging from their customer page.
- Customer messaging is off at that location, for the account, or because of your plan. The conversation stays readable, but nobody can reply.
A customer who has opted out can still write to you. Their messages arrive and alert your team as normal, and nothing answers them automatically.
Closing a conversation
Once a conversation is dealt with, choose Close conversation. It moves from Open to Closed and stays readable there. If the customer writes again, it reopens by itself, and Reopen conversation brings it back by hand.
Needs the permission messages.send (send messages). Owners and Admins have every permission by default.
Unread message alerts
So a message isn’t left sitting, your team can be emailed when one goes unread. Unread message alert, under Location settingsMessaging, sets how long a message can wait: 5, 10 or 30 minutes, or off. It is 10 minutes unless you change it.
Alerts only go during the location’s opening hours. A message that arrives while you are closed alerts once you open, if nobody has read it by then. Each new message alerts once at most.
Who gets the email is up to each person, under team notifications, with the event “A customer message is unread”. Nobody is emailed until somebody subscribes to it.
Who can see and answer what
- View messages reads the inbox and conversations, and opens both settings pages to look. Every standard role has it, Reader included.
- Send messages replies, and closes and reopens conversations. Every standard role has it except Reader.
- Update account messaging settings changes Account settings › Messaging. Owner and Admin have it.
- Update location messaging settings changes Location settings › Messaging, at the locations the person can reach. Owner, Admin and Location manager have it.
Somebody restricted to some branches sees only those branches’ conversations, in the account view as well. Somebody without View all visits sees conversations with customers whose open visit they can see, and with customers who have no open visit. See team and roles.
How long conversations are kept
Account settingsMessaging sets how long conversations are kept after their last message: 3, 6, 12 or 24 months. It is 12 months unless you change it.
A customer’s conversations are part of what you hold about them. Exporting a customer includes their conversations, and erasing a customer deletes them, along with the wording of the messages sent to them. See data requests.
What it costs
Customer messaging is included on Growth and above. Replies your team sends use your monthly messages, like any other text or WhatsApp message. Customers’ messages to you don’t, and nor do the automatic answers a customer gets when nobody can read their reply. See what counts against your allowance.