Customers text. They will not always call, and plenty of them will never open an email. Messages is the dashboard side of that: every text conversation with your customers, in one place, tied to their records.
1 Open Messages
Go to Messages. Conversations are listed down one side and the selected conversation opens beside it, the way any messaging app works.
Your crew sees the same conversations in the worker app, covered in worker app: message the office. Somebody in the field and somebody in the office are looking at the same thread, which is the entire point.
2 Reply
Select a conversation, type, send. The reply goes as a text to the customer from your business number, not from anybody’s personal phone.
3 Start a new message
Use New message to start a conversation rather than waiting for one. Useful for:
- “We’re running about an hour behind today.”
- “Gate was locked, we couldn’t get to the back.”
- “Your invoice is due Friday, here’s the link.”
A text about a delay costs you nothing and prevents the complaint entirely. This is the cheapest customer service in the business.
4 Keep it on the record
Every conversation stays attached to the customer, so the history is there when you need it: what was agreed, when you told them about the price change, whether they really did ask you to skip a week.
That record only exists if the conversation happens here. A crew member’s personal phone is invisible to the business, and when they leave, the history and sometimes the customer go with them.
5 What you can and cannot send
Everything here is service messaging: appointment and scheduling texts, quote and invoice texts, replies to customers who contacted you.
Marketing and promotional texts are a separate legal category with their own consent requirements, and they must not be sent through this. If you want to run promotions by text, that needs its own opt-in and its own setup. Do not treat your service messaging list as a marketing list, and do not text people who have not opted in.
Texting has real rules attached, and the penalties are per message. Setup and consent are covered in how to text your customers.
6 Watch your allowance
Texts are metered and each plan includes a monthly allowance. Reminders to customers and reminders to crew both draw on it.
If you are running close, check what is actually consuming it. Automated reminders at several intervals to every customer add up much faster than the conversations you have by hand.