Available now on installHUB
The Messages inbox gathers customer conversations from all your jobs in one place. Everyone in your company who uses the admin portal sees the same inbox, on every plan. Open it from Messages in the main menu, or go to https://app.installhub.com/admin/messages.
What lands in the inbox
- Chat messages customers send you from their customer portal, shown with a Portal tag.
- Text messages from numbers installHUB cannot link to one of your jobs, shown with an SMS tag on the Unmatched tab.
The number beside Messages in the menu is how many conversations need a reply.
Tabs and filters
- Needs reply: conversations where the customer wrote last and nobody has answered. The oldest wait is at the top, and each row shows how long the customer has been waiting. Rows waiting three days or more are highlighted.
- All: every job conversation, newest first.
- Unmatched: messages that could not be matched to a job. The tab shows a count while any are waiting.
Use Search customer or job reference to find a conversation, and the channel list (All channels, Portal message, SMS) to narrow it down.
Each row shows the customer, job reference, assignee and Last replied by. If a colleague is typing a reply, the row shows “name is replying…”.
Reply to a customer
- Click a conversation. The full job conversation opens beside the list.
- Type in Reply to the customer and click Send.
Replying clears the conversation from Needs reply. Replies go as chat messages to the customer’s portal, and the customer is emailed a link to them. If the customer has no email address, add one to the customer record first. Chat messages need the Customer Portal, which is part of the Pro and Enterprise plans.
Mark a conversation as done
If a message needs no answer, click Mark as done to take it off Needs reply. If the customer writes again, it comes back.
Attach an unmatched message to a job
A message is unmatched when installHUB does not recognise the sender, for example a customer texting from a different phone.
- Open the Unmatched tab and click the message.
- Check the message under This message could not be matched to a job.
- Under Suggested jobs, find the right job by its reference, customer, address and status, then click Attach to this job.
The message moves onto that job. If it is not about your work, click Not for us to clear it.
Text messages on a job
Every job’s Communications tab shows the whole history with that customer. Filter it with All, Chat messages, Email or SMS. Texts you send show their delivery status, and a customer’s text reply to a job appears here under SMS.
To see every text across your account, open Subscription Plan and click View Details on the SMS Messages usage card. SMS History lists each text as OUTBOUND or INBOUND with its date, customer, phone, content, cost and status. A status of FAILED, UNDELIVERABLE, REJECTED or EXPIRED means the text did not reach the customer.
Notifications
- When a customer sends a chat message, your admins, account managers and the person the job is assigned to get an email and an in-app notification a couple of minutes later.
- When a customer replies to one of your texts, your admins and account managers get an in-app notification.
