Sending Messages to Clients

When you are Active, Out, or Active (finishing), you can send a message to:

• An existing client that contacted you themselves. The client must be not blocked, and they must have no active thread when you send them a message.
  
  However, if the client has their email specified and this channel is enabled in the system, you can send them an email even if they have an active thread.
• A new client via WhatsApp or Viber (only if the respective channel is enabled for your stand).

You can send messages of the following formats:

• Text
• Attachment of a valid format and size
• Text with an attachment of a valid format and size
• For WhatsApp and Viber, you can also send a message based on a registered template. This template can optionally have a header and a footer in the text format.

How to Send Messages to Existing Clients

1. In the search bar in the upper right corner, enter any of the client’s attributes: their name, phone number, email, external ID, or username from a messenger.
2. Hover over the record of the required client.
   
   Three options are available:
   • Go to thread – Use this option to open the active thread with the client. If there is no active thread, there will be no button as well.
   • View chat history – Use this option to open the chat history with the client in the same window.
   • Send message – Use it to send a message to one of the channels available for the client.
3. Click Send message.
   
   
4. Select the required channel and click Continue.
   
   Note that if you select an email channel, you can add black carbon copy (bcc) recipients to it. The client will not see them, but you, other agents, or supervisors will be available to see the bcc recipients and its info in the chat history of this thread.
   
   You need to specify the email addresses in the format of <login>@<text>.<text2> or <login>@<text>.<text>.<text2>, where:
   • login can contain Latin letters, digits, dots, or underscores, dashes;
   • text can contain Latin letters, digits, dashes;
   • text2 can contain Latin letters (2 letters min)
     
     
5. Enter the message text and add an attachment, if necessary (the attachment button is available depending on the selected channel).
   
   Depending on the selected channel, you might require to use a pre-approved message template. In this case, select a template from the drop-down. For more details on using templates in messages to your clients, refer to the Using Templates in Messages section of this article.
   
   
6. Click Continue.

7. For messages to all channels except for email, select, what to do with the message after it is sent: send it and close the thread that automatically opens with this message or send it and assigned this thread to yourself, or assign it to the queue of another agent/group of agents/chatbot.
   • Immediately close the thread: Once you send the message and close the confirmation window, you will remain in the search window.
   • Send and assign the thread with the message to me: Once you send the message and close the confirmation window, the system redirects you to your personal queue, and the new thread is available there, minimized (in the WAITING state).
     
     
   • Transfer the thread with the message to another employee/group of employees, skill, bot, or department: Here you need to select the direction where you want to transfer the message, and add a comment, if necessary. Once you send the message and close the confirmation window, you will remain in the search window, and the thread will be sent to the selected user.
     
     

Using Templates in Messages

For the WhatsApp and Viber channels, the integration with the edna platform has been implemented. If there are templates for these channels in the edna platform, then when creating a message, you can select one of the available options. When sending a message to a client, templates can be both mandatory and optional.

• If using a template is mandatory, you cannot enter the message text manually and can only use a template for your message. Only the text templates (that is, the ones that have no other content in them – attachments, links buttons, etc.) will be available for selection.
  
  Though you cannot manually change the text of a template, you will be able to fill in the variables (if there are any in a template). They can be of several types: entering text manually, selecting a value from the drop-down, and selecting a date from the calendar. If there are variables in the template text, filling them in is mandatory.
  
  
• If using a template is optional, you can select one of the template options of enter the text manually. In the example below, the text is entered manually.
  
  
• If there are no approved templates in the edna platform, and you can only send a client a message based on a template (for example, if you only can only message them in WhatsApp, but they haven’t contacted you within the last 24 hours), the system will show a respective notification.

How to Send Messages to New Clients

You can add a phone number of a client who never contacted you before and send them a message via WhatsApp and Viber.

1. Enter the phone number of the client who never contacted you before via that phone number.
2. Click Create client.
   
   
3. In the dialog window, enter their phone number again (7 digits minimum) and click Continue.
4. Select the required channel and send them a message as described above in the How to Send Messages to Existing Clients section of this article.

Limitations and Troubleshooting

1. If another agent sends a client a message at any step while you were creating a message for them, or if they sent a message themselves, it creates an active thread for that client. You will no longer be able to send them a message (except for an email, if they have an address), so you will receive a respective warning. In this case:
   • If you cancel, the message window closes, and the system redirects you back to the search page.
   • If you proceed checking where the thread is, the system redirects you back to the first step, where you can select another channel for this client (if any are available).
2. If a system error occurs while creating a message for a client, the system will also notify you.
3. If you must send a message to a WhatsApp client using a registered template (for example, if their last message to you was more than 24 hours ago), but you cannot select the template in your WP, you can enter the text manually. However, in this case, WhatsApp allows only messages based on registered templates. If your message is different from a registered template, the message will not be delivered, and you will see a notification about this error in the chat history with this client.
4. Some channels, for example, WhatsApp, Viber, and Apple Business Messages, also return other types of reasons why your message cannot be delivered. The exact list of reasons depends on the channel. For example, most channels inform agents when a client has blocked the business account or doesn’t use a particular messenger.
5. If a client has contacted you via different channels using the same phone number but was blocked in one of them, when selecting a channel for your message to this client, you will see a warning next to the channel where they are blocked. This channel will be not available for selection.