Messages and the Provider Inbox Overview

Availability: all plans

Messages keeps your text and email conversations with customers in one place. This guide explains what the provider inbox holds, how it connects to the customer's own Messages page, where each part lives in the app, and what the product does not do today.

Before you start

You need a role that can view customers, because the Inbox menu entry and its Conversations item appear for people who have that permission. Text conversations also need SMS set up first. Email conversations and in-app chat conversations do not.

Steps

The feature has four parts, and each has its own guide.

Read and answer conversations. Open Inbox, then Conversations. The page lists every conversation with a customer, newest activity first. See the guide on using the inbox.
Set up text messaging. Open the SMS Notifications section of the Notifications page under Settings. See the guide on setting up SMS.
Let Walter draft a reply. On an open conversation, Ask Walter offers a draft that you read and edit before sending. See the guide on replying with Walter.
Understand the customer side. A customer who is connected to you can start and continue a chat from their own Messages page. See the guide on customer messages.

Tips

Each conversation in the list shows a channel badge, a status badge and an unread count when something is waiting. The channels are SMS, Email and In-App. The statuses are Active, Closed and Archived. A Waiting on you tag appears on an Active conversation whose last message came from the customer.

The page title is Messages and its subtitle reads Text and email conversations with your customers. The menu entry is called Inbox.

When a customer texts your SMS number, the message is added to a conversation with that number and you get an in-app notification. A single message that is a recognized stop word is handled as an opt-out and does not create a conversation. The guide on setting up SMS covers this.

Opening a conversation marks it read, and while it is open, new messages appear without reloading the page.

Marketplace leads are separate. They sit under Inbox, then Marketplace Leads, and are not part of this feature.

If something goes wrong

If the list says it could not be loaded, refresh the page. If the Inbox entry is missing, ask the person who administers roles on your account whether your role can view customers.

Using the Provider Inbox — The inbox is where you find a customer conversation, read it and reply. This guide shows how to filter the list, read a conversation, send a reply and use the customer panel beside the thread.
Setting Up Text Messaging and Opt-Outs — Text conversations work once you give ServiceVisit the phone number your messages are sent from. This guide covers that setup, what happens when a customer replies with a stop word, and why a text can…
Replying to Customers with Walter — Walter, ServiceVisit's AI assistant, can write a first draft of your reply to a customer message. Nothing is sent until you choose Send yourself. This guide shows how to ask for a draft, how to use…
Customer Messages Page — Messages is where you chat with the service providers you work with. This guide explains how to start a conversation, send messages and read replies.
Set up SMS messaging — ServiceVisit lets you set up SMS messaging for your customers. In the SMS Notifications section of the Notifications page under Settings you enter the phone number your messages are sent from, in…
Walter reply drafts — When you are replying to a customer in a conversation, you can ask Walter, ServiceVisit's AI assistant, to draft the reply for you. The Ask Walter button appears above the reply box on an active…