In this article, I’ll show you both what Conversations is and how it can be used.
Click Conversations on the left menu.
When you navigate to Conversations, you'll see 3 distinct sections.
The section on the left is a list of your conversations. To narrow which messages you see, click one of the top 3 tabs:
Unread: Contains messages you haven't read yet. Unread also contains messages that you haven't taken action on yet, even if they've already been viewed.
To manually remove a message from your Unread tab, select the message and then click Mark as Read in the upper right corner.
Recents: Displays your messages sorted by the date they were received.
You can remove messages from the Recents tab by clicking the Archive button.
All: Displays all your messages, including archived conversations and your outgoing messages that haven't received a reply yet.
You can also use the search field to find messages from a specific contact. To search, simply type the contact's name into the field and press enter.
To compose a new message, click the pencil icon.
This will open a new message pop-up. Enter the contact's name or phone number, write your message, and click Send Message.
The middle section of Conversations is an expanded view where you can read your messages.
When you click a message from the left section, it'll be expanded in the center area. Here, you'll have a threaded view that includes all email and SMS messages to and from the contact.
Below the message thread, you'll find an area for sending replies. When sending a message to the contact, you can click the SMS or email button to choose your preferred delivery method.
If you choose SMS, simply write the text of your message in the editor (including any tags, attachments, or emojis), and click the blue Send button.
You can also use a template when sending an SMS. These templates are created in the Templates area of your CRM. As an example, I'll click the Use a Template button at the bottom to send an SMS.
This opens a pop-up with a list of available templates. I previously created the Address template, so it appears here. When you select the template you want and click Use Template, the template text is automatically inserted into the SMS editor.
You can also add other text or attach files to personalize your message. As before, click Send to send your message.
Let's look at what happens when you choose to send a message by email.
After you click email, an editor opens, but it's slightly different from the SMS editor. You have fields to add your name and email as well as a subject line. In addition, the email editor has more formatting options, such as bold, bullet lists, and highlighting.
As with SMS, you can also attach a file to an email, or use a previously-created email template.
Once your message is finished, click Send.
The last section of your Conversations area is on the right side. It shows you all the details for the contact of your selected message as well as some options. Let's take a look:
Name
Phone number
Email address
Tags - you can add specific tags here to give you more information about your contact. To manually add a new tag, click on the Add Tags field and type in your new tag name. You can remove a tag by clicking the blue X to the right of the tag.
DND toggle - lets you turn off automated campaign messages for a contact.
After the DND field, you have an Active Campaigns area. This is where you'll be able to quickly see if the contact is currently in any of your campaigns. You can also add them to a campaign by clicking the Add button.
In the same way, the Opportunities area will show you if your contact is in any opportunity pipelines.
You can also create a new opportunity for the contact directly from the details by clicking Create Opportunity, which I’ll do right now to show you how it works.
A pop-up opens with quick access to create the contact's new opportunity. You can edit the pipeline, stage, status, lead value, or other variables. I'll click the X in the upper right to go back to the contact details.
The last button in the contact details section is Schedule. I'll click it to schedule an appointment for the contact.
In the pop-up that opens, the first field you see is Calendar. If you're using more than one calendar in your CRM, you'll need to select which calendar you want the new appointment to appear on.
Next, you'll add the day of the appointment, and select an available time slot.
You can give the appointment a name or just leave this field blank. The next 4 fields will be automatically filled from the existing contact details.
Scrolling down, you have more options. If your contact is in a different time zone than you, make sure to set the contact's time zone here. This will ensure they get an appointment reminder at the right time.
You can optionally add a meeting location in the field below.
In the Status field, you can either select Busy or Free. Busy will block the time slot from other appointments, and Free will let you book other appointments with the same meeting time.
In most cases, you'll set the Appointment Status to confirmed.
Finally, you can leave any special notes about the appointment here. These notes are only visible to you and not to your contact.
Lastly, don’t forget to click the Save button to create the appointment.
I hope I've helped you understand your CRM's Conversations area better, and you’re able to bring all your contact communications together in a single place.