In this article, you will learn how to communicate with social media leads in RemOnline. First of all, you need to connect channels and pages. More details about connecting and setting up access rights are here.
On the Chats page, you will see conversations with social media leads — from the channels and pages connected on the Settings > Chats page to which you have access.
Opening a New Chat
When a lead contacts you on social media, you will receive a message from this lead as a new chat. Such chats automatically become open.
Unread chats are marked with a blue indicator.
Read chats where the last message from the client has not been responded to are marked with a gray indicator.
If you are currently on another page of RemOnline, you will see a red indicator in the side menu that notifies you of new and unanswered messages.
To read and reply to a message, click on the chat.
Chat Data and History
When you click on a chat, all the information about it appears on the right. Here you can see:
Lead's name, as well as:
Phone number in WhatsApp and SMS by Twilio chats,
Nickname in Instagram chats.
Name of the page to which the lead sent a message
All messages to this page, including media files and the date and time of the message (messages from the lead are displayed on the left)
In addition, a field will open on the right where you can link a customer to this chat. Once this is done, you will see information about the client: a card with their data, a list of chats with this client, and a list of all their documents (orders, estimates, leads). You will also be able to create a new document directly from the chat.
Sending Messages
At the bottom, you can send a message to the lead: type in the text and click the Enter button. One message can contain up to 1000 characters. Use the Shift + Enter combination to move to the next line.
Note: RemOnline stores the history of the last 500 messages (received and sent).
RemOnline also has a feature to initiate chats with all customers, even those you have not had a chat with yet. Read more here.
In Facebook Messenger and Instagram chats, if a client reads your message, two check marks appear next to it in the chat interface. The time when the message was read will be indicated below the last read message to the client.
Also, when you read a message from a client, they will also see the message as read - this feature is currently available only in Facebook Messenger chats.
Please note that you cannot message a lead via the RemOnline interface from Facebook Messanger and Instagram chats if more than 7 days have passed since the last interaction with the lead in the chat. In this case, you will see a warning and a link to switch to the messenger to start a conversation. Thus, when the lead responds, you can continue the conversation via the RemOnline interface.
Also, you cannot send messages if you lose synchronization with the channel. To solve this issue, reconnect the channel on the Settings > Chats page.
Replying to comments
You can also reply to comments left under your posts on linked business accounts in Instagram and Facebook chats.
First, you need to enable the Receive comments on posts in chat feed checkbox in the channel settings.
⚠️ Important: if you already have Instagram or Facebook channels connected, then to enable this option, the system may ask you to re-connect the channel, as the necessary access to comments was not provided when connecting the channel earlier.
After that, when a new comment is published under your post, it will appear as an incoming message on the Chats page. If it's a new customer, a new chat will be initiated with them.
To reply to a comment, hover over the post and click on the arrow on the side. Type your message and send it.
You can leave several replies to a single comment. All these replies will also be displayed in the chat.
Archiving and Managing Chats
At the top right is the Archive button to archive chats. Close finished conversations to avoid leaving many chats open and focus on those where no responses or details have been provided yet.
An archived chat will show the closing time and the employee's name who did it. If the lead contacts you again, this chat will automatically open and be active.
If necessary, you can reopen an archived chat by clicking on the corresponding button or simply writing a message and sending it.
Keep in mind that Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp chats have their own rules for resuming chat interaction after a certain period of time, so the message field may be blocked.
In the top left, you can switch between open and archived chats.
Sending a message in Chat with one click
Please note: in order to be able to message clients in the chat and initiate new chats, an employee must have access to the Chats section in Settings > Employees > Roles, as well as access to specific channels, which is configured when creating a channel.
When you hover over a client's phone number in the Leads, Workflows, Invoices, Clients, and Calls sections, a client card appears with information not only about the client's contacts but also about chats with this client.
Choose from the available channels and message the client in the modular chat window without going to the Chats section.
If there are no such chats available, you can initiate a new chat by clicking the “+Chat” button.