Overview: Conversations - Centralize Customer Communication Across many Channels

The Conversations feature in Wind Solutions provides a unified platform to manage all customer interactions efficiently. Whether it's SMS, email, live chat and more, Conversations ensures seamless communication and collaboration across multiple channels. This guide will explore its core functionalities, including key features, setup options, and best practices for maximizing its potential.

Key Features

Unified Inbox

Manage messages from multiple channels, including SMS, emails, WhatsApp, and live chat, in one place. The Conversations module eliminates the need to switch between platforms, making communication effortless.

 

 

Activity Cards

Track the status of customer interactions with detailed activity cards. Easily view contact history and updates of appointments, invoices and other essential details to provide personalized responses and direct access to Information.

 

 

Right Panel Sidebar

Quickly access critical customer details such as contact information, appointments, tasks, opportunity and notes regarding the selected conversation in the expandable sidebar, allowing for a streamlined workflow.

 

 

Snippets for Quick Responses

Utilize predefined snippets to ensure consistent and efficient communication. Snippets save time while maintaining professionalism in responses.

 

 

Internal Comments and Mentions

Collaborate internally by adding comments or tagging team members within the Conversations module to resolve queries faster.

 

 

File Attachments

Simplify communication by attaching images, documents, and other files directly in your messages for enhanced customer engagement.

 

 

Advanced Filters

Narrow down conversations and messages by using filters like "Assigned To," "Mentions of Specific Users," or "Message Type" to streamline navigation through the inbox. Filters are available for the search of a conversation and within a specific conversation.

 

 

Navigate and use the Conversations Feature

The "Conversations" feature serves as a central hub for managing all customer communications, all within Wind Solutions. It includes four key tabs designed for streamlined operations: the main "Conversations" tab for accessing and managing ongoing customer interactions; the "Manual Actions" tab, where manual call and message tasks are assigned and tracked; the "Snippets" tab, enabling the creation and use of SMS and email message templates with dynamic variables for consistency and efficiency; and the "Trigger Links" tab, which allows you to create links that can activate workflows and track customer actions for detailed analysis. Together, these tools ensure an efficient and organized approach to a centralized customer communication.

Navigate to the "Conversations" Section in the left Feature SideBar to open the Conversations feature and start communicating with your customers.

Conversations Tab

The Conversations Tab serves as the central hub for managing all customer interactions, providing an organized layout divided into three key sections for seamless communication. The first column displays a categorized list of all your conversations, including unread, recent, and starred messages, with powerful search and filter options to locate specific interactions quickly. The second column presents the full conversation history and a message input area, allowing users to view and reply to SMS, emails, and other communication channels in an intuitive workspace. Finally, the third column, the right panel sidebar, offers instant detailed contact information, including email, phone number, and automation statuses, with integrations for direct booking appointments, creating tasks, and adding notes. Together, these sections ensure streamlined communication management and enhanced customer engagement.

Column 1: All your Conversations

The first column displays a comprehensive list of all your conversations, sorted into categories such as "Unread," "Recents," and "Starred." This section makes it easy to locate and manage ongoing discussions. A search bar and filtering options allow users to quickly find specific interactions or narrow the focus to specific types of messages. The interface ensures that no customer interaction is overlooked, streamlining communication management.

The Unread, Recents, Starred, and All Conversations options in the Conversations Tab help streamline message management. “Unread” highlights messages you haven’t viewed yet, ensuring no communication is missed. “Recents” displays your latest interactions, making it easy to pick up where you left off. “Starred” lets you prioritize and access important conversations quickly. You can add Conversations as “starred” within the 2nd column i the top right area - just select the desired converstion and click on the “star” icon. Also all conversations which are marked as starred will have the small yellow star icon as you can see in the image below. Finally, “All” Conversations provides a comprehensive overview of every interaction, offering a full archive for easy reference.

The Search Field and Filters in the Conversations Tab are designed to enhance navigation and streamline communication management. The Search Field allows you to quickly locate specific conversations or keywords, saving time when accessing relevant interactions. The Filters provide advanced options to refine your view by criteria such as contact ownership, mentions, message direction (inbound or outbound), message type (manual or automated), and communication channels (email, SMS, calls, etc.). Additionally, sorting options like "Latest" or "Oldest" messages enable you to organize conversations based on recency or manual interactions. Together, these tools ensure efficient management of your messages.

The "Create New Message" feature, accessed via the message icon, allows users to start a direct conversation or initiate a group chat. The first option lets you send a private message to a specific contact, while the group message option supports chats with up to 10 participants. In group chats, all participants can view each other's phone numbers. Simply select your phone number and add participants to create the group, fostering collaborative communication.

For now Group Chat functionality is restricted to US or Canada phone numbers. To initiate a Group Chat, users must configure a phone number from one of these regions.

 

 

Column 2: Conversation history and Message Input Area

The second column provides a detailed view of the selected conversation. Here, you can see the full communication history with a customer, including SMS, emails, and internal comments. At the bottom of this column, you’ll find the message input area, allowing you to compose and send replies across multiple channels. This layout ensures that you have all the context you need while responding, making it an intuitive and efficient workspace.

The upper section of the second column, "Conversation History" provides a comprehensive timeline of all communication and activities related to the selected contact. This includes interactions across various channels, such as SMS, email, and in-app activities within Wind Solutions, such as opportunities created or invoices received. Each entry is timestamped, ensuring you have detailed context and a complete overview of all interactions in one place.

At the top of this section, you have a variety of options to manage your conversations efficiently. You can archive conversations, mark them as starred or unread, delete conversations, and apply filters within a specific conversation. These filters allow you to narrow down the history based on categories such as emails, internal comments, activities, contacts, appointments, opportunities, payments, and invoices, ensuring quick access to the specific information you need.

The Message Input Area, located at the bottom of the second column, provides a seamless way to communicate with your contacts across multiple channels. In the top left, you can switch between available communication channels such as SMS, WhatsApp, or Email, depending on your configured options. The top right includes the ability to create internal comments, which are visible only to your team and not shared with the contact. The row below allows you to select the phone number you want to send the message from and the recipient's number for the selected conversation. Below that, the main text area lets you compose your message. Additional functionalities include attaching files, adding emojis, inserting snippets for pre-defined text templates, requesting payments, or implementing custom variables to personalize your communication with user-specific information. This layout ensures all the tools needed for effective communication are at your fingertips.

 

 

Column 3: Right Panel Sidebar

The third column, the right panel sidebar, contains direct access to detailed information about the selected conversation-contact. This includes their email, phone number, tags, and any active automations associated with their profile. Additional Information and tools such as the ability to book and view dependent appointments, add and view dependent notes, or create and view dependetn tasks are conveniently accessible here. This sidebar provides quick access to customer details and actionable options, enhancing productivity and engagement during conversations.

Here in the following image, the contact's information is displayed in detail. At the top, clicking on the contact's profile image or name will take you directly to the Contacts feature, where the selected contact's full profile can be accessed. Below, you will find essential contact details such as email addresses, phone numbers, connected tags, and active automations, like a lead nurture email workflow. At the bottom, the DND (Do Not Disturb) options are available, allowing you to respect the contact's preferences by preventing automated messages if they have requested not to be contacted. Additionally, a workflow action is available to automate these DND settings, ensuring a seamless and respectful communication process.

The Appointments section in the right panel sidebar allows you to view and manage all scheduled appointments associated with the selected contact. You can create new appointments by specifying the calendar, title, date, time, and location. Additional options include customizing time zones, adding descriptions, and setting the status of the appointment. This feature ensures seamless scheduling and tracking, keeping your interactions well-organized and aligned with your workflow.

The Opportunities section in the right panel sidebar allows you to manage and track potential business deals with the selected contact. You can create new opportunities by filling in key details such as the contact's name, email, phone number, and opportunity specifics like name, pipeline stage, value, and status. Additional fields include assigning ownership, adding followers, tagging, and specifying the business name or opportunity source. This feature helps streamline deal management, ensuring that every lead is organized and progresses efficiently through your sales pipeline.

The Tasks and Notes sections in the right panel sidebar help streamline workflow management and documentation. In the Tasks section, you can view and create tasks by entering a title, description, and due date, as well as assign them to specific users, ensuring accountability and clear deadlines. Meanwhile, the Notes section allows you to view and add detailed notes related to the contact or conversation. Both features help keep your workflow organized and ensure important information or follow-up actions are documented and accessible.

 

 

Manual Actions Tab

The Manual Actions Tab is designed to streamline follow-ups by your team as part of automated workflows. Unlike tasks in the Contacts feature that are manually created, manual actions here specifically involve call and messaging tasks generated by workflows. These actions ensure that team members follow up with customers promptly and efficiently, maintaining a consistent communication process. For example, a manual call action is queued within a workflow, requiring a team member to make the call and mark it as complete. This feature allows businesses to seamlessly manage follow-ups and maintain high-quality customer engagement.

Snippets Tab

The "Snippets" tab is a powerful tool for creating predefined text and email templates to streamline communication. You can organize your snippets into folders, making them easily accessible. By clicking "Add Snippet," you can create either a text or email snippet.

Text snippets allow you to craft messages with attachments, URLs, or custom variables to personalize communication. Email snippets offer a robust editor to design professional messages, including formatted text, links, and images.

Once saved, these snippets can be quickly inserted into conversations using the "Insert Snippet" option in the message input area, ensuring consistent and efficient messaging.

Trigger Links Tab

The "Trigger Links" tab is a feature that enables you to create and manage custom links that trigger specific actions when clicked. These links can be embedded in SMS messages or emails, allowing you to track customer interactions and automate workflows based on link activity. For example, clicking a trigger link can enroll a customer in a campaign, update their status, or send follow-up notifications. The tab also includes an "Analyze" option to review engagement metrics, helping you understand customer behavior and optimize your communication strategies. This functionality is particularly valuable for automating tasks and tracking link performance efficiently.

Setting up Conversations

When starting with the Conversations feature, the section may initially appear empty, as shown in the image below. This is the perfect starting point to set up your communication channels and unlock the full potential of the Conversations feature. Within this section, we will guide you through configuring and integrating your preferred communication channels—such as SMS, email, WhatsApp, and more—so that you can centralize and streamline all interactions with your customers in one unified platform. Centralizing your communication habits ensures seamless engagement and boosts your team's efficiency in managing customer relationships.

Please note that communication channels will not appear within a conversation if the specific channel has not been set up or if the selected contact has not provided the necessary information. For example, if a phone number is missing from the contact's details, SMS functionality will not be available.

SMS: Phone Number

To enable SMS communication within the Conversations feature, you need to set up a phone number. This number allows you to send and receive text messages directly from Wind Solutions, centralizing your communication with customers. For a step-by-step guide on setting up a phone number, you can refer to the "Phone Services" category in our documentation, located under the "Other Features" section. This guide will ensure your phone number is configured correctly, so you can seamlessly integrate SMS into your communication workflow.

Email

To enable email communication within the Conversations feature, it's important to set up email synchronization. By integrating your email account with Wind Solutions, you can send and receive emails directly within the platform, ensuring all customer interactions are centralized. Wind Solutions supports two-way email synchronization for both Google and Outlook accounts, allowing seamless updates across platforms. For detailed steps on enabling and using this feature, refer to the guide titled "How to Enable Google/Outlook Email Two-Way Sync" available in our development partners (LeadConnector) documentation. Following this guide ensures your email communication is streamlined and fully integrated.

WhatsApp

To set up WhatsApp as a communication channel within the Conversations feature, navigate to Settings -> WhatsApp in your Sub-Account. Wind Solutions offers a comprehensive WhatsApp integration, which provides seamless connectivity for efficient customer interactions. Please note that this feature is available for an additional cost. For more details about pricing and billing policies, refer to the article titled "Overview: Billing & Subscription." Additionally, for a step-by-step guide on configuring your WhatsApp account, consult the documentation provided by our trusted development partner, LeadConnector, which outlines the full process for enabling the WhatsApp integration.

GBP (Google Business Profile)

Google Busines Profile Chat or formerly Google My Business Chat is a communication channel which you need to set up using your Google Business Profile. Follow this Tutorial provided by our trusted development partner, LeadConnector, which outlines the full process for enabling the GBP/GMB integration.

Live Chat

The Live Chat feature allows you to engage directly with customers through a chat widget integrated into your website. To set up this communication channel, you need to enable and customize the Chat Widget (Web-Chat) within the Sites section of Wind Solutions. Once integrated into your website, customers can use the chat widget to initiate conversations with you in real time. All messages sent through the chat widget will automatically appear in the Conversations feature, ensuring seamless and centralized communication management. This feature helps enhance customer engagement by providing instant support and responses directly from your website.

Facebook / Instagram

To integrate Facebook and Instagram into your conversations, navigate to Settings -> Integrations within your Wind Solutions account. From there, you can connect your Facebook account to enable messaging through Facebook Messenger. If you only wish to integrate Instagram for managing Direct Messages, make sure your Instagram account is linked to a Facebook Page during the setup process. This integration ensures all customer communications from Facebook and Instagram are centralized within the Conversations feature, providing seamless management of social media interactions alongside other communication channels. Follow this Tutorial provided by our trusted development partner, LeadConnector, which outlines the full process for enabling the Facebook/Instagram integration.

Best Practices

• Regularly update and use snippets to efficently answer regular questions and match customer needs.
• Use filters and search options to organize and find messages for a quick access.
• Leverage activity cards for better customer insights before replying.
• Use our Two Way Email Sync to seamlessly add private email chats within conversations.

FAQs

Conclusion

The Conversations Feature in Wind Solutions transforms how businesses manage customer interactions. By consolidating all communication channels into a single interface, it improves response time, collaboration, and customer satisfaction. Explore features like snippets, filters, and internal comments to streamline your workflows. For further assistance, consult the Wind Solutions support team or the detailed guides available.