Customer conversations

When you respond to messages inShopify Inbox, the responses send through the original messaging service, so that your customers receive replies to their original message.

If a customer adds or removes a product from their cart, then the event is shown to you, the merchant, in the conversation. If the product name is fewer than 41 characters long, then the name of the product is included in the event description. You're also shown the customer's cart subtotal, and the quantities of the products in the cart, at a per-item level.

Responding to a message from a customer

If the customer is actively on your store, then an "Online" indicator is displayed next to the customer's email address in the conversation list. On mobile, the "Online" indicator is also displayed next to the customer's avatar in a conversation.

When the customer leaves your store, the "Online" indicator disappears and is replaced with a message indicating that your reply is sent to the email address that the customer supplied at the start of the chat session.

Message classification

To help you manage and prioritize your customer messages, Shopify Inbox automatically labels the conversation with a topic. Each message initiated by a customer is analyzed by a machine learning classification system. If there is high confidence that it matches a topic, the appropriate label is applied. The conversation list shows up to two topics per conversation, with the most recent topic appearing first.

An example of a conversation with a topic label applied

The ten possible topics for customer conversations are:

Possible message classification topics for Shopify Inbox
Topic Messages related to
Checkout Payments or placing a new order.
Edit orders Cancelling or changing an order.
Order status Order confirmation, order status, and payment balance.
Pricing/Discounts Discounts, applying discounts, or promo codes.
Product details Color, size, quantity, weight, volume, stock and inventory, customization requests, or requests for product photos or videos.
Product interest General product inquiries or interest.
Returns/Delivered orders Issues with orders received, refunds, and returns for orders received.
Shipping Local pickup or shipping costs.
Store info Contact info such as phone number, location, store hours, general return policy, and marketing requests.
Wholesale Wholesale inquires.

The classification system doesn't label messages with a confidence rating below 90%.

To have message classification applied to your online store conversations in the mobile app, ensure your Shopify Inbox app is version 5.12.1 or later.

You can share products that are available in your online store in Shopify Inbox. Learn more aboutsales channel availabilityfor products.

Steps:

Send a discount code in a conversation

You can share discount codes in Shopify Inbox. When a customer clicks the discount code, the discount code is automatically applied to their cart. You need tocreate discount codesbefore you can share them.

Steps:

Send an image in a conversation

You can send images to customers in Shopify Inbox. Customers can't send images to you.

Steps:

Conversation details

Open a conversation in the Shopify Inbox desktop or mobile app. All conversation details are visible in the conversation window. From the conversation screen, you can also manage the status of the conversation or assign the conversation to a staff member.

Manage conversation status

Conversations can't be deleted, but they can be set to Closed.

You can change the status of a conversation from Closed to Open, or from Open to Closed. You can also mark a conversation as Unread.

Steps:

Manage conversation assignment

You can assign a chat conversation to a staff member withonline store chat permissionsfrom the conversation preview or the conversation window.

Click the ... menu to access conversation options.

Steps:

If you don't see the appropriate staff member's name on theAssign Staffscreen, then the staff member may not have the required permissions for online store chat. For more details, refer toonline store chat permissions.

Context

You can view a customer's profile in your Inbox conversations. The customer's profile shows details like the customer's status (a new or returning customer), the customer's location and time zone, and order context (if available). You can also leave notes about the customer that are visible to your staff.

Customer profile

View a customer's profile from any open or closed conversation in the Shopify Inbox web or mobile app.

Steps:

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