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Managing customer conversations

When you respond to a message in Shopify Inbox, the customer receives the message on the platform that they originally messaged you from. For example, if a customer sends you a message from the Shop app, then they receive your replies on the Shop app.

If a customer adds or removes a product from their cart, then the event displays to you 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. The customer's cart subtotal and the quantities of the products in the cart also display within the conversation header when there is an active cart.

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Responding to a message from a customer

If the customer is actively on your store, then an Online indicator displays.

When the customer leaves your store, the Online indicator no longer displays and a message indicating that your reply will be sent to the email address that the customer supplied at the start of the chat session displays instead.

  1. In Shopify Inbox, click a conversation to open it.
  2. Type your message, and then click Send.

Suggested replies

Shopify Magic uses information from your store to automatically generate suggested replies during conversations with your customers.

A suggested reply populates in the composer bar of a conversation when it meets the following requirements:

  • There's at least one customer message in the conversation.
  • You haven't yet replied to the customer message.
  • Your Shopify store includes enough information to answer the customer's question. This might include the following topics:

After you review a suggested reply for accuracy and tone, click Send to send the reply to your customer.

Deactivate suggested replies

Suggested replies are activated by default when you use Shopify Inbox. If you don't want suggested replies to populate during your conversations with customers, then you can you can turn off suggested replies in your Shopify Inbox settings.

Steps:

  1. In Shopify Inbox, click the settings icon, and then click Message preferences.
  2. In the Auto-generated suggestions section, select Off, and then click Save.

Message topic labels

To help you manage and prioritize your customer messages, Shopify Inbox automatically labels the conversation with a topic. Each message sent by a customer is analyzed by a machine learning system, and if there's high confidence that it matches a topic, then the appropriate label automatically applies. The conversation list displays up to two topic labels per conversation.

The possible topic labels for customer conversations.

Possible message classification topics for Shopify Inbox
Topic LabelMessages related to
CheckoutPayments or placing a new order.
Edit ordersCanceling or changing an order.
Order statusOrder confirmation, order status, and payment balance.
Pricing/DiscountsDiscounts, applying discounts, or promo codes.
Product detailsColor, size, quantity, weight, volume, stock and inventory, customization requests, or requests for product photos or videos.
Product interestGeneral product inquiries or interest.
Returns/Delivered ordersIssues with orders received, refunds, and returns for orders received.
ShippingLocal pickup or shipping costs.
Store infoContact info such as phone number, location, store hours, general return policy, and marketing requests.
WholesaleWholesale inquiries.

For conversation topic labels to automatically apply to conversations in the mobile app, ensure that 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 about sales channel availability for products.

Steps:

  1. From Shopify Inbox, click the conversation that you want to send a product link in.
  2. Click the price tag icon to open a list of your store's products.
  3. Enter a search term to locate the product that you want to send, and then click the product.
  4. Type any additional information you want to send with the product link, and click Send.

Send a discount code in a conversation

You can share a discount codes with your customer in Shopify Inbox. When a customer clicks the discount code, the discount code automatically applies to their cart. You need to create discount codes before you can share them.

Steps:

  1. From Shopify Inbox, click the conversation that you want to send a discount in.
  2. Click the discount icon to open a list of your store's discount codes.
  3. Click a discount code to select it, or enter a search term to locate a specific discount and then click to select it. If the discount code is inactive, then an error message displays asking you to update the discount code.
  4. Click Share discount to send the discount code to the customer.

The online chat session stores the discount code and it automatically applies to the customer's cart at checkout.

Send an image or video in a conversation

You can send images or videos to customers in Shopify Inbox.

The first time that you send an image from the Inbox iOS or Androis app, you're prompted to give Shopify Inbox access to your photo library before you're able to send a file.

Steps:

  1. In Shopify Inbox, click a conversation to open it.
  2. Click the image icon, and then select an image from your computer to send.
  3. Click Send.

Conversation details

You can manage the details of a conversation from the desktop version of Shopify Inbox or from the mobile app. All conversation details are visible in the Shopify Inbox customer profile.

Change the status of a conversation

You can manage your conversations by changing their status. Conversations can have a status of either Open or Closed. You can change the status of a conversation from Open to Closed, or from Closed to Open.

Conversations can't be deleted.

Steps:

  1. From Shopify Inbox, click a conversation to open it.
  2. Within the conversation window, take one of the following actions:
    • To mark a conversation as Closed, click the checkmark icon.
    • To mark a conversation as Open, click the circle.

Search for conversations

You can search for a conversation in Inbox by using the customer name, customer email, or a specific keyword. You can search for current conversations, or past conversations.

Steps:

  1. From Shopify Inbox, click the search icon in the top left of the screen.
  2. Enter a search term, such as a keyword, customer name, email address, or order ID.
  3. Click the relevant conversation.

Manage conversation assignment

You can assign a chat conversation to a staff member who has the online store chat permission.

After you assign a staff member to a conversation, only that staff member receives message notifications for that conversation. If you want all staff members to receive message notifications for a conversation, then unassign the staff member from the conversation.

Steps:

  1. From Shopify Inbox, click a conversation to open it.
  2. Click the Assign staff button in the conversation header.
  3. In the Manage staff assignment window, take one of the following actions:
    • To assign a staff member to the conversation, click the staff member that you want assign to the conversation, and then click Assign.
    • To unassign a staff member from the conversation, click Unassign.

If a staff member's name isn't listed on the Assign Staff screen, then the staff member might not have the required permissions for online store chat. To learn more, refer to online store chat permissions.

Customer profile

You can access a customer's profile from any open or closed conversation in the Shopify Inbox web or mobile app. The customer profile displays details about the customer, such as whether they're a new or returning customer, their location and time zone, and any relevant order details. You can also leave notes on the customer profile that are visible to only your staff.

Access the customer profile

Steps:

  1. From Shopify Inbox, click a conversation to open it.
  2. In the conversation header, click the Customer name.

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