Every lead's card has a Conversation: the emails and texts with that client, oldest first, so the newest sits just above the reply box.
Today, email and text are not connected to a real mailbox yet. Until they are, the card says so and there is no reply box. This guide describes how it works once a mailbox is connected.
Reading
- Open a lead. On a phone or a tablet the Conversation is the first thing under the name. On a computer it is in the left column, under Details and Quotes.
- The line at the top says whose move it is: They wrote last or You wrote last. (A conversation that holds only old mail, 30 days old or more, has no such line: nobody is waiting.)
- Their messages have a red edge. Yours have a green edge and sit a little to the right.
- Press Show the earlier message it answers to see the older text under a reply.
Every message is shown as plain text. A message can never run anything or load a picture from somewhere else.
A long message shows its first part. Press Show more to read all of it, and Show less to fold it again.
A very long message is cut. Under it you read: This message was shortened. The first part is shown.
Replying
- Choose Email or Text, if the lead has both.
- Type your message. For an email, check the subject.
- Press Send email or Send text.
- VOBIX asks who it goes to. Press Yes, send it. Or press No, keep writing.
After it is sent, the card moves to the list for waiting on the client, and VOBIX tells you which list.
One press sends one message. If your connection hiccups and the same send arrives twice, VOBIX sends it once and tells you: "This was already sent. It was not sent a second time."
Your draft is safe
- What you type is kept as you type it.
- It comes back after a reload, a closed tab, or on your phone.
- An email draft and a text draft are kept apart.
- It goes away only when the message is really sent, or when you press Clear.
If a message is not sent
- The message stays on the card, marked Not sent, with the reason.
- The card does not move. It is still your move.
- Press Try again, then Yes, send it.
- When it goes through, the message says Sent.
If VOBIX could not confirm a send
Rarely, a message stays on Sending…. After one minute VOBIX stops waiting and tells you plainly. An open card notices by itself within about 20 seconds; you do not need to reload the page, and what you are typing stays put.
- The message is marked Not confirmed, with "We could not confirm this was sent."
- Press Try again, then Yes, send it.
- It will not reach the client twice, even if the first try did get through.
While a message is still being sent, pressing Send again does nothing. VOBIX says "This message is being sent right now."
Good to know
- Sending is always your press. Nothing is sent by itself.
- With a keyboard: after Try again works, you land on the word Sent on that message. A screen reader says it.
- A reply always goes to the address on the card, not to whoever wrote last in the thread.
- A text goes to one number. If the phone on the card holds two numbers, letters or a slash, VOBIX does not guess. It says: "We can't tell which number this is — fix the phone on the card." Press Edit, leave one number, and send again. An extension like "x12" is fine; it is left out.
- A message that carried a quote says [private link] where the link was. The link itself is never kept in VOBIX, so nobody who reads the conversation can open the quote with it. Your client's copy has the real link.
- Try again on a quote message checks the quote again and sends a fresh link. If the first try failed, its link no longer works. If the first try was only "not confirmed", its link keeps working too.
- Field staff do not see the message that carried a quote. They see the rest of the conversation on their lead.
- An automatic reply (out of office) is shown, marked, and does not move the card.
- Nothing can be sent to a lead in the trash, a sample lead, or an address on your do-not-contact list. The card says why.