Requests
A request is something a customer wants from you that you follow up, such as a callback, a quote or a job. The assistant saves it from a call, text or chat: who got in touch, what it is about and how urgent it is. You find them under Inbox → Requests. This article explains how a request gets there and how you follow it up.
A Viewer can read requests. Changing the status and the notes takes an Editor or Admin.
How a request is created
You cannot add or delete a request yourself. A request is created in one of these ways:
- The assistant saves the request during the conversation. This takes Save requests, on the assistant's Tasks tab. It is on by default.
- The assistant saved nothing during the conversation, but the analysis afterwards sees it was a genuine request. This also takes Save requests.
- The customer asks by SMS, WhatsApp or webchat for someone to get in touch. This also works with Save requests off. Such a request gets the urgency Urgent.
A new request always starts as Open. If an appointment was already booked in the same conversation, it starts as Appointment made. A conversation has one request at most: if the assistant saves more later, the same request is filled in further.
A request or callback request only reaches you once you can reach the customer. In an SMS, WhatsApp or phone conversation that is the conversation's number. In the webchat the assistant first asks for a phone number or email address and puts it in the request, unless the number was already proven with a code or your website passed it on. When your website passed on a phone number or email address, or the customer is already in your contacts, that number is on the request and the email address is under What it is about, in your notification too. With a withheld number it first asks for a number to call back on.
The assistant gives every request an urgency: Emergency, Urgent, Routine or Unknown. What falls under each is in Technical settings.
The notification you get
For a new request and for a callback request, an SMS goes to the Notification phone and an email to the Notification email. It holds the urgency, the channel, the name, the number and, when known, the address, what it is about and the preferred time, with a link to the request. If the customer hung up before everything was noted, the first line says so. A notification does not go to every team member: you set the two addresses for the whole business, see Team & roles.
The list
The list shows up to 200 requests. For each request you see When (with the channel under it), Customer, What it is about, Preferred time, Urgency and Status. On your phone you call the customer by tapping the number under Customer. Next to Urgency and Status is a round "i": rest your mouse on it, or click or tap it, for the explanation.
- The chips above the list pick a status: Open, Got in touch, Appointment made, Closed or All. Without a choice you see Open: what you still have to follow up.
- Under Open the most urgent requests are at the top: first Emergency, then Urgent, then the rest, and within each group the newest first. Under the other chips the newest is at the top.
- Urgency filters on urgency.
- If you come from a figure on Overview → Figures, you see the requests from that period under All, without test requests. A line above the list names the period, and Show all takes you back to the whole list.
You cannot search on text here. You find a known customer under Customers → Contacts.
Keeping the status up to date
You change the status in the list or on the request itself. This is your own record: the customer gets no message about it. Only Appointment made can happen by itself.
| Status | Use |
|---|---|
| Open | You still have to follow up the request. Every new request starts here. |
| Got in touch | You have spoken to or written to the customer. |
| Appointment made | There is an appointment. If the assistant books an appointment during the conversation, the request moves to this status by itself, also with Cal.com and eTermin. |
| Closed | Nothing more needs to happen, or nothing will come of this. |
If you choose Open again on a request you had already followed up, it is open again.
Open requests are also under Waiting for you: on Overview → Today and in the Inbox, and they count in the number next to Inbox. That looks back 14 days. Set a request to Got in touch, Appointment made or Closed and it leaves those places.
Opening a request
Click a row in the list. ← Requests at the top takes you back to the list. The Request card holds Phone, Address, What it is about, Urgency, Preferred time and Summary, with Open conversation and, when they exist, Open contact and Open appointment. Below that you change the Status and write Your notes. Notes save by themselves as soon as you leave the field. They are for your team, and the assistant does not get them. On the right is the Transcript of the conversation.
Next to the phone number it says how the number was verified in the conversation, for example Verified by caller ID when the customer called from that number or Verified by SMS code, and Not verified otherwise. A number that is not verified can belong to someone else: if in doubt, call back first. See Verified or not verified. The list shows the same label under the number.
The same card is on the conversation in the Inbox, with Open request. In the Conversations list a label such as Request · Open · Urgent shows which conversation has a request. Click that label to open the request.
Requests from a test
If you test with Try it out and Perform actions for real is on, the assistant really saves a request and you also get the notification. Such a request gets the label Test and has no link to a conversation. It is in this list, but does not count on Overview and is not under Waiting for you. With Perform actions for real off, no request is created.
Requests outside the dashboard
With the API you read requests and update their status. There they are called leads. An open request has the status new or qualified there, Got in touch is contacted, Appointment made is booked and Closed is lost. If you want a request in your own system straight away, use an action after the conversation.
Requests stay when a conversation is deleted after the retention period you set, see Technical settings.