Using Two-Way SMS Conversations

The SMS Conversations workspace allows your team to receive and respond to customer messages, assign conversations, monitor response deadlines, and review a contact’s conversation history.

Accessing Conversations

Select Conversations from the main navigation.

The workspace is available when Two-Way SMS is enabled and you have the Access Conversations permission. Conversations are displayed for your currently selected group.

Finding Conversations

The conversation list displays each contact’s name, phone number or contact identifier, unread message count, latest message, last update, assignee, and status.

Use Search Conversations to search by:

• Contact name
• Phone number or contact identifier

Filtering Conversations

Use the Status filter to view:

• Active: All conversations that are not closed or marked as spam.
• Awaiting Reply: The customer sent the latest message and is waiting for your response.
• Awaiting Customer Reply: Your team sent the latest message and is waiting for the customer.
• At Risk: The conversation has reached its configured response deadline.
• Stale: The customer has not replied within the configured timeframe.
• Closed: Conversations that your team completed.
• Spam: Conversations closed as spam.
• All: Conversations in every status.

Use the Assignee filter to view:

• All conversations
• Conversations assigned to you
• Conversations assigned to another member of your group

Use Sort to order conversations by their latest update or the contact’s name.

Viewing a Conversation

Select a conversation to open its message history. Incoming and outgoing messages are displayed in chronological order, including any available media attachments.

The conversation header shows:

• Contact name
• Phone number or contact identifier
• Number of messages
• Date of the first message

Unread messages are marked as read as you view them.

Sending a Reply

1. Select a conversation.
2. Enter your response in the message field.
3. Optionally insert an emoji, reusable template, or media attachment.
4. Review your message.
5. Select Send.

After you send a response, the conversation changes to Awaiting Customer Reply.

You cannot send messages in conversations that are closed or marked as spam.

Assigning a Conversation

The Details panel shows the conversation’s current assignee.

To change the assignee:

1. Open the conversation.
2. Select the edit icon beside Assigned To.
3. Select yourself, another member of the current group, or Unassigned.

The newly assigned user may receive a notification based on their notification preferences.

Your organization may also use automatic assignment rules for new inbound conversations.

Starting a Conversation

The Start Conversation button appears when conversation initiation is supported and enabled for your account.

To begin a conversation:

1. Select Start Conversation.
2. Search for the contact using the requested phone number or contact identifier.
3. Review the contact information returned by the search.
4. Select Start Conversation.
5. Enter and send your first message.

You can only start conversations with contacts assigned to your current group. A newly initiated conversation is assigned to you.

Using Reusable Response Templates

Select the Templates tab in the conversation details panel to view approved conversation templates available to your group.

Select a template to place its text in the message field. Supported contact merge fields, such as first and last name, are automatically populated using the contact’s information.

A template may also include an MMS image. Always review the populated message before sending it.

Sending an MMS Message

If MMS is enabled for your account:

1. Open an active conversation.
2. Enter your message.
3. Select the attachment icon.
4. Choose an image from the available gallery.
5. Review the message and attachment.
6. Select Send.

The selected image appears beside the message composer. Select the image preview to remove it before sending.

MMS availability depends on your organization’s messaging provider and account configuration.

Viewing Conversation Details

Select Details to view:

• Conversation status
• Current assignee
• Conversation ID
• Creation date
• Last updated date
• Person who last updated the conversation
• Close reason, when applicable
• Contact information

On smaller screens, select Details to open this information in a separate panel.

Editing Contact Information

When supported by your messaging provider, contact attributes can be edited from the Details panel.

To update an attribute:

1. Locate the attribute under Contact Information.
2. Select its edit icon.
3. Enter the new value.
4. Select Save.

The change is sent to the connected messaging platform. Updating configured name attributes may also update the contact name displayed in SmarterSends.

If editing is unavailable, contact information remains read-only.

Viewing Previous Conversations

To find other conversations with the same contact:

1. Open the conversation.
2. Select Details.
3. Select View All beside Past Conversations.

The conversation list is filtered using the contact’s identifier and includes previous conversations regardless of status.

Closing a Conversation

To close a conversation:

1. Open the conversation.
2. Select End Conversation.
3. Choose a closing reason:
   • Sale Completed
   • Issue Resolved
   • Not Interested
   • Spam
   • Unresponsive
   • Other
4. If you choose Other, enter a description.
5. Select Close Conversation.

Selecting Spam marks the conversation as spam. All other reasons mark it as closed.

Closed and spam conversations remain available in the conversation history, but additional messages cannot be sent from them.

Understanding Conversation Statuses

Conversation statuses are generally updated automatically:

• Awaiting Reply: The customer sent the latest message.
• Awaiting Customer Reply: Your team sent the latest message.
• At Risk: The configured response deadline has been reached.
• Stale: The team is waiting for the customer, and the configured stale period has passed.
• Closed: The conversation was completed by a user.
• Spam: The conversation was closed using the Spam reason.

SLA Reminders and At-Risk Conversations

Your organization can configure a response service-level agreement, or SLA, for conversations awaiting a team response.

Before the response deadline, the assigned user may receive a reminder. If the deadline is reached without a response:

• The conversation changes to At Risk.
• The assigned user receives an escalation notification.
• Other designated escalation recipients may also be notified.

Depending on your organization’s settings, response deadlines may count either calendar days or business days.

Sending a reply changes the conversation to Awaiting Customer Reply and clears the immediate need for a team response.

AI-Generated Conversation Summaries

The Summary tab appears when OpenAI functionality is configured for your organization.

To use it:

1. Open a conversation.
2. Select Summary.
3. Select Generate if a summary is not created automatically.
4. Review the conversation summary and suggested responses.

SmarterSends can provide up to three suggested responses. Select a suggestion to place it in the message field, then review and edit it before sending.

Select Regenerate to create a new summary and new response suggestions. Summaries are refreshed when the conversation receives additional messages.

AI-generated content may be incomplete or inaccurate. Always review summaries and suggested responses before relying on or sending them.