How do I start a conversation with a customer myself?

Most conversations start when a customer contacts you. When you need to go first, New message does it: pick the person, pick the channel, type the message, send. The conversation then behaves like any other one in your inbox.

Send a new message

1. Click New message at the top of your conversation list. On a phone it is the icon beside the list heading.
2. Search for the contact by name, email or phone number, then click them. If they are not in your contacts yet, click Add by phone number and enter one, a name is optional.
3. Pick a channel. Peakify preselects the one that fits: the contact's own preferred channel if they have one, otherwise the first channel you have connected.
4. Type your message and press Send.
5. The dialog closes and the new conversation opens, with your message already in it.

Which channels you can pick

• SMS and WhatsApp need a phone number on the contact and the matching channel connected under Settings, then Channels, then Connections.
• Email needs an email address on the contact, the email channel turned on for your account, and one extra condition explained below.

A channel you cannot use is greyed out rather than hidden, so you can see what is missing.

Why Email is sometimes greyed out or refused

Canadian anti-spam law lets you email somebody who contacted you first, and that permission runs for six months from when they got in touch. Peakify enforces it: you can start an email thread with a contact who has written to you in the last six months, on any channel, and not with one who has not.

If the contact is outside that window you will see a line saying so. Two things you can do instead:

• Reply to their existing message. Replying to somebody who wrote to you is always allowed, on any channel, at any time.
• Reach them on a channel they have agreed to, or ask them to contact you.

An email is also refused if the contact has opted out of your emails, if their address has bounced or reported you as spam before, or if your account is over its email limit for the day or month. Each of those says which one it is.

Where the message ends up

A new SMS or WhatsApp message continues the conversation that phone number already has on that channel, and goes out from the same business number, so your customer keeps hearing from one number. If you have several numbers and the phone number has conversations on more than one, it continues the one with the most recent message. Internal notes do not count. If there is no conversation yet, it starts one from the first number you connected for that channel.

A new email lands in the contact's existing email conversation if they have one, and starts a new one if they do not.

When New message refuses to send

A refused message is not sent and nothing is added to your inbox. A line in the dialog says why, so you can fix it and press Send again.

An SMS or WhatsApp message is refused when that phone number is already on a conversation with a different contact, because the message would otherwise go to the other contact. If your account has Task Management the line reads: "This phone number is already on a conversation with a different contact. If they are the same person, open this contact, click Merge to combine the two contacts, then send again." Without Task Management it reads: "This phone number is already on a conversation with a different contact. Change the phone number on one of the two contacts, then send again." An email address that is already on a conversation with a different contact is refused the same way.

An SMS is also refused if the contact has opted out, if your registration for texting US numbers is not approved yet, if texting that country is not turned on for your account, if your credit balance is too low, if your organization has reached the spending cap an admin set on the Billing page, or if SMS is not finished setting up for your account, in which case contact support. Any message is refused if you do not have access to the inbox it would be sent from, which for SMS and WhatsApp is the inbox of the number the conversation is on.