Handle an inbound message

The Inbox is where every customer reply lands — texts back from a campaign, emails, and messages from the chat widget on your website — all in one thread per customer. This guide is for anyone who answers customers: an owner, an office manager, or a CSR working the queue. You’ll use it every day. A conversation shows up in the Inbox as soon as a customer replies, or as soon as someone on your team sends them a message from here.

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Step 1: Open the Inbox and find the message

1. Click Inbox in the left navigation.
2. Use the subnav to narrow what you’re looking at. Each entry shows a live count:
   • All Messages — everything you have access to
   • Assigned to me — the ones that are yours to answer
   • Email and SMS — split by channel
   • Any saved views your team has created appear underneath
3. The conversation list sits on the left, with a running total at the top like “48 total conversations · 6 unread”. Unread conversations have a blue dot and a bold name.
4. Narrow further with the filter bar across the top:
   • Location, Account Owner, and Campaign — each starts with an “All …” option
   • Status — Open, Closed, or All, each showing its count
   • Custom — build a filter on your own contact fields with Add Filter, then Apply
   • the search button, which searches by “Search by name, phone, email…”
5. Click a conversation to open the thread on the right.

Each row in the list shows the customer’s name, the account and location underneath, a two-line preview of the latest message, an Open or Closed pill, the channel icon, and how long ago it arrived (“5m”, “3hr”, “1d”). A customer sitting on your website in the chat widget right now shows a green Online pill.

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Step 2: Read the thread

The thread pane shows the full back-and-forth with that customer across every channel. Under each message you’ll see how it was sent and what happened to it — for example “SMS · Delivered Oct 1 at 3:43 PM”. A message that didn’t make it shows a red icon; hover it to see the reason. If the conversation came out of a campaign, the campaign’s name appears above the thread so you know what the customer is responding to. Widen your browser or open the details panel with the toggle in the thread header to see the customer’s Contact Info, their reviews, their tickets, and recent activity alongside the conversation.

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Step 3: Reply

The reply box sits at the bottom of the thread.

1. Pick the channel. The dropdown on the left of the reply box shows what you’re about to send: SMS, Email, or Web Chat. Liftify preselects the sensible one based on how the customer last reached you.
2. For email, check the Subject (prefilled as a reply to the existing thread) and the From name.
3. Write your message. The box takes basic formatting for email. Two shortcuts sit in the toolbar:
   • the merge tag button — Insert Merge Tag, with a search box, for dropping in values like the customer’s first name
   • Templates — pick a saved response instead of typing the same thing again
4. Watch the character counter under the box. Texts are capped at 1,600 characters and emails at 10,000. The counter turns red if you go over, and you’ll see a warning like “Message exceeds 1600 character limit”.
5. Click Send, or press Cmd+Enter (Ctrl+Enter on Windows). The button reads Sending… while it goes, and you’ll get a “Message sent successfully” confirmation.

An option in the channel dropdown that can’t be used right now tells you why in the label itself — for example SMS (No phone number on file), Email (Unsubscribed), SMS (Verification required), or Web Chat (visitor offline).

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Step 4: Assign the conversation

Assignment is how you hand a conversation to the right person and how your team avoids two people answering the same customer.

1. In the thread header, click the assignment button — it reads Unassigned, or the current owner’s name.
2. Pick a teammate from the list, or choose Unassigned to put it back in the pool. A checkmark shows the current selection.
3. The change saves immediately and the conversation moves in everyone’s list right away.

If the dropdown says No team members available, nobody else on the account currently has permission to respond to conversations. The customer details panel shows the same thing under Assigned To, or No one assigned.

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Step 5: Close it, reopen it, or come back to it later

Every conversation action lives in one menu, reachable two ways: right-click any row in the conversation list, or click the ⋮ (Actions) button in the thread header.

• Close conversation — you’re done. It leaves the open queue and its pill flips to Closed.
• Reopen conversation — shown instead when the conversation is already closed.
• Mark as unread — leaves it open and puts the blue unread dot back, so it stays on your radar for later.

A closed conversation reopens by itself the moment the customer sends something new, so closing is safe — you won’t miss a follow-up. If someone else closes or reopens a conversation while you have it open, your screen updates on its own.

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Step 6: Unsubscribe a contact who asks to stop

When a customer says “stop emailing me” or “take me off your list”, record it in Liftify. This is a compliance action, so do it rather than just remembering.

1. Open the actions menu (right-click the row, or the ⋮ button in the thread header).
2. Click Unsubscribe contact, shown in red.
3. The Unsubscribe Contact window explains the choice: “Choose which messages [contact name] should stop receiving. You can re-subscribe them later if needed.”
4. Pick the scope:
   • Unsubscribe from ALL future communication — “This will unsubscribe from all categories below.” Use this when the customer wants out entirely.
   • Or, under “or select specific categories”, tick only what they asked to stop:
     • Feedback/Informational — “Review requests and informational content”
     • Marketing — “Promotional campaigns and offers”
     • Transactional — “Updates on transactions and confirmations”
5. Click Unsubscribe. (The button stays greyed out until you’ve ticked at least one box.)

Liftify confirms with “Contact has been unsubscribed from all future messages.” — or names the specific categories — and posts a note into the thread itself recording who did it, so there’s a permanent record. Once a contact is fully unsubscribed, the reply box is replaced by a notice reading Contact Unsubscribed — “This contact has unsubscribed and can no longer be messaged.” — and an Unsubscribed badge appears in the thread header. The Unsubscribe contact option disappears from the menu.

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Changing a contact’s preferences later

To re-subscribe someone, or to adjust their categories, open the contact’s record, click its actions menu, and choose Manage Unsubscribe Preferences. The checkboxes there work the opposite way from the Inbox window: a ticked box means the contact still receives that category. Untick a category to stop it, or tick Unsubscribe from all to stop everything. Click Save Preferences when you’re done.

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Step 7: Start a conversation from scratch

You don’t have to wait for a customer to write first.

1. Click New Message at the top of the conversation list.
2. Search for the contact by name in the New Message window. If they aren’t in Liftify yet, click New Contact to add them.
3. Pick the contact, choose the location if you’re asked, and click Next. The thread opens and you can reply as usual.

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Troubleshooting

I can’t find a conversation a teammate mentioned. Two likely causes. First, check the Status filter — closed conversations are hidden unless you switch to Closed or All. Second, your role may limit you to conversations assigned to you; ask your account administrator about permission to view all conversations. The reply box is missing entirely. Your role doesn’t include permission to respond to conversations. You can read threads, but not send. “No Contact Method Available” — “Add a phone number or email address to this contact before sending a reply.” The contact record has neither. Add one on the contact, then come back. “SMS Inbox Sending Unavailable” — “In order to reply to text messages, your account needs additional verification. Contact support to get started.” US carriers require registration before a business can send texts. Use the Contact Support button in that notice; in the meantime you can still reply by email if the contact has an address. “Cannot send SMS because this contact’s phone number is invalid.” The number on the contact record isn’t a valid mobile number. Fix it on the contact and try again. “Message not sent: the merge tags used have no value for this contact, so the message would be empty.” Every merge field you used is blank for this customer, so the message would have gone out empty. Type the message out, or use a merge field the contact actually has a value for. “Message is too long (maximum 1600 characters).” Trim the text, or switch the channel to Email, which allows 10,000. “This conversation has already been closed.” / “This conversation has already been reopened.” Someone else got there first — usually a teammate working the same queue. Refresh and check the current status. “This contact is already unsubscribed.” Another user unsubscribed them between the moment you opened the menu and the moment you submitted. A message shows as failed. Hover the red icon on the message for the carrier’s reason. The most common causes are a disconnected number, a customer who has replied STOP to your texts, or an email address that bounces. New replies aren’t appearing until I refresh. Live updating of new incoming messages is a setting on your account rather than something you control on this page. The messages are safe — they’re in the conversation either way — but if you’re working the queue in real time and having to refresh, contact your Liftify representative.