Messages & channels
Controlling the AI assistant, reading and replying to web chat and WhatsApp, callbacks, and the voice line.
The Messages section is where you manage every way a customer talks to the shop — the website chat, WhatsApp and the voice line — and control what the AI assistant is allowed to do.
Channel authority (the master switches)
Messages → Customer messages → Overview has the important switches for each channel:
- Can answer — whether the AI assistant may reply to customers at all.
- Can take orders — whether it may help place orders (only works if "Can answer" is on).
Changing a switch requires a short reason, which is logged. Turning Can answer off automatically turns Can take orders off too.
Both start off
New channels ship with Can answer and Can take orders both off. Turn them on deliberately when you are ready for the assistant to engage customers.
The web chat inbox
Messages → Storefront chat is the inbox for conversations from the website chat. Search conversations, see who is waiting for a human, and open any thread to read it and reply yourself.
Callback requests
Messages → Callback requests tracks customers who asked to be called back. Filter by status (open, assigned, completed, cancelled), and open one to set its status, assign it to a staff member, and note what it is about.
Messages → WhatsApp shows the WhatsApp channel: its connection status, the inbox, analytics, and its own settings. The assistant on WhatsApp shares the same knowledge and abilities as the web chat. Orders taken over WhatsApp appear in Orders like any other, tagged to the WhatsApp channel.
Getting WhatsApp fully live involves a verified WhatsApp Business number on the messaging provider. Until that is done, it can run in a test ("sandbox") mode that only talks to numbers that have opted in. This is a setup task for whoever installed the system.
Voice assistant
Messages → Voice assistant manages an AI phone line: its number, how it speaks, what it is allowed to do, its knowledge, recent calls and transcripts, and which slots it can book. Like the other channels, its authority is governed by the master switches.
Other message areas
- Conversations — the history of customer interactions across channels.
- Enquiries — messages sent through the website contact form.
- Do not contact — the marketing suppression list of customers who have opted out; the system will not contact them by email, SMS or WhatsApp.