1. The Channel Viewer

Updated by Griffin Steinman

“Inbox is where you and your colleagues provide service for your customer. It is the app you use, as the service provider, to collaborate with your teammates and customers. Inbox was designed to give your team service superpowers so that you can focus on providing great service!

Inbox isn't limited to managing customer chats, it can also be used by your entire organization to manage all the service tickets coming from your ticketing system.”

-Stephen Boss (Head of Customer Success, circa 2022)

1. The Channel Viewer

2. Inside the Channel

3. The Thread Itself

4. The Control Panel

Each of these sections have specific usage or information that are useful to you and your team.

This doc will focus on The Channel Viewer

The Channel Viewer

We will start with the left most section, the channel viewer.

I have split this section into 3 subsections.

Red - This section is constant across all workspaces. It includes channels tailored to the individual tech.

Blue - This section contains fully customizable channels. This is the section where most collaboration happens.

Green - This section is the same as the red section, and is constant across all workspaces.

All of the channels in this section are real time windows into open threads. Everything is kept up to date and synced almost instantly.

You might be thinking, "What is that red dot next to some of those channels?" Well those are notification indicators, which you can learn more about in these docs:
1. How to Manage Your Inbox Notifications
2. How Notifications Work for your Team

Section 1

New Thread

This section has many unique features. Let’s start from the top and move our way down. At the top, we have the “New Thread” Button. This button allows you to create a non-live thread on behalf of a contact. When creating a new thread using this method, you select the contact, the board that the thread should be on, a thread summary, and then type the initial message. For these types of thread, the “send by email” checkbox is checked by default.

This is typically a feature used by internal members when an issue is reported via an alternate method.
My Inbox Channel

This channel is tailored to each individual tech.

Q: "How does a thread enter this channel?"
A: Only threads that are ASSIGNED to you will appear in this channel. This is also referred to as being the primary resource.
@ Mentions Channel

This channel is the same as the “My Inbox” channel but has a slightly different functionality.

Q: "How does a thread enter this channel?"
A: Only threads where you are a SECONDARY RESOURCE will appear in this channel. You can become a secondary resource by being “@ mentioned” in a thread, or by being manually added
Planner

Thread Planner tab shows a customizable view of all of your scheduled threads. For more information on thread planner, please see this doc.

Configurations & Contacts

These channels show all contacts and configurations synced over to thread from your PSA.

My Drafts

This channel usually contains threads for a short amount of time. The threads that appear inside this channel are threads where you have begun typing a message but have not yet sent.

Q: "How does a thread enter this channel?"
A: Once you begin typing a reply or an internal note, that thread will appear in the channel. As long as there are any characters in the chatbox, the thread will appear here.

Section 2

This section contains custom channels created by users that are tailored to certain criteria. Each channel as specific flow criteria attached to it. Lets first go over how to create a channel.

Creating a Channel
  1. First, you click the “+” button at the end of the “Channels” title
  1. You will then be prompted to set the icon and name of the channel

  1. You will then be asked to add any additional members to the channel (the list is the same list as internal members in your workspace)

  1. Next you will create the flow that you wish to associate with this channel
NOTE: Flows and their functionality are covered the Admin Panel Section, please see these docs:
1. Flows
2. What are Channels and Flows
3. Creating Channels and Flows in Inbox
  1. Once you complete these steps, then you hit “create flow” and the channel is created!
The Channel List

Now that you have created a channel, you understand how they work and what their purpose is. For instance, in the image above we see that we have 15 channels. Each one has a unique purpose, and customers tailor them to fit their on workflow and help desk needs.

It is important to note that Channels can be created by Admins and Regular users. All users are able to create channels just for themselves and can control which members are added to which channels.

If a regular member creates a channel with only themselves in it, an admin user cannot access or make changes to this channel as it is hidden to them.

Section 3

Messenger & Timer Channels

The messenger channel is simply a hyperlink to the admin panel

The timer channel contain all threads that currently have a time pad timer running. This is specific to the user as the user must have the timer running, not anyone else.

At the bottom, by clicking on your name you are able to access

  1. Snippets
  2. Preferences
  3. Beast Mode Shortcuts
  4. Sign out.
Snippets

Let’s look at the Snippets Menu:

The snippets menu has 2 sections:

  1. “Your Snippets” - These snippets are created by you and only viewable by you
  2. “Team Snippets” - These snippets are created by anyone on the team and are able to be used by anyone on the team.

Snippets are used by help desk users to automate repetitive messages or tasks. Common snippets may include a scheduling link, a CSAT survey, or a Triage message.

Snippets are unique because they are able to use variable that are tailored to a thread. The list of variables that can be used is shown below.

Inbox Preferences

Each user can edit their inbox preferences at a user level.

  1. Auto-assign me to a new thread when I reply - When this is enabled, you will automatically be assigned as the owner of a thread after you send the first customer facing reply
  2. Start the timer when I reply to a thread - When this is enabled, your Time Pad timer will automatically start once you send a customer facing reply
  3. Open Time Pad when I start the timer - When this is enabled, the Time Pad will expand in the control panel when you start the timer
  4. Stop the timer when I close a thread - When this is enabled, the Time Pad timer will stop after you change the status of a thread to a configured "closed" status
  5. Remind me to add a time entry when I close a thread - This will engage a popup reminding you to submit a time entry if the timer is still running when you close a thread
  6. Sounds - you can learn more about these two preferences in this doc

FAQ Section

Q: "What do I do if I notice that I am missing some contacts, boards, or statuses from my PSA?"

A: If you notice that some things are not synced to thread, you can run a manual sync. To do this, navigate to the thread admin panel and go to Integrations -> PSA -> PSA Sync. From here you can run a manual sync.

It may take up to 1 hour for these syncs to complete
Q: "I just synced a new member over into inbox and they can't see any channels. What do I do?"

A: You will need to manually add any new members to channels you have created after they have synced over to thread

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