Replying to customers: the basics

Everything you need to answer a customer in one place: sending a reply, resolving or setting a conversation to Pending, your signature, copying people in, undoing a send, starting a new email, forwarding and deleting a message.

Reply to a conversation#

1. Open the conversation and click into the reply box, or press Enter
2. Write your reply. Type / to insert a canned response
3. Click Send. The arrow next to it opens Send, resolve and Send, pending. Cmd + Enter (Mac) or Ctrl + Enter (Windows) sends too

To leave a note that only your team sees, press N while the reply box is closed. Private notes are never sent to the customer.

Resolve or set to Pending#

How you send decides what happens to the conversation:

• Send: the reply goes out and the status stays as it is.
• Send, resolve: the reply goes out and the conversation is resolved.
• Send, pending: the reply goes out and the conversation is set to Pending. You pick when it should come back, with the same choices as Set pending below.

You can also change the status without replying:

• Resolve: click the green Resolve button at the top of the conversation, or press E.
• Set pending: click the small arrow next to Resolve and choose Set pending, or press H. Then pick when the conversation should come back: When customer replies, In 1 hour, In 24 hours, Tomorrow, Next week, Next month or Custom.

Pending is what other helpdesks call Snooze. Commslayer has no separate Snooze button.

Good to know:

• A customer reply reopens the conversation, whether it was Pending or Resolved, and it keeps the same assignee.
• On a Pending conversation the button reads Reopen. To resolve it, click Reopen and then Resolve, or send a reply with Send, resolve.
• To see what you're waiting on, switch the status filter above the conversation list from Open to Pending.

Understanding conversation views: All, Open, Resolved, and Pending →

Your signature#

1. Go to Settings → Profile settings and scroll to Message signature
2. Pick your store in the Shop dropdown, type your signature and click Save
3. Open any conversation and click Signature at the bottom of the reply box

Step 3 matters. A saved signature isn't added until you switch it on in the reply box. You do it once per channel type, so you can sign emails and leave chat replies unsigned.

Good to know:

• Each agent has their own signature, one per store. An admin can't set one for the whole team.
• Formatting: bold, italic, links and an inline image work. Raw HTML doesn't.
• WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook DMs get the signature as plain text.
• Private notes and replies to social comments never get a signature.

Cc and Bcc#

Email replies have Cc and Bcc buttons at the top of the reply box.

• Cc: everyone on the email can see who is included.
• Bcc: other recipients can't see these addresses.

The reply box fills in recipients the way "reply all" does. When anyone on the email replies, their answer lands in the same conversation. There is no automatic Cc or Bcc, you add them by hand on each email.

Undo send#

After you send an email reply, Commslayer waits about 3 seconds before it goes out. The reply box shows "Sending the message" with a countdown.

To cancel, click Undo or press Z. Your reply goes back into the reply box so you can edit it and send again. If you used Send, resolve or Send, pending, that step is cancelled too.

• Email replies only. Chat, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook messages send straight away.
• No recall afterwards. Once the countdown ends, the email is on its way.

Start a new email#

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

1. Click the compose icon (the pencil) at the top of the sidebar
2. In Via inbox, choose the email inbox to send from
3. Fill in Subject
4. In To:, type a name or an email address, then pick the match from the list or press Enter so it turns into a chip
5. Add Cc or Bcc if needed, write your message and click Send

The new conversation is assigned to you.

• Email only. You can't start a new chat, Instagram, Facebook or WhatsApp conversation this way.
• One address at a time. Pasting a list of addresses doesn't work.
• No send later and no bulk email. To email a handful of people at once, put them in Bcc and one of your own addresses in To:. For anything bigger, use your email marketing tool.
• No undo. A new email is sent as soon as you click Send.
• Attachments: up to 40 MB per file.

Forward an email#

1. Click the three dots under the email you received, or right-click it
2. Click Forward message
3. In To:, add the recipient so it becomes a chip, add a note if you want, and click Send

What to expect:

• Only that one message is forwarded, with its attachments. Earlier emails quoted underneath it are not included.
• The forward is a new, separate conversation. Replies to it arrive there, not in the original conversation.
• It works on emails you received. To share your own replies or a whole thread, download the conversation as a PDF.

How to download a conversation as a PDF →

This is different from forwarding your mailbox into Commslayer. For that, see Connect your email.

Delete a message#

Use this to remove a message from a conversation, for example when a customer has emailed card details.

1. Click the three dots under the message, or right-click it
2. Click Delete
3. Type DELETE to confirm and click Delete message

The text is replaced with "This message was deleted". You can bring it back with Restore for 30 days. After that it's deleted permanently. Any agent with access to the inbox can do this.

• It doesn't unsend anything. An email that was already delivered stays in the customer's mailbox.
• Social comments are different. Deleting a Facebook, Instagram or TikTok comment removes it on the platform itself, permanently.

Keyboard shortcuts for replying#

• Enter or R: start a reply
• N: open a private note
• / (typed inside the reply box): insert a canned response
• Cmd + Enter (Mac) or Ctrl + Enter (Windows): send
• Cmd + Shift + Enter (Mac) or Ctrl + Shift + Enter (Windows): send and resolve
• Z: undo send while the countdown is showing
• E: resolve the conversation. On a Pending conversation, E reopens it
• H: open the Set pending options

Single-key shortcuts such as R, N, E and H only work when your cursor is not in a text field. If you're typing, click outside the reply box first.

Keyboard Shortcuts in Commslayer →

Common problems#

"Contact can't be blank", or Send stays greyed out on a new email

The address in To: hasn't become a chip. Type it again and pick it from the list or press Enter. Check that Via inbox and Subject are filled in too.

My signature isn't added to replies

Click Signature at the bottom of the reply box. Saving it in your profile doesn't switch it on.

I pressed Cmd + Z and nothing was unsent

The shortcut only cancels a send while the countdown is on screen.

There is no Forward message option

It only appears on emails you received. It isn't offered on replies you wrote or on chat and social messages.

All recipients can see each other's addresses

They were added in To: or Cc:. Put them in Bcc: instead.