A message from a number that is not on any open job is a new enquiry. It goes to the ServiceM8 Inbox, because that is where new work arrives from every other channel too.
What arrives
An Inbox entry with the sender’s name and number filled in, and a note on it: “New WhatsApp enquiry from …” with a link to the conversation and, if you have notifications on, a tag for whoever should be told. ServiceM8 does not alert anyone about Inbox messages on its own, which is why the tag exists.
For your first five enquiries the note also explains the two buttons below, because nobody arriving at their first WhatsApp enquiry knows that converting it is what makes the WhatsApp button appear on the job. After five, the note is just the link.
If the Chat Assistant is on, it has already replied by the time you read this, and the customer’s later messages do not each become another Inbox entry. They are kept with the conversation and carried onto the job when there is one.
The two decisions
In ServiceM8’s Inbox: Convert to Job or Attach to Existing Job. The same two are offered inside the conversation, because that is the screen you are actually reading the message on.
- Create job does the same as Convert to Job in the Inbox. A job is made with the customer’s details on it.
- Add to job asks for a job number and files the conversation against a job you already have. Use it when the customer already has work with you and just messaged from a number you did not have.
Either way, the conversation moves onto that job, the WhatsApp button appears in the job’s action menu, and every Inbox entry from that person is cleared.
Photos that arrived before the job existed
Kept with the conversation and put onto the job the next time it is opened. Converting happens in ServiceM8, so opening the conversation is our first chance to know the job exists. If a photo you expected is not on the job, open the conversation once and it will be.