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SMS

With SMS, you text customers' mobile phones from Daktela β€” either a single message (for example a confirmation or reminder) or a two-way SMS chat where you and the customer write back and forth. Incoming customer texts reach you through an SMS queue, just like web chats. To send or receive SMS, you need to be Ready and logged in to an SMS queue.

Send a New SMS

Click the New SMS option in the sidebar, above the main menu. The Send SMS message window opens.

Send SMS message window with numbered fields for recipient, queue, status, template, message and the start chat and send buttons

  1. Enter a phone number or a contact's name.
  2. Select the queue to send the SMS from (only visible if you have more than one queue).
  3. Select a status. If you see this field, you must select a status before you can send a single message (not when you start a chat).
  4. Select a template to insert into the message.
  5. Type your SMS message.
  6. Start an SMS chat.
  7. Send the message and close the Send SMS message window.

From the CRM Module

Open the CRM module in the main menu and go to Contacts or Accounts.

  1. Find the contact or account you want to text and open its details. See CRM for detailed instructions.
  2. Click the SMS icon next to the contact's or account's phone number.
  3. The Send SMS message window opens.

From a Ticket

Open the Tickets module in the main menu.

  1. Open the ticket you want to send an SMS from. See Tickets for detailed instructions.
  2. Click the yellow SMS button at the top of the ticket and choose the customer's number, or choose Other number.
  3. The Send SMS message window opens.

If one of the past activities in the ticket contains a phone number, you can also send an SMS from it: click its SMS button and the Send SMS message window opens.

SMS Chat

Start a new SMS chat in the Send SMS message window. The chat opens in a new activity tab. Click the SMS tab to see the SMS chat details. Click it again to return to the previous screen (for example the Dashboard).

Info

The SMS chat detail screen may contain different widgets, set up in a different order for each queue. The SMS widget is the only mandatory one.

SMS Widget

The SMS widget header displays the queue number, the queue name and the customer's name or number. The top part of the widget contains the chat history; the chat controls are below it.

SMS widget with numbered controls for the message field, templates, emoji, Copilot, send, history, status, important flag, invite, transfer, postpone and close

  1. Type your message in the field. To send it, click Send (5) or press Enter. Press Shift+Enter to start a new line.
  2. Open a dropdown menu and select a template to insert.
  3. Open the emoji picker and click an emoji to insert it.
  4. Daktela Copilot writing tools.
  5. Send the SMS chat message.
  6. Load older messages from earlier SMS chats with this contact. Only appears if there is any history.

!!! warning Only chats with the same number load. A number with a country prefix counts as different from the same number without one. 00 and + count as the same. 7. Select a status. If the queue offers statuses, you must select one before you can close the SMS chat. 8. Mark the SMS chat as important. 9. Invite another agent to the SMS chat. 10. Transfer the SMS chat to another agent. 11. Postpone the SMS chat. You can find it later in your Pending activities in the sidebar. 12. Close the SMS chat tab. You must select a status first, if the queue offers any.

Tip

If you are not looking at the activity, a toast notification can remind you that it is still open. Depending on your queue, the reminder appears either some time after the customer's first message, or for every new message in the chat.

Transfer an SMS Chat

Transferring hands the chat over to a colleague or a queue; you leave the conversation. Chats have one transfer type β€” there is no blind or assisted choice as there is for calls.

  1. In the SMS widget, click Transfer. The Transfer activity window opens.
  2. Select where to transfer the SMS chat β€” a specific person or a queue.
  3. Click Transfer.
  4. The SMS chat leaves your screen and the customer is transferred.

User availability and SMS chat routing

  • If you transfer an SMS chat to a user who is unavailable, the SMS chat goes back to the queue and is offered to other available agents.
  • If an SMS chat is routed directly to a user who is currently unavailable, the SMS chat activity ends (is terminated).

Invite Another Agent to an SMS Chat

Inviting adds a colleague to the chat while you stay in it.

  1. In the SMS widget, click Invite. The Invite to activity window opens.
  2. Select who to invite to the SMS chat β€” a specific person or a queue.
  3. Click Invite.
  4. You and the agent you invited now both chat with the customer.

The customer sees a notification that another agent has joined the chat but can't tell which agent sent which message. When one of you closes the chat, the customer sees a notification but carries on chatting with the other agent.

For administrators

SMS numbers, queues and what happens to texts outside working hours are set up in Set Up SMS. The widgets beside the chat come from the queue's widget scheme.

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