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Facebook | Viber | WhatsApp | Instagram DM

Customers can message your company on Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber and Instagram Direct Messages, and you answer them all in the same way in Daktela β€” one conversation window, whatever the app. Messages reach you through a queue for each channel. To receive or send them, you need to be Ready and logged in to the right queue.

Answer an Incoming Message

When a conversation is offered to you, a notification appears in a black rectangle. You can drag it around your screen, or minimise it into your Waiting activities with the arrow in its bottom left corner. The notification displays:

  • the customer's details. Click their name or company to open their CRM details.
  • the name of the queue and how long the customer has been waiting in it.
  • how long ago you received the notification.

Click Accept or Reject. You may see a white button next to Reject: it opens a web page your administrator has set up.

Warning

You may have only a limited time to answer the message. If you reject it or don't answer in time, you may be put on the Inactive pause automatically β€” see Pauses.

Notice the Waiting Activity Badge?

You may be able to answer a conversation even if you don't get a notification β€” for example because you are logged out of its queue, or because it is being offered to a colleague. Click the Waiting activities button in the sidebar. Click Accept to answer the conversation.

Message Details

When you accept a conversation, it opens in a new activity tab, labelled with the customer's name. Click the message tab to see the message details. Click it again to return to the previous screen (for example the Dashboard). When a new message arrives, the tab flashes red and white. You may also hear a notification sound.

The message detail screen is made up of the fixed Message widget β€” the conversation itself β€” and a group of tabs beside it: Contact & Account, Assign ticket, Realtime users, Knowledge base and any others your administrator has set up for the queue. The Message widget is always there; which tabs you get, in which order and which one opens first is set per queue.

Message Widget

The Message widget header displays the queue number, the queue name and the customer's name. The top part of the widget contains the chat and event history; the chat controls are below it. The widget stays visible while you work in any of the tabs beside it.

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

  1. Type your message in the field. To send it, click Send (6) or press Enter. Press Shift+Enter to start a new line. An Instagram DM can contain at most 1,000 characters.
  2. Open a dropdown menu and select a template to insert.
  3. Open the emoji picker and click an emoji to insert it.
  4. Open the Daktela Copilot writing tools.
  5. Select files to send to the customer, or drag and drop files into the grey area around the Select files button.
  6. Send the message.
  7. Load older messages from earlier chats with this contact. Only appears if there is any history.
  8. Select a status. If the queue offers statuses, you must select one before you can close the conversation.
  9. Mark the conversation as important.
  10. Invite another agent to the conversation.
  11. Transfer the conversation to another agent.
  12. Postpone the conversation. You can find it later in your Pending activities in the sidebar.
  13. Close the message tab. You are disconnected from the customer.

Tip

When you close the conversation, the customer's next message starts a new one. It goes through routing again, including any automatic messages and decision trees.

Info

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.

New Messages While You Are Somewhere Else

When a message arrives on a conversation you are not currently looking at, it is listed in the floating Chat Notifications panel, together with the unread count, how long the customer has been waiting, a preview of their last message and a Go to chat button that takes you straight back into the conversation. The panel covers Facebook Messenger, Instagram DM, WhatsApp and Viber alike. Your administrator can turn it off for individual queues.

Send a New Message

To start a conversation yourself, click the Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber or Instagram DM option in the sidebar, above the main menu.

Warning

Don't send new outbound WhatsApp messages to customers who haven't given you opt-in consent to receive them. Other restrictions apply to Facebook and WhatsApp β€” they appear directly in the Send message window if they apply to your situation.

The Send message window opens.

From the CRM Module

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

  1. Find the contact you want to message and open its details. See CRM for detailed instructions.
  2. Click the Facebook, WhatsApp, Viber or Instagram DM icon next to the contact's name in External contacts.
  3. The Send message window opens.

From a Ticket

  1. Open the Tickets module in the main menu.
  2. Open the ticket you want to send a message from. See Tickets for detailed instructions.
  3. Click the Facebook, WhatsApp, Viber or Instagram DM icon in the top right corner of the ticket and choose the customer you want to message. The Send message window opens.

If one of the past activities in the ticket is a Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber or Instagram DM conversation, you can also click its button to send a new message to the same customer.

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

  1. Enter a contact's name.
  2. Select the queue to send the message 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 a message. When you start a chat (6), you don't need to enter a message yet β€” you can type it once the chat is open.
  6. Start a chat.
  7. Send the message and close the Send message window.

Transfer a Chat

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

User availability and chat routing

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

Invite Another Agent to a Chat

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

  1. In the Message widget, click Invite. The Invite to activity window opens.
  2. Select who to invite to the chat β€” a specific person or a queue.
  3. Click Invite.
  4. You and the agent you invited now both chat with the customer.
  5. When one of you closes the chat, the customer sees a notification but carries on chatting with the other agent.

For administrators

Each channel is connected and routed in its own setup guide: Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber and Instagram DM. The tabs beside the conversation come from the queue's widget scheme.

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