Reply to a client

The box at the bottom of every thread does two different jobs, and which one it's doing is never ambiguous.

Reply, or note

Two tabs: Reply goes to the client. Note goes to your team.

Switch to Note and the whole composer turns amber — the same amber the notes wear in the thread — and the button changes to Add note. You cannot mistake one for the other from across the room, which is the point: the expensive mistake here is typing a note about a client and sending it to them.

Choosing how it goes out

In the Reply tab, the top-right of the composer reads via followed by the channels that can actually reach this person — Text, Email, and Web chat on a website conversation. A channel with nothing to send to is greyed out and tells you why when you hover it.

Under the box, one quiet line states exactly what pressing Send will do:

Sends as a text to (555) 010-0002 · ⌘↵

Real number, real address, every time. It's the difference between "I think that went to her mobile" and knowing.

Starting a conversation

You don't have to wait to be messaged. Open a client's profile and press Message — pick text or email, type it, send. It goes out immediately and takes you to the Inbox, where the conversation now lives. Their reply lands in the same thread as everything else.

The button is greyed out for a client with no phone and no email, because there's nowhere for a message to go.

When you're done with it

Close takes the thread out of Open. It isn't deleted and nothing is lost — if the client writes again it comes straight back. Closing is how the list stays a list of things that need you, rather than an archive you scroll past every morning.