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Messaging customers from Lupa Tech

Read and reply to customer texts and email from the Comms tab in Lupa Tech, and what to check before you text a client.

Comms is your company's shared customer inbox: messages you send and receive are seen by the office and the rest of the team too.

Find a customer's conversation

Comms lists the same clients as Clients: those your work touches. See What a technician can see. Clients who share an account are grouped under the account's name.

A red number beside a client counts their unread messages. The badge on Comms in the rail counts the clients with unread messages. New messages don't pop up — watch the badge.

To open a conversation

  1. Choose Comms in the rail.
  2. Choose the client.

The client's name, phone and email show at the top, above three tabs:

  • Activity — every text and email with this client, latest first, each marked From client or From you. Conversations open here.
  • Texts — the client's text thread. The tab shows a count when there is one.
  • Email — the client's email threads, with a count.

Opening a thread marks it read for you. To go back to the client list, choose Comms in the path above the client's name.

From a client's record. On Clients, open the client and choose Message. You land in their text thread if your company's texting is working and they have a phone number, otherwise in their email thread if they have an email address. If they have no thread of that kind yet, you land on their Activity tab.

Reply to a text

  1. Open the client and choose Texts.
  2. Type into Type a message... at the bottom.
  3. Choose Send.

Your text appears in the thread, newest at the bottom, and the client's replies land in the same thread.

If Texts reads No SMS conversation yet. The client has no text thread, and Lupa Tech can't start one. A text thread opens the first time the client texts your company's number, or the first time a visit texts them — for example your On My Way message. To reach them before then, email them.

Marks on a text. A text that didn't arrive carries a badge:

  • failed or undelivered — hover over the badge for the carrier's reason.
  • opted out — the client has opted out of texts with their carrier. Don't resend.
  • partial — a long text from the client arrived incomplete. Choose retry to fetch the rest.

Your company records whether each client has agreed to receive texts.

  • Your On My Way message is sent as a text only to a client who has agreed to texts. Otherwise it goes by email — see Working a visit.
  • The Notify client message on Complete is sent only to a client who has agreed to texts. Otherwise it isn't sent.
  • A text you type in a thread — text only clients who have agreed to receive texts. Before texting a client who hasn't texted you first, check with the office that they've agreed, or email them instead.

How consent is asked for and recorded is covered in Getting customer consent.

Read and reply to email

  1. Open the client and choose Email. Their threads are listed under Email threads.
  2. Choose a thread. Messages read oldest at the top, each marked received or sent. Choose … show full message to see quoted earlier mail.
  3. To reply, type into Type a message... and choose Send.

Start a new email

  1. Open the client and choose Email.
  2. Choose Compose new thread. Compose new email thread opens, addressed to the client's email.
  3. Enter a Subject and the message.
  4. Choose Send.

Lupa confirms with Message sent. With no subject, the email goes out under the subject "Lupa message for" and the client's name, and Lupa tells you so. An empty message isn't sent: Cannot send an empty message.

Drafts. What you type saves as a draft as you go (Draft saved.), and drafts are kept for 7 days. When you come back to the client's Email tab, choose Continue draft to pick it up, or Discard to throw it away. If a send fails, Lupa says Send failed. Draft preserved — try again.

When sending is switched off

If your company's texting or email can't send right now, the thread says so: the composer reads Sending unavailable, a bar reads Sending disabled — and the reason, and a warning badge in the thread header names the problem — for example SMS · outbound pending TFV. Incoming messages still arrive.

To see the details, choose the warning badge. Comms status opens: a read-only summary of inbound and outbound texting and email, your company's registered number, and the address customers can forward email to. Setting any of this up is an admin job.

How does this work? at the bottom of Comms also shows the email forwarding address and whether outbound texting is working.