Let's review the Conversations section of your Gym Lead Machine app!
Enter Conversations by selecting the Conversations tab in the left menu of your Gym Lead Machine account.
What Are the Four Ways to View Your Messages?
Along the top of the left column in Conversations, you have four tabs for viewing your messages:
Unread: These are new messages that need to be addressed by your team. They will remain in Unread until you reply to the message or manually select Mark as Read.
Starred: These are conversations you have marked by selecting Mark as Starred. Starring a conversation makes it easier to find when you return to the system.
Recents: These are recently Unread messages that have been replied to or marked as read.
All: This is a complete history of sent and received messages for all contacts.
In any of these tabs, you may use the Search field to look for the name or email address of the contact whose conversation you are looking for.
How Do I Filter Conversations?
While the tabs in Conversations provide a sort of filter, you can further filter these entries by clicking the funnel icon for more filters. This icon is to the immediate right of the Search field.
Filter selections include:
Assigned (Contact Owner): Use this filter to see conversations only assigned to yourself, a particular team member, or no one.
Last Message Direction: Here you may select if you want to view conversations where the last message in the thread was inbound or outbound. A helpful use case for this filter is after you send a mass email, like a newsletter. Often, these mass sends can generate a lot of traffic in your inbox and make it a challenge to see new messages from contacts. By adjusting the filter to see last message: inbound, contacts whose last message was an outbound email (the newsletter) will be filtered out.
Last Outbound Message Type: Along with the filter above, this filter may also assist you in organizing your communications. Use this filter to select the type of outbound message that the system can filter: Manual or Automatic. So, if a high number of contacts recently reached an outbound email in your long-term nurture sequence, you can filter them out by selecting Manual.
Note: Mass emails from the Email Builder or Contacts are considered Manual sends by the system, so those will not be filtered out. Automatic sends are those coming from your workflow campaigns in the Automation tab of Gym Lead Machine.
Last Message Channel: If you are looking for conversations based on a specific message type, this filter can assist you in selecting conversations where the last message was an SMS, email, Facebook message, etc.
Tip: Filters in Conversations can be used in combination with one another as well! So if you only want to see conversations that are assigned to you where the last message was inbound, you can select both of these filters.
Note: Remember to click Apply each time you make a change to the filter selections.
How Do I Read the Conversation Log?
The center column of the Conversations screen is a complete log of all communications that have happened with that contact within the Gym Lead Machine platform.
Communications on the left side of the column were sent by the contact. The right side is reserved for users in the Gym Lead Machine account.
The icon to the right or left of the communication tells you the type. The most common are an envelope for email and a chat bubble for SMS.
On the user side, you can also see which user in your account initiated communications with the contact. Their initials or photo (if they've added one to their Profile) will display in the circle icon to the right of the message.
For SMS messages, the user photo or initials tell you which user was logged in when the message was sent.
For email messages, the sender is typically the Assigned User of the contact. This can be a little tricky! Often, when you send bulk or automated messages, you use the From name and From email fields to mask the user info in the recipient's inbox. That mask does not display internally in Gym Lead Machine. So, even though we send the Kilo Round-Up to you from Kilo at hello@usekilo.com, Adele appears as the sender here because she is the assigned user for this contact.
How Do I Reply to an Email from a Contact?
To reply to a specific email sent by a contact:
Click the reply arrow to the far right of the message.
Enter your reply message and send it.
Note: For SMS messages, you are going to use Send SMS at the bottom of the screen, rather than reply to their message directly.
How Do I Send an SMS to a Contact?
To reply to or send an SMS to a contact:
At the bottom of the center column, click the message-type icon and choose SMS.
When the editor appears at the bottom of the screen, enter your message.
You can insert any SMS templates you've created in your account by selecting the memo icon in the lower left of the editor.
Opt to Send now or use the clock icon to the right to schedule the message for a later date and time.
How Do I Send an Email to a Contact?
To send an email to a contact:
At the bottom of the center column, click the message-type icon and choose Email.
When the editor appears at the bottom of the screen, edit the sender name and email as needed. It will default to the user currently logged in to GLM, but can be adjusted.
You may also select an alternate email address for the recipient if they have more than one email address on their contact card.
Add the subject line and email body.
Use the paperclip icon in the bottom left to insert any necessary attachments.
Opt to send now or use the clock icon to schedule the message for a later date and time.
What Can I Do in the Right Column of a Conversation?
In the right column of the Conversation screen, you can access almost all pertinent information about the Contact, including:
Top section: Their name, assigned user, followers, and tags
In All Fields: All contact information and custom field entries.
In DND: The Do Not Disturb (DND) status of all send types
In Actions: Any Opportunities, Workflows (Active & Past), and Courses connected with this contact.
The icons along the right side of the screen allow you to execute a variety of actions for the contact, including seeing their activity history and past and upcoming appointments. Hover over any icon to understand its function.
If you have questions about the Conversations inbox in Gym Lead Machine, our Support team is happy to help. Reach us at hello@usekilo.com.