How do I message a client, and where do their replies show up?

Messages in the sidebar is one thread per client, shared by everyone at the front desk. It is for the back-and-forth that reminders and confirmations do not cover: "Bella's running late", "can you add a nail trim", "here's a photo of the mat we found".

Steps

1. Click New Message. Pick someone from Recent Customers or search by name, phone or email.
2. Type your message and send it.
3. The message is saved to the client's thread, and Woof emails them that they have a new message from you. They read and reply from Account › Messages in their portal.
4. When they reply, the conversation moves to the top of your list with an unread mark, the sidebar badge counts it, and the store gets an email with their message (reply to that email and it reaches them too).

You can also open a client's thread from the Chat button on their family profile, and from the Quick Messages on an appointment.

Working the inbox

The pills at the top are All, Unread (conversations with a message you have not read) and Needs Response (the last message was theirs). Search finds a conversation by the client's name, phone or email. Load older conversations pages back through history.

Opening a conversation marks it read for everyone on your team, not just you.

What clients can and cannot do

Clients message you from Account › Messages in their portal. The Client Portal Chat switch at the top of your inbox controls whether they can: switched off, clients still see the thread and anything you have sent, but the reply box is replaced by a note pointing them to your phone number, and a message sent from a stale page is refused. It saves as soon as you flip it. Clients cannot message each other, and they never see internal notes on their profile. Messages are in-app plus an email notification; they are not text messages, and a client without portal access reads them from the email link.

A message about a booking

For anything the client should do (confirm, reschedule, pay), link them: the portal handles bookings and invoices, so a message saying "your invoice is ready, pay it from your portal" gets them there in one tap.