Customer messages

Workshop reaches customers three ways:

#Message a customer from their job

On the board, a job's … → Messages.

• The conversation with that customer shows, newest at the bottom. Their replies appear on their own (it checks every 15 seconds while open).
• Write and press Send. With both Podium and WhatsApp connected, pick Text or WhatsApp first.
• Payment link (Podium): the amount starts at the job's total; change it if needed. Its paid state shows under the conversation. See Podium payment links.
• Ask for a review (Podium): sends Podium's review invite.

The customer is found by the job's mobile number. No number on the job? Add one to the job first.

WhatsApp only allows a free-form message within 24 hours of the customer's last WhatsApp. Outside that, send a text, or let a status update template go (those are approved by WhatsApp in advance).

Each message shows who sent it and when. One that failed says not sent and why.

#Messages when a job moves

Settings → Integrations → Messages when a job moves. Texts or WhatsApps that go when a job is dropped off or reaches a status. Each goes once per job.

1. Press New message, or one of the suggestions: Thanks for dropping off, Waiting for parts, Ready to collect.
2. Sent when: dropped off, or a status (your own statuses too, like "Waiting for parts").
3. Jobs: every job, or only some job groups. For example, Workshop jobs but not Rental. Job groups are your Shopify tags, the same as the board's filter.
4. Goes by: text (Podium) or WhatsApp.
5. Sends: just the message, the message and a Podium payment link for the job's total, or the message and a review invite.
6. Message: write it with placeholders, filled in per job:

A WhatsApp template is sent to WhatsApp for approval when you save it. Its state shows under it (Waiting for WhatsApp to approve it, Approved by WhatsApp, Rejected by WhatsApp); Check asks again. Only approved templates send.

#Before anything goes out

Changing a job's status (dragging it on the board, Move to, or finishing it on the calendar) never messages a customer silently. If the change would send anything, you see Let the customer know? with exactly what would go:

• The "ready to collect" email
• Shopify's invoice email, with the link to pay
• Each text or WhatsApp template due for that status

Then:

• Send: the job moves and the messages go.
• Don't send: the job moves, nothing goes. Use it when you've already spoken to the customer.
• Cancel: nothing changes; the job stays where it was.

With nothing to send, the job just moves, no question asked. Drop-off messages go at drop-off without asking: you're standing with the customer.

#Emails from Workshop

Sent from Workshop under your business name, not from your inbox. Replies to booking emails go to the address in Settings → Online booking → Send new bookings to. The drop-off and ready emails can't be replied to: they say so, and give your phone number.

Rental and internal jobs never email customers.

#Following a job

The link in the emails (and {link} in texts) opens a page for that one job: its number, what was left and where it's at (Dropped off, In the workshop, Ready to collect, Collected). Besides your name and how to reach you, it shows nothing else: no prices, no other jobs or customers. The link is long and random, so it can't be guessed.