Text your customers

Messaging is where you text back and forth with customers: send a quick update, answer a question, or share a photo of their freshly groomed pet. Customer replies come in here too.

1. Go to Messaging.
2. In the search box, type the customer’s name, their pet’s name, or their phone number.
3. Pick the customer. If you haven’t texted them before, they’re listed under Start new conversation.
4. Type your message and press Enter to send. Press Shift+Enter for a new line.

You can also start a conversation from other screens:

• From an appointment: click the appointment, then click Message [owner’s name].
• From a customer’s page: click Text to text the primary contact, or click Message next to any contact to text that person.

1. Go to Messaging. Conversations with replies you haven’t read are labelled Unread.
2. Click the conversation.
3. Type your reply and press Enter.

Your reply goes to the contact shown at the top of the conversation, usually whoever texted last. That may be a second contact on the account, like a partner.

Click the paperclip next to the message box, or drag files onto it. You can send up to 5 files at a time, up to 20 MB each: JPEG, PNG, GIF, or WebP photos, or PDFs. Photos arrive as picture messages. PDFs arrive as a link.

These replies show in the conversation like any other text, and Packyard answers them automatically.

• STOP opts that person out of all texts from you, including reminders and your own messages. If a second contact replies STOP, only that contact is opted out.
• START opts them back in. A plain “Yes” also opts them back in, but only if they had opted out. Otherwise “Yes” is a normal reply.
• HELP sends them your business phone number and how to opt out.

When the contact in a conversation has opted out, the conversation shows · No texts in the list and Opted out of texts at the top. You can’t text them until they reply START.

• You’ll know when a reply comes in. The Messaging menu shows how many conversations have unread replies. On other screens, a New text message pop-up appears. Click Open to go to Messaging.
• Keep track of important conversations by flagging them, and use the Flagged and Unread buttons above the list to find them. See Organize your messages.
• Opening a conversation marks it read after 2 seconds. To come back to it later, mark it unread. See Mark a conversation read or unread.
• Reminder texts show in the conversation once they’re sent. To see the ones still waiting to go out, open the conversation and click Scheduled.
• Texts from numbers that aren’t your customers are emailed to your business email address. To text them back in Packyard, add them as a customer with that phone number.
• If a message won’t send, Packyard shows the reason, like “Message not sent: This contact has opted out of texts”. If no messages send at all, check for a “Texting isn’t set up for your business yet” notice at the top of Messaging, and email support@packyard.app.
• To be sure who you’re texting on an account with more than one contact, start from the customer’s page and click Message next to that contact.
• Everyone on your team can see and reply to every conversation.

• Organize your messages
• Mark a conversation read or unread
• Add your own appointment reminder
• Edit your automatic messages
• Book an appointment