You can now find conversations and reply to them. This lesson is about the tools that turn ten minutes of typing into a thirty-second action — the features that good agents use _every single conversation_ without thinking about it. We'll focus on the in-conversation toolkit: private notes, canned responses, labels, macros, conversation actions, and participants. Lesson 3(b) will cover the data-and-context side: contacts, custom attributes, bulk actions, and advanced filtering. ## What you'll learn - How to talk to your team _inside_ a conversation without the customer seeing it - How to reply in two keystrokes using canned responses - How to keep your queue organized with labels (and what to actually label) - How to chain three or four routine steps into a single click using macros - How to assign, route, snooze, and prioritize from the conversation actions panel - How to pull teammates into a conversation as participants without handing it off **You'll need:** A test conversation in your inbox (carry over the one from Lesson 2) and admin access to set up at least one canned response and one macro. --- ## 1. Private Notes — your team's sidebar A **private note** is a message inside a conversation that _only your team_ can see. The customer never sees it, never gets notified, and it never leaves Voxys Connect. ![](https://app.chatwoot.com/rails/active_storage/blobs/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBCQTVNSVFVPSIsImV4cCI6bnVsbCwicHVyIjoiYmxvYl9pZCJ9fQ==--8c1b33a4c7fe687f50238cf7a78dc154d4399b64/private-notes.gif) Use it for: - "Looping you in — this looks like a billing edge case." - "FYI, I already refunded their last order. Don't double up." - "Customer is a VIP, please prioritize." ### How to send one 1. Open a conversation. 2. Switch the reply tab from **Reply** to **Private Note** (top of the message composer). 3. Type your note. The composer turns yellow so you don't mix them up with public replies. 4. Hit **Send**. ### @mentions inside notes Type `@` and start typing a teammate/team's name. Selecting them does two things: - They get a **notification** (in-app, push, and optionally email). - The conversation shows up in their **Mentions** view. _**Rule of thumb:** if you'd otherwise Slack a teammate about the conversation, write a private note instead. The context stays attached to the conversation._ --- ## 2. Canned Responses — your reply shortcuts A **canned response** is a saved reply template you trigger with a short code. Instead of retyping "Thanks for reaching out! Could you share your account email so I can look this up?" thirty times a day, you save it once as `/email-ask` and trigger it with two characters. ![](https://app.chatwoot.com/rails/active_storage/blobs/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBCR1pMSVFVPSIsImV4cCI6bnVsbCwicHVyIjoiYmxvYl9pZCJ9fQ==--d5b3bcb339902ed88ff215cea5d197198d34d4e4/canned-responses.gif) ### Setting one up 1. Go to **Settings → Canned Responses → Add Canned Response**. 2. Fill in: - **Short Code** — what you'll type to trigger it (e.g. `email-ask`) - **Content** — the template body. Markdown works. 3. Save. ### Using one in a conversation In the reply box, type `/` followed by the short code (`/email-ask`). A picker pops up — hit Enter and the full template fills in. Edit if needed, then send. ### What to make canned responses for (start with these five) - A friendly greeting / opener - Asking for an account email or order number - "We're looking into this and will get back to you within X hours" - A closing line you use to wrap conversations - A link to your most-shared docs article (refund policy, pricing, install guide — whatever your top hit is) > > **Tip:** Canned responses are _templates_, not robots. Personalize the first sentence — using the customer's name and one detail from their message — before you send. > > --- ## 3. Labels — the digital sticky notes A **label** is a tag you attach to a conversation. Labels are account-wide and reusable. Used well, they're how you find patterns ("we got 12 `billing-bug` reports this week") and how you build saved folders ("show me all open `vip` conversations"). ### Adding a label to a conversation - From the **conversation actions panel** on the right: click **Add Label** and pick or create one. - Or use the keyboard: hit `Cmd+K` to find the shortcut for label-add. ### How to think about labels Labels work best when you keep the list short, opinionated, and consistent. Three categories cover most teams: | Category | Example labels | Why | | --- | --- | --- | | Topic | billing, bug-report, feature-request, onboarding | What the conversation is about | | Customer signal | vip, at-risk, enterprise | Who you're talking to | | Workflow | needs-engineering, needs-followup, escalated | What needs to happen next | _**Anti-pattern:** ten labels that mean almost the same thing (`bug`, `bugs`, `bug-report`, `defect`, `issue`). Pick one and delete the rest. Run a label cleanup once a quarter._ --- ## 4. Macros — chained actions in one click A **macro** is a saved sequence of actions. Where a canned response is just text, a macro can do _several things at once_: send a reply, add a label, assign a team, snooze the conversation — all in a single click. ![](https://app.chatwoot.com/rails/active_storage/blobs/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBCQ0ZPSVFVPSIsImV4cCI6bnVsbCwicHVyIjoiYmxvYl9pZCJ9fQ==--99b80ed019cfa19f318d450a5889ca1c60c29f5b/macros.jpg) ### A real example: the "refund issued" macro When you process a refund, you probably do all of these: 1. Send a templated message confirming the refund 2. Add a `refund-issued` label 3. Assign to the **Finance** team for record-keeping 4. Resolve the conversation A macro bundles those four steps into a single button. ### Setting one up 1. Go to **Settings → Macros → Add a new Macro**. 2. Name it (e.g. _Refund issued_). 3. Add **actions** in order — the action picker has options like _Send Message_, _Assign Team_, _Add Label_, _Resolve Conversation_, _Send Email Transcript_. 4. Set **visibility**: _Private_ (just you) or _Public_ (whole team). Save. ### Running a macro Open any conversation, scroll the right sidebar to **Macros**, pick yours, and click **Run**. Done. _**When to write a macro:** any time you find yourself doing the same three or four actions back-to-back more than a few times a week. Five minutes setting up the macro saves you hours over a quarter._ --- ## 5. Conversation Actions — the right sidebar in detail The **conversation actions** panel (right side, top section) is where you change the state of a conversation. Quick tour: | Action | Use it for | | --- | --- | | Assignee | Hand the conversation to a specific agent | | Team | Route to a group (Engineering, Billing, CS) so any team member can pick it up | | Conversation Status | Open / Pending / Resolved / Snoozed (covered in Lesson 2) | | Priority | Low / Medium / High / Urgent — shows up in queue sorting and SLA calculations | | Add Label | Apply one or more labels | ![](https://app.chatwoot.com/rails/active_storage/blobs/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBCSDlPSVFVPSIsImV4cCI6bnVsbCwicHVyIjoiYmxvYl9pZCJ9fQ==--db48e5b9b916261d6df3f31cffd5bc244a8b6a62/conversation-actions.jpg) _**Status vs assignee:** changing **assignee** moves who's responsible; changing **status** moves where it sits in the workflow. They're independent — you can have a Resolved conversation with an assignee, or an Open conversation that's unassigned._ --- ## 6. Conversation Participants — collaborate without handing off Sometimes you need a teammate's eyes on a conversation, but you don't want to _give it to them_. That's what **participants** are for. - **Assignee** = the one person responsible for replying. - **Participant** = anyone else who's watching and can chime in. - ![](https://app.chatwoot.com/rails/active_storage/blobs/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBCT1JPSVFVPSIsImV4cCI6bnVsbCwicHVyIjoiYmxvYl9pZCJ9fQ==--46758000b4b5c586b9c95425039c5381f2a89276/conversation-participants.jpg) ### How to add one In the conversation actions panel, click **Participants → Add** and pick teammates. They'll get notifications for new activity on the conversation, and it'll show up in their **Participating** view. ### When to use it - A senior agent shadowing a junior agent's reply - Pulling in an engineer for a technical thread without making them own customer comms - Keeping a manager in the loop on an escalated case > > **Don't** add the whole team as participants — that's notification spam. Two or three people max, with a reason. > > --- ## Mini-exercise (5 minutes) 1. Create one canned response. Use shortcode `hi` and content _"Hi {{_[_contact.name_](http://contact.name)_}}, thanks for reaching out — how can I help?"_. (The `{{contact.name}}` placeholder auto-fills the customer's name.) 2. Create one macro called _Wrap up_ that adds a `resolved-by-me` label and resolves the conversation. 3. Open your test conversation. Send a private note `@teammate trying out mentions`. 4. Trigger your `/hi` canned response. 5. Run the _Wrap up_ macro. If all five worked, you've used the entire core toolkit. --- ## Common questions **Can the customer ever see private notes or macro internals?** No. Private notes and macro action steps (assign, label, etc.) are invisible to the customer. Only macro actions of type _Send Message_ go to the customer — and those look like normal replies. **Can I edit a canned response after the fact?** Yes. **Settings → Canned Responses**, click any row, edit, save. Existing usages (already-sent messages) aren't changed retroactively. **What's the difference between assigning a team vs. an agent?** Assigning to an **agent** says "this is yours specifically." Assigning to a **team** says "anyone on this team can pick it up." Most teams use team assignment for routing and agent assignment for ownership. **Should I label every conversation?** You don't have to label every conversation, but a quick label on closing — even just one — pays off enormously when you look at reports later. Make it a habit on resolve. **Macros don't run automatically?** Correct — macros are _manual_. If you want something to run automatically based on a trigger (like "auto-label any conversation containing the word 'refund'"), that's an **Automation Rule**, which we'll cover in a later lesson. --- ## What's next In **Lesson 3(b): Working with customer context**, we'll switch focus from _what you do to a conversation_ to _what you know about the customer_: the contact record, custom attributes, previous conversations, bulk actions across many conversations at once, and saved filters that turn a chaotic queue into a focused workspace.