Use Chat

Overview

Learn how to book and manage jobs, have conversations with customers, and manage unwanted communication with Chat.

Things to know

• You can set up Chat Autorespond to automatically reply to text messages your customers send in while you're closed. For more, see Set up chat autoresponder.

• After you've set up Chat, messages from customers and leads appear in Chat. Text messages sent to you from numbers that are saved in the system as employee or technician numbers appear on the Dispatch Board. Additionally, all messages you send to customers show up in Chat threads, including automatic ones like dispatch notifications. For dispatch notifications, if you’ve added pictures to technician profiles, you’ll see technician photos with the messages. To learn more, see Overview: Customer notifications and Add and manage technician profiles.

• Automated notifications only appear in a customer's chat log if there's already a manual conversation thread with them.  

• Chats sent to landlines will show as undelivered. If the number is saved as the wrong type in the system, there is no way to tell it’s a landline before you initiate a message. To avoid undelivered messages, click the blue icon next to a contact number to see if there was a chat conversation with the contact in the past or not. If you see past messages, you've confirmed the number is a mobile one. For undelivered messages not sent to landlines, you can try to resend the message.

• All employees see the same Chat screen. Replying to or closing a Chat conversation means that everyone else using Chat sees the reply or that the conversation is closed. If you click the same Chat conversation as someone else, you see them typing and for how long. You can still respond to the chat conversation by clicking the notification.
  

• Refrain from using Chat for mass marketing, advertising specials, or discounts. Misuse of Chat may result in liability issues. Additionally, do not use Chat for communication between the office and technicians. Chat communication should always be professional, positive, respectful, and efficient. Address customers by name and pay attention to language, tone, grammar, and spelling. Though the exchange is via text message, refrain from jargon, slang, and excessive abbreviations. Remember that messages can build (or break) your brand.

• There is a limit of 160 characters per message in Chat. If a customer uses an unsubscribe keyword in a Chat message, you won't be able to send them messages anymore. If a customer uses a subscribe keyword after using an unsubscribe keyword, you'll be able to send them messages again. Unsubscribe and subscribe keywords aren't case-sensitive.

  • Subscribe keywords include: unstop, start, restart, subscribe, enroll

  • Unsubscribe words include: stop, end, cancel, unsubscribe, quit

• Adding attachments in the ServiceTitan chat function is currently not possible. Consider emailing them.

Find a Chat conversation

To find a specific Chat conversation, click Calls from the navigation bar, then click Chat.

Enter the contact number or the name of the customer or location in the search bar to find the conversation.

Book and manage jobs

Chat is a direct revenue stream because you can book jobs directly through Chat. Wherever you are in ServiceTitan, whenever you receive a Chat message you see a red counter badge on the Calls tab, just as you do when you have an incoming phone call.

To view Chat messages, click Calls from the navigation bar, then click Chat.

The Chat screen includes a closed and open tab.

The newest unread messages that have not been replied to yet will be at the top, bolded with a blue bar to the left. Below those, Chat messages that have been viewed but not replied to are listed. Answered Chat messages are arranged from newest to oldest with a green arrow to indicate a reply.

Existing customers show up with all their related information already in the system. If the name shows as Unknown, this means the phone number hasn't been saved to your records. Be sure to add the number, either by attaching it to an existing customer record, or by creating a new record for a new customer. If you don't add the number, there will be no record of the chat.

To learn more about adding and editing customer records, see Add a new customer and Manage customer and service location records.

Clicking a conversation with a customer displays up to five potentially relevant jobs. This gives you the information you need to respond to any questions or concerns.

Book a job from a chat

1. Click Calls from the navigation bar, then click Chat.

2. Click the chat you are going to use to book the job.

3. Book the job as usual. For more on booking a job, see Book a job
   

Reschedule a job from a chat

1. Click Calls from the navigation bar, then click Chat.

2. Click the chat corresponding to the job you would like to reschedule. Then, click the job you would like to reschedule if it isn’t the first job that you land on.
   

3. Reschedule the job as usual. For more on rescheduling a job, see Reschedule a job.

Cancel a job from a chat

1. Click Calls from the navigation bar, then click Chat.

2. Click the chat corresponding to the job you would like to cancel. Then, click the job you would like to cancel if it isn’t the first job that you land on.
   

3. Cancel the job as usual. For more on canceling a job, see Cancel a job.

Open and close Chat conversations

Note: Do not use chat to communicate with technicians.

Start a chat conversation with a customer

You can click to chat anywhere you see a phone number—customer or location pages, job pages, or any other place where phone numbers are listed in the system. Any phone number in the system can be used as a starting point for a chat.

Ensure you reach the right number by confirming the number on the location record:

1. Go to the navigation bar and click Search .

2. Use the customer name, job number, or other information to find the job you want to contact the customer about.

3. Click the job to open the record.

4. From the job screen, click the blue chat icon next to a phone number for the service location.
   The chat is automatically associated with the next job that will be taking place. Send the chat as usual.

Close conversations

Closing a conversation removes it from the Open conversations queue. Since all employees who can view Chat will see the same Chat screen, closing a Chat conversation means that the conversation is moved to Closed for everyone. If you want the chat to remain in the Open queue, reply to the message so that the conversation is no longer at the top of the queue rather than closing it.

To close a chat conversation, click the three dots, then select Close thread.

You'll be asked to confirm the closing.

If you accidentally click a conversation you want to stay at the top of the queue as unread, click Mark as unread.

If you'd like to view older Chat conversations, Chat logs related to a job will show up on the job screen under the job audit trail. The logs show all back-and-forth Chat messages, whether the conversation is open or closed.

You can also initiate a conversation from here. This will pull up their chat history with you.

To view closed chat threads, click Closed.

Receive images and videos from customers

While chatting with a customer, they can send you images and videos to your designated MMS number. Those images come through in Chat so you can determine the right course of action for the customer.

While you're in Chat, if you've received a multimedia message, Chat will notify you. Share the image or video with your technicians by downloading the file and then uploading it to the job.

Keep in mind that your regular Chat number(s) cannot receive images or videos, and that you can’t send images or videos to customers from any number.

Manage unwanted communication

Block spam messages

As is the case with any phone number, you may receive spam in your conversation queue. Mark any message as spam by clicking  More   and selecting Block Spam.

You are asked to confirm the block.

To learn more about blocking numbers, see Block numbers in ServiceTitan.

See when customers unsubscribe from messages

As you message more customers using Chat, you may see customers reply to your Chat messages indicating that they do not want to receive any further job-related communication. Any number that texts Stop, End, Cancel, Unsubscribe, Quit, or Arret is automatically opted out of notifications.

If you receive a reply that the number no longer belongs to one of your customers, remove it to keep your records up-to-date. You can then follow up with the customer and ask them for their new phone number.

If a customer asks to stop receiving notifications, edit their notification settings. For more, see Set notification preferences for customers.

Want to learn more?

• See Set up and use Automated Job Confirmations

• See Chat benefits and use cases