Versions Compared

Key

  • This line was added.
  • This line was removed.
  • Formatting was changed.

To communicate with providers in Provider Search, you can use our embedded messaging feature. With it, you can:

  • Message providers with questions or new business inquiries
  • Send text messages to mobile phones of business owners via SMS
  • Reduce unnecessary cold calls and speed up your engagement with a provider

All conversations are initiated either on the Discovery Search Results page or provider’s profile page, and all messages can be found in the Messaging Center.

Starting a Chat with a Provider

Panel
bgColor#F9F9F9
titleColor#0e3367
titleBGColor#EAEAEA
borderStylenone
title⦿ How to Start a Chat with a Provider
  1. Find a provider you want to start a chat with, and click Message.

    Message button to start a chat with a provider

    Info

    Some providers may not be available to chat — the Message button will be disabled. It happens when a provider has not given their contact phone number to the ServiceChannel team for further communication.


  2. In the chat pop-up that appears, type your message, and click Send.
    Alternatively, press Enter on the keyboard. Your message is sent to the provider.


    Type the message and click Send

After you send your first message to the provider, you immediately get a response from ServiceChannel to let you know that our team is here to help you establish communication with your prospective provider.

An immediate response from ServiceChannel

If the provider you have messaged does not answer back, a member of the ServiceChannel team will contact them to jumpstart the conversation and get back to you with the follow-up information.

To invite a provider to your Private Network from the chat, click the + Invite button in the upper-right corner of the chat pop-up.

Invite button

The Create Invitation page opens.

Further Communication with Providers

To continue your communication with a provider, go to the Messaging Center. To access it, click the chat icon in the upper-right corner from any page of Service Automation.

Chat icon in the navigation panel used to access the Messaging Center


Panel
bgColor#F9F9F9
titleColor#0e3367
titleBGColor#EAEAEA
borderStylenone
title⦿ How to Send a Message to a Provider in a Chat
  1. Click the chat icon in the upper-right corner of any page in Service Automation. The chat page appears.
    Chat with a provider in the Messaging Center of Provider Search
  2. Select a company that you reached out to earlier. If needed, use the search field to find the required provider.
  3. Type your message in the chat panel, and click Send. Alternatively, press Enter on the keyboard. Your message is sent to the provider.

Chats with unread messages are marked with a blue dot, and the company names appear in bold.

Unread messages appear with a blue dot in the Messaging Center

Live Search
spaceKeySCU
additionalpage excerpt
placeholderSearch our Knowledge Base
typepage

Panel
titleColor#ffffff
titleBGColor#5fa7d0
borderStylegroove
titleIn this Article

Table of Contents
maxLevel3
minLevel2
indent20px

Panel
titleColorwhite
titleBGColor#75a346
titleRelated Articles

Filter by label (Content by label)
showLabelsfalse
max8
showSpacefalse
sorttitle
cqllabel in ( "providersearch" , "discoverypage" , "messagingcenter" , "invitingproviders" ) and space = currentSpace ( )