Communicating with Providers
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
Find a provider you want to start a chat with, and click Message.
Some providers may not be available to chat — the Message button will be disabled. It may happen because a provider has not answered any messages for 14 days.
- 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.
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.
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.
The Create Invitation page opens.
Further Communication with Providers
To continue your communication with the provider, go to the Messaging Center. To access it, click the chat icon 
in the upper-right corner of any page of Service Automation.
- Click the chat icon in the upper-right corner of any page in Service Automation. The chat page appears.
- Select a company that you reached out to earlier. If needed, use the Search field to find the required provider.
- Type your message.
- 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. Company names appear in bold.
Be careful when deleting a chat: you will not be able to contact a provider from the Messaging Center. In the event of deleting a chat, go to the Provider Search again, find the needed provider, and send a new message.
