Inbox

The Inbox is where all customer communication comes together—SMS, email, form submissions, and reviews—in a single, unified stream. No more switching between apps to piece together a conversation.

One place for everything

Before HeyChief, you might check:

Your phone for texts
Gmail for emails
Your website for form submissions
Google and Yelp for reviews

Now it's all in your Inbox. Every conversation, every channel, one interface.

Channels

The Inbox pulls in messages from:

Channel	Description
SMS	Text messages with customers
Email	Email threads
Forms	Website contact form submissions
Reviews	New reviews from Google, Yelp, Facebook

More channels are coming (live chat, voicemail transcription), but these four cover most customer communication for service businesses.

How it works

Conversations

Every customer interaction becomes a Conversation—a threaded view of all messages between you and that person.

If Sarah texts you, then emails you, then texts again, it's one Conversation. You see the full history, not fragments.

Conversation with Sarah Chen
├── SMS: "Hi, can I get a quote for AC repair?"
├── You (SMS): "Of course! What's happening with the unit?"
├── SMS: "It's blowing warm air"
├── You (Email): "Here's the quote we discussed..."
└── Email: "Looks good, let's schedule it!"

Matching to Customers

When a message comes in, HeyChief matches it to a customer record:

Known phone or email → Links automatically
Unknown contact → Creates a new conversation (you can merge later)

This means when you open a conversation, you see everything about that customer—their jobs, their history, their value to your business.

The Inbox interface

Your Inbox shows:

Left panel: Conversation list, sorted by most recent activity

Center panel: The selected conversation thread

Right panel: Customer context—profile, upcoming jobs, notes

This layout lets you respond quickly with full context. You know who you're talking to and what they've done with you before.

Key actions

From any conversation, you can:

Action	What it does
Reply	Send SMS or email back to the customer
Create Job	Turn this conversation into a job request
Link to Job	Connect to an existing job
Ask Chief	Have Chief draft a reply
Snooze	Hide until a specific time (then resurfaces)
Assign	Hand off to a team member
Close	Mark as resolved

Replying

Hit reply and choose your channel:

SMS – Quick responses, confirmations, reminders
Email – Longer messages, quotes, invoices

You can switch channels mid-conversation. The customer sees a coherent thread on their end (a text from your business number, or an email from your address).

Creating Jobs from the Inbox

A common flow:

Customer texts: "Can I get a quote for pressure washing my driveway?"
You click Create Job
HeyChief creates a Job linked to this customer, linked to this conversation
You add line items, generate a quote, send it

The conversation stays connected. When the customer replies to the quote, you see it right in the same thread.

Chief in the Inbox

Chief can help you respond faster:

Suggest a reply: Based on the conversation, Chief drafts a response. You can use it as-is, edit it, or ignore it.

Answer questions: "What did we do for them last time?" Chief pulls up their job history instantly.

Schedule from chat: "Schedule them for Thursday at 2pm" and Chief books it without you leaving the conversation.

Draft quotes: "Send them a quote for the services we discussed" and Chief generates it.

Reviews in the Inbox

New reviews show up in your Inbox alongside other conversations:

Google reviews
Yelp reviews
Facebook reviews

You can respond directly from HeyChief. Chief can draft responses, and you can post with one click.

Reviews stay in your Inbox until you respond or dismiss them—nothing slips through the cracks.

Inbox vs. Marketing

There's an important distinction:

Inbox	Marketing
Reactive	Proactive
1-to-1 conversations	1-to-many broadcasts
"Someone reached out to us"	"We're reaching out to them"

When you send a marketing campaign and someone replies, that reply appears in your Inbox. The conversation continues there.

Notifications

New messages trigger notifications:

Badge count on the Inbox icon
Push notifications on mobile
Email digest (optional)

You configure what deserves immediate attention vs. what can wait.

Team collaboration

If you have a team:

Assign conversations to specific people. "Mike handles all commercial accounts."

See who's responding. Conversations show who sent each reply.

Internal notes. Add notes to a conversation that only your team sees (customers don't).

Snooze and close

Not every conversation needs immediate action:

Snooze hides a conversation until a specific time. "This customer said they'd decide next week"—snooze until Monday and it reappears.

Close marks a conversation as resolved. It won't clutter your active list, but the history is preserved if they reach out again.

Tips

Respond quickly. Speed matters, especially for new leads. Aim for under 5 minutes during business hours.
Use Chief for first drafts. Even if you edit, starting from a draft is faster than starting blank.
Link jobs religiously. A conversation linked to a job means anyone on your team has context instantly.
Review reviews. Responding to reviews (even positive ones) shows customers you're engaged. Chief makes it easy.
Close what's done. A cluttered Inbox is a stressful Inbox. Close conversations that are truly resolved.