Answering emails in Chat

Before it works

The shop's mailbox has to be connected once - see Connecting an email mailbox to your shop. Until then the email channel stays empty.

Reading and answering

An email joins Waiting like any conversation, and Assign to me makes it yours - see Talking to customers in Chat for the rest. The whole thread comes with it. Your answer is sent from the shop's mailbox in the same thread, and when the customer replies it lands back in the same conversation, not a new one.

Attaching files

Click the paperclip, or drop the files on the conversation. You can attach images (JPG, PNG, WebP, AVIF), PDF, Word, Excel, CSV, text, PowerPoint and zip files, up to 30 at a time and 100MB each. The same goes for New email. Files are attached to the email while they fit in about 18MB together; the rest go in the email as download links, because mail services refuse an email bigger than about 25MB.

A picture pasted or dropped into the text stays where you put it, inside the email, as in Gmail. Deleting it from the text takes it out of the email. Every other file shows above the message box before you send, each with an x to take it off.

Some pictures cannot be taken in, and the box says so in red under it instead of losing them:

• A picture copied together with text, from another email, Word or a web page, comes in after the text when the copy carries it. When it does not, copy the picture on its own, or save it and attach it with the paperclip.
• A picture dragged straight from a web page: save it first, then drag the file in.
• A pasted picture lives only in the open page. If the page reloads before you send, the text of your answer comes back but the picture does not, and the box asks you to paste it again.

Knowing your answer went

Under your answer you see where it is:

• Sending by email… while Gmail is being given it, usually a few seconds.
• A tick once Gmail has taken it. Hover over it to read Sent: Gmail took it.
• Not sent in red with the reason, and a red note in the conversation, when Gmail refused it every time it was tried. Put right what the reason says, often a mailbox that needs reconnecting in the shop's settings, then click Send again.
• Not confirmed by Gmail yet in amber when it has waited more than 15 minutes. Check the shop's Gmail Sent folder before sending it again.

Gmail taking the email is as far as aiku can see. If the customer's mail server then refuses it, a red Email not delivered to ... note arrives in the conversation a few minutes later.

Every picture and file of a conversation

The menu at the top of the conversation → Pictures and files shows everything the customer and the team sent in it, newest first: pictures as a grid you can open large and step through with the arrow keys, and other files as a list with Download.

Website visitors in the email list

Some conversations in the email list started on the website. When a shop has Answer offline messages by email switched on, a message left in the widget outside working hours is moved to email so the answer reaches the customer. Open one and the customer's message shows an Offline message label; from there it is answered like any other email. See Live chat on the website.

Email that Gmail put in spam

Gmail sometimes puts a real customer's email in its spam folder. aiku checks that folder too, so you do not have to:

• Mail from a customer of this shop who has bought from us, or a reply in a conversation you already have, always comes in.
• Mail from anybody else is read automatically and comes in only when it looks like a customer asking about an order or a new customer who wants to buy. Adverts, suppliers selling to us, scams and automatic mail stay in Gmail's spam, and Gmail deletes them after 30 days.

Somebody who registered on the website but has never bought is treated like anybody else, because anybody can register.

An email that came out of spam has an amber note at the top. It starts with what aiku took the email for, such as New customer enquiry or Customer request, so read it with that in mind. When the email looks like a common scam - a payment copy to download, an invoice or order behind a link, a password or account warning - a red Possible scam tag is added, even if it comes from a customer. Treat those with extra care: a customer's mailbox can be taken over.

Its attachments stay in Gmail for your safety: files in spam can carry viruses or fake invoices. The email shows attachment(s) kept in Gmail for safety, and they come into the conversation only when you click Show attachments. Replying does not bring them in. Only open them if you were expecting them. If the email turns out to be junk, Report spam blocks the sender.

Mail that never arrives

aiku reads the mailbox's inbox and its spam folder, and files mail that is not customer work into folders of its own instead of the chat list. When a mail seems missing, see the Gmail folders in What the labels in the chat inbox mean. A genuine mail that stayed in Gmail's spam can still be brought in: open it in Gmail and click Not spam, and it arrives in a few minutes.