The first thing you'll notice in the CRM page is the list of leads
When you click on one you'll be taken to its contact page
Left Side Panel
is the contact information. We strongly suggest turning on the "Hide empty fields" toggle
NOTE: If you do enable this toggle, then you might find yourself in a situation where you're looking for some information on a lead (e.g. mortgage amount) but are unable to find it. This may be because the field you're looking for is empty and, as such, hidden
Here there are various "folders" that you can expand and collapse depending on what info you need to be readily available, most of the times the useful into will either be in Lead Information or Additional Info
Right Side Panel
To the right are one of 6 pages
Activity - Shows activity such as when the lead clicks your booking link, this is where any forms they fill out will show up (such as the Switchboard Sites lead capture form)
Tasks - These are the tasks specific for this lead, you can view, edit and create new tasks.
Notes - here you can write plaintext notes for the lead. You'll also find auto-generated system notes that serve as indicators of what the system has done with the lead and why.
Appointments - this is a list of past future appointments with this lead, you can also set new appointments from this page
Documents - You can upload documents specific to this lead, like if you have handwritten notes that you'd like to keep handy.
Associations - you'll almost certainly never use this
Middle Panel
In the middle of the page is the actual conversation with the lead
Note the numbers on the screenshot
1 - Contact owner, this is only really relevant if you're working with a team on the same Switchboard account, but if you see this empty for your leads please contact Switchboard Support as it may be indicative that something is wrong
2 - Snooze button - You can set a snooze date for some point in the future, this is only relevant to automations, you'll still be able to send messages manually, but the automated campaigns will wait until the specified date
3 - This bar lets you select the communication channel, the contact in the screenshot only has a number (no email) so the only two options are SMS and WhatsApp.
There's also the "Internal Comment" which adds a note directly on the conversation that's only visible to you, the agent.
4 - "From" number and "To" number - this is only relevant if you or the lead have more than one number. It specifies which number send the SMS and which number receives it. 99.99% of the time you'll want to keep that as is
5 - This is a series of options, the ones that require explanation are:
Insert snippet - these are the pre-built tempates that Switchboards automations use. Feel free to select one to view how it looks, the system will not send them unless you hit Send
Attach Files - you can either upload from your Media Library or directly from your computer, we recommend the later
Insert Emoji - 😃👀
Request Payment - This is not really relevant to Switchboard
More - These are custom fields, basically they're special strings of characters that are replaced by their respective lead info once you hit send. For example:
{{contact.name}} will be replaced by the full name of the contact once you hit Send.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Some custom fields are only designed to work within automations, for example: {{appointment.start_time}} doesn't work.
Also, the system can only use data that exists. For example, {{contact.favorite_hobby}} will result in a blank space if that data doesn't exist in the lead info panel
Finally, the top button row
Log Sale button is used to log a sale in Switchboard. This is completely optional it doesn't update HQ nor OPT but you can do it for cataloging purposes.
Lead Status Update is much like Log Sale, it doesn't update anything in HQ nor OPT but you can use it for cataloging
Stop Automations is the button you'd click if you want the automated SMS campaign to stop. You can always resume the campaign later. (more info)
Phone Recap is a forms that takes note of just that - a recap of an appointment that you may have had. Optionally it also sends a recap to the client as well
Late To Appointment - sends this string of SMSes:
Send Booking link - sends this SMS:
Here's my availability - any time on here works for me:
{{trigger_link.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx}}
Where {{trigger_link.xxxx}} is your booking link and lastly
FIF Resets - redirects to your HQ where you can perform the action