replies.io Blog

New: Dynamic Assignment Rules

2020-07-04T00:00:00+00:00

Last year we introduced a setting to default a default assignee for new messages. Today we made that setting dynamic.

The default assignee can be overridden with a few lines of JavaScript. Here’s an example:

if ($message.emailTo == 'billing@yourdomain.com') {
  return findTeamMemberByNickname('John');
}

You’ll find that settings at the bottom of your ‘Teams’ section.

Of course you can also test your script. Simply press the ‘Test Script’ button at the bottom.

New: Groups inbox by contact

2020-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

Replies does now group threads in your inbox by contact and highlights them.

That way you see directly when a customer sent multiple requests.

Plus the ‘other threads’ indicator shows how many other threads are in your inbox (the first part) and how many other threads of that contact are archived (the second part). Clicking that badge will show all threads of that particular contact.

New: On-the-fly snippet shortcut and keywords update

2020-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

Adjust shortcuts and keywords of currently selected snippets directly from within the draft while writing responses.

New: Open-url item in reply suggestions plugin

2020-03-31T00:00:00+00:00

Reply suggestions plugins are a convenient way to send customer-specific responses like licenses, special offers, or login information. See also here.

Today we added the ‘open-url’ item type to reply suggestions plugins which opens an URL in your default browser. That way you can navigate to e.g. your internal systems directly from the draft while writing responses.

New: thread_id contact-form parameter

2019-12-22T00:00:00+00:00

thread_id can now be passed as parameter via contact form requests. Replies will then append the request to that conversation instead of creating a new one.

You can use the thread_id parameter in web contact-forms (e.g. as hidden form parameter) and RepliesSDK-macOS supports it since 0.3.1.

In addition there’s a new $thread.id reply variable and a tid parameter for reply suggestion plugins.

Use the $thread.id variable directly in responses or the tid parameter in reply suggestion plugins to send the thread_id to customers.

For example, you could send a link as response which contains the thread_id (e.g. https://example.com/support.php?thread_id=$thread.id) to get follow up information (e.g. log files) from the customer directly into the current conversation.

Passing the thread_id does also make the email parameter optional in contact form requests. Since all other parameters are already optional, your contact form could also just send an attachment (e.g. a log file) into an already started conversation.

Sounds complicated? Don’t hesitate to write us if you have any questions. We’re happy to help.

New: Assignment Rules

2019-09-25T00:00:00+00:00

There’s a new setting on the team which allows you to define the default assignee for new messages.

That assignee will only be assigned to a new message if there wasn’t a response before from another team member. A customer request should be handled by the same team member as long as possible.

New: Edit Todo Discussion Dialog

2019-07-03T00:00:00+00:00

Keeping the state of a discussion up-to-date on a todo item became much simpler.

We introduced a new dialog to update the state directly on the thread. Keeping it up-to-date helps you to get insight into the current state of a todo item.

New: Inbox Sort Order

2019-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

Change the sort order of your inbox to ‘oldest messages first’.

‘Newest messages first’ is the default and makes most sense because if you use the delay mechanism of Replies messages will be sent based on the incoming timestamp and you always see the last message first (e.g. if someone is writing you multiple emails).

New: 'Message Sent' Toast

2019-05-10T00:00:00+00:00

A toast appears on bottom right after sending a message.

That toast allows you to undo send or view the message which comes handy if you need to make adjustments.

New: German Translation

2019-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

Switch the whole interface of Replies to German.

We’re located in the German part of Switzerland and therefore that feature was a natural one for us.

New: Videos

2019-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Each module of Replies has a tutorial video.

Simply press the help button in the navigation to open the video dialog. And if you haven’t already seen in during the on-boarding, there’s also an introduction video on our homepage.

New: Auto Suggestions

2019-02-20T00:00:00+00:00

Get suggestions without typing even single word.

Replies applies the same logic to content of incoming messages as it does to inputs in the contact form.

That way snippets with keywords will be automatically suggested if Replies finds them in the incoming message. Plus if you assign to-dos to messages, you’ll see responses (= snippets) you gave before for the same to-do. This comes handy if you get e.g. a lot of requests for the same bug.

New: Collaborate on messages

2019-01-22T00:00:00+00:00

Have private discussions with your team directly on the message where everyone has the full context.

Use the ‘Add Comment’ item from the More menu to start a discussion and submit comments by pressing the Enter key. Of course you can also add attachments and use rich text functionality (e.g. Command-B for bold).

Comments will then also appear in the Discussion section of assigned todos. It gives a better understanding of the thought process while doing the actual work.

New: Github integration

2018-12-30T00:00:00+00:00

Github is a great way to host and review code, manage projects, and build software. You can use issues in Github to manage projects and track its progress.

The problem is that collecting all requests in Github will become overwhelming pretty soon. That’s why we built a todo functionality into Replies. Collect and categorize information in Replies first and link it to a Github issue as soon as it’s ready to get done. It keeps ideas, bug reports, etc. which aren’t fully formed yet in Replies and prevents Github from getting stuffed.

After you’ve done it, the link back from Github to Replies helps you to follow up with requesters. You can for example send them preview versions and get instant feedback and validation.

Go to ‘Settings > Integrations > Issue Trackers’ and add Github Repositories you’d like to connect to. You’ll then see ‘Link Issue’ in your todos (see screenshot below). Once linked, Replies will automatically update the milestone and complete/uncomplete the todo based on the linked Github issue.

'Assign to Todo' Dialog

2018-12-16T00:00:00+00:00

Todo is a helpful feature in Replies for requests you can’t solve immediately. Simply assign the message to a todo and respond accordingly. We went ahead and streamlined that ‘Assign to Todo’ dialog.

The ‘Assign to Todo’ menu item (via the More button at the bottom) opens a dialog where you can lookup existing todos or create a new one in a single step. Simply start typing and you’ll get suggestions. If you don’t choose an existing todo, a new todo will be created and assigned to the current message.

Assigning a message to a todo gives you context later on when you’re trying to solve that request and it helps you getting back to requesters as soon as you solved it.

New: Multi select in sidebar

2018-11-03T00:00:00+00:00

Supporting multi select has been on our backburner for quite some time. We finally took the time and implemented it in the sidebar.

It is especially useful to merge contacts and snippets or delete multiple items in one step. But that’s not all. You can also assign multiple messages to a todo or close them in your inbox. Simply hold the Shift key to select a range or the Command key to pick single items. The button bar will then adjust accordingly.

Contact-form spam protection

2018-10-10T00:00:00+00:00

Contact-forms on websites are quite exposed. It’s important to put measurements into place to prevent your inbox from getting spammed.

Replies has multiple protective layers built-in. Our contact-form makes it hard for automated processes to submit spam. In addition to that we have spam protection mechanisms in place on the server side. Messages which identify as spam will get marked automatically.

You won’t see messages marked as spam in your inbox but if you like, you can find them by searching with is:spam.

Powerful Search

2018-09-22T00:00:00+00:00

We consider the search functionality as important part of Replies and made it even more powerful. You can find a list of keywords at the bottom of our documentation.

Here’s a list of improvements we’ve made recently:

All is: and has: keywords can be negated. Simply put a - in front of the keyword (e.g. -has:linkedissue).
Increased the search result limitations from 100 to 1000 for todos. E.g. search with is:open.
Company name and parts of email addresses (e.g. @gmail.com) can now also be used to search contacts.

New: Delivery status notifications

2018-06-03T00:00:00+00:00

If the receiving email server has accepted an email for delivery it is responsible for it. If it can’t deliver it to the recipient (e.g. wrong email address) it must send back a delivery status notification message.

Replies does now interpret them, opens the respective conversation again and puts it into your inbox. It does also sanitize notification messages because they can be pretty obscure sometimes.

New: Privacy Policy & Deletion features

2018-05-24T00:00:00+00:00

We have been working on improvements in the last few weeks to comply with the new GDPR regulations by the European Union.

There is a new Privacy Policy taking effect on May 25th 2018 and we added new features covering “The right to be forgotten”. You can now delete single conversations and contacts including all conversations they have been involved in.

Furthermore we don’t store IP addresses from end users in contact-form metadata anymore.

Release Notes: March

2018-04-17T00:00:00+00:00

Here’s a roundup of improvements we’ve published in March.

Contact Form

Supports data-default attribute on select tag. It overrides the default product when it comes to choosing a default for the product drop-down on page load. Example: <select data-default="my other product"/>
Improved caching to make sure your customer sees most recent suggestions and FAQ items after each page load.
Fall back to default product if content of product_name attribute is unknown.
Fixed bug where ‘Suggestions’ and ‘Suggestions (Opened)’ metadata items were only transmitted if at least one FAQ item has been opened.

Message Composer

Shows paperclip next to subject if message has attachments.
Improved quote removal functionality.
Fixed inline image scaling in sent mails.
Don’t list inline images in the attachments section anymore to make it easier for the eye.
Don’t show snippets with keywords on top of the completion if query doesn’t match its keywords.

Snippets

Search supports ‘has:shortcut’ and ‘has:-shortcut’ to include or exclude snippets with a shortcut.

Using FAQs for temporary questions

2018-04-10T00:00:00+00:00

I’m Stefan Fürst, partner at replies.io. In my main business I run Media Atelier.

In Switzerland the VAT changed on January 1st 2018. This required a portion of my GrandTotal customers to adjust the tax rate. This is a pretty simple task when you know how the procedure works and there is also a description in the manual. But, since tax changes happen rarely, it make little sense to give that topic a prominent spot in the help section.

I decided to make use of the new FAQ feature that was recently added to Replies. To my own surprise this worked extremely well and saved me and my users a lot of time.

From December 2017 to April 2018 the statistics look as follows.

German version: 214 clicks on the FAQ vs. 9 manual responses
English version: 87 clicks on the FAQ vs. just one manual response

The rest of my swiss customers figured the method out on their own or found it in the manual.

Meanwhile the popularity of the question dropped significantly and I removed it from the FAQ. However, it still lives on as a live suggestion when someone types one of the keywords like “vat” or “taxes” to my contact form.

Release Notes: February

2018-03-20T00:00:00+00:00

Here’s a roundup of improvements we’ve published in February.

Message Composer

Fixed issue where buttons showed a spinner endlessly due to an error in the background (e.g. communication failure).
Doesn’t show suggestions anymore if just entering line breaks and/or spaces.
Shows ‘RepliesSDK Version’ in case of an in-app contact form request.
Fixed issue where enter and arrow keys suddenly stopped working.

Contacts

Shows some ‘blank slate’ text if the team hasn’t received any messages yet.

Outbound Report

Messages sent outside of Replies (e.g. directly via Gmail) will now also show up in outbound and snippet usage stats.

Settings > Profile

Added ability to change email address in ‘Settings > Profile’. Simply press the pencil on the right side of the email field and enter a new email address.

Mobile (iOS / Android)

Prevents horizontal scrolling of messages on smaller screens.
Keeps aspect ratio of images if they get re-sized due to smaller screens.

System Status

Introduced https://replies.io/system_status page. Replies does automatically forward to that page in case of a downtime.

Release Notes: January

2018-02-13T00:00:00+00:00

Here’s a roundup of improvements we’ve published in January.

Scheduled Send

The Send menu has got a new ‘Tomorrow’ option.

Contact Form & Gmail

Requests via contact-form will be forwarded to Gmail if there’s a Gmail account assigned to the contact-form channel. That way initial contact-form requests gets stored in Gmail as well.

Snippets

Snippet search (sidebar and completion) does now always consider the body, even if a snippet has keywords. Keywords are intended for contact-form look-ups and not for internal usage.

Daily Digest Email

Opt-in for a daily digest email via “Settings > Teams”. It reminds you of open threads in your inbox on a daily basis (you can choose the time). Of course it will only remind you on weekdays.

Messages Composer

Write tweets with up to 280 characters.
Email addresses will always appear in lower case.
Contact name and thus the name in the signature gets capitalized automatically.
Contact language overrides the detected language. You can set it for each contact it in the ‘Contacts’ section.
Added auto-completion to the recipient field. This is especially useful to compose a new message.
Made adding/removing message parts more responsive by removing server roundtrips and implemented proper focus handling.
Command-Backspace removes the current part and jumps to the previous one. Command-K removes the current part and remains at the current position.
Moved product selection to the left side of the subject line.

New: Frequently Asked Questions

2018-01-04T00:00:00+00:00

Snippets can now be selected to show up as Frequently Asked Questions above your contact form. They are sorted based on how many people have expanded these questions within the last 30 days.

To use this new feature, simply go to “Settings > Channels” and open the web contact form. We have updated its example accordingly.

Regardless of how many snippets you select as FAQs, only the maximum number of questions entries in your form configuration will show up above the contact form. We recommend limiting that number to five.

Remember to keep your FAQs as concise as possible – you don’t want your product to look like it will confuse its users. If you only get a question every two months, there is little benefit in adding it to your list of FAQs.

We have also added a new “Self Service” section to Reports. It shows which Suggestion or FAQ has been opened, how many times, and its progression over time. Be sure to check out this new feature!

Keeping calm during a product release

2017-12-06T00:00:00+00:00

I’m Stefan Fürst, partner at replies.io. I run my main business at Media Atelier developing and selling office-related software for Macs.

At the end of November 2017, version 5 of my flagship application GrandTotal was ready to be launched. Experience from the four previous releases had taught me that this won’t always go as smoothly as expected. Regardless of how much you beta test your product - undiscovered issues will turn up after your product is already in the hands of your customers.

So I held my breath and hit the release button (there is no such button, but it sounds cooler than the real procedure). This meant that from that moment on, every customer who launched my software would be shown a dialog box informing them of the existence of the new major release that will cost money (if not bought within the grace period).

Unfortunately, we are used to clicking the blue button without really reading what we are confirming. On day one, this happened nine times. These users oversaw the fact that version 5 was a paid upgrade, and requested assistance. Lucky for me, Replies made this process quick and easy. I could just update my support answer from the version 4 upgrade (which included a new screenshot and a link to the previous version) and that was it. Replying to the eight consequent complaints was a matter of two seconds each.

The procedure is similar for all other questions about new features or pricing. Oftentimes I also improve a response created in Replies on the fly because the original caused some follow-up questions last time I used it.

Of course, dealing with bugs is also a standard part of any product release. My software is buggy. Every software is. This is why I use HockeyApp – which I use to collect and analyze crash reports – and have connected it to Replies. Each time a user submits a crash report it immediately gets pushed to the top of my inbox.

I discovered three crashes introduced with version 5 that were not revealed during testing. If a crash only happens for a very small portion of users, I won’t release a new version to anyone; I simply replace the build on the server so subsequent downloads are fixed. Additionally, I tell affected users who are contacting support a trick for updating to the corrected version (holding a special key while checking for updates). This way, my customer has the problem resolved within hours and, in return, I can be sure the fix is working.

Then comes payment. I process my payments using Paypal. Each time I receive a payment, Paypal sends a message to my server with the details - including the buyer’s name and email. Sometimes this mail is outdated, or the mailbox rejects the license mail sent by my server. At this point, Replies’ plugin feature was an enormous time saver, especially because I could access my license database from my iPhone while having a well-deserved beer in the evening.

An increased workload is to be expected with any major release. However, using Replies helped to reduce not only stress levels but also the amount of time I spent taking care of my customers immediately afterward. Take a look at my Replies statistics.

My free application Usage tells me that I spent only two hours per day in Replies for Mac on the first two days after the release. Yes, there is some additional time of using it on the phone - but that doesn’t count because I was already having my evening beer by then.

The release of version 5 of GrandTotal went smoother than expected. There is not much you can do about the increased workload that comes along with a product release, especially if you are personally responsible for almost all aspects of your product. However, you can reduce your workload (and your stress levels) by keeping calm and utilizing software that helps to simplify the process.

Update

After 10 days in the wild, GrandTotal 5 has been adopted by 35% of the active users. Since I published the first bug fix update, support load is decreasing towards normal level.

New: Autoresponder

2017-11-27T00:00:00+00:00

Need to go offline from time to time?

Use our new Autoresponder to let your customers know that you’re currently away from your desk. Simply go to Settings and then Autoresponder to enable the feature. You can create texts in all active languages.

New: Reply suggestions plugin

2017-11-05T00:00:00+00:00

Are you looking for a convenient way to send customer-specific responses like licenses, special offers, or login information?

Instead of looking it up the info in another system, you can now integrate it directly into your suggestions. Simply type a command (e.g. /license) which calls up a script on your server and embeds the result directly into your reply. Of course, you can also embed attachments this way as well.

Interested? Watch our video:

Macoun 2017

2017-10-05T00:00:00+00:00

Want to meet us? You’ll find us this weekend at Macoun in Frankfurt, Germany. Macoun is the largest iOS & macOS developer conference in Europe. See you there!

Why you shouldn't host a forum on your own website

2017-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

Wouldn’t it be great if users could help each other in a forum you host on your website? The idea might seem appealing, but this is sure to backfire on you sooner or later.

By creating a forum for customers on your site, you may find yourself with more headaches than you were hoping for. You may have to deal with spam, and most likely with unhappy customers letting out their anger on your own homepage.

A forum also puts extra demands on your time and attention. For example, duplicate questions must be merged manually, and you have no control over the responses that other users contribute.

Let’s face it, you will probably end up in more work instead of less. Stick to your customer support webpage instead.

Replies is here!

2017-07-14T00:00:00+00:00

About a year and a half ago we decided to completely rebuild Replies for Mac from the ground up as a web application. We loved Replies for Mac, but we wanted to go beyond what was possible with a standalone desktop application.

From the very beginning, we started using Replies to support our own products (Mailplane, GrandTotal, Timings and CheatSheet). By the end of 2016, we were inviting friends and beta testers to give it a try.

Their responses and our own experience with Replies gave us the confidence to release it officially today.

So why did we build Replies in the first place?

Back in 2009, Ruben was getting overwhelmed with the support load from Mailplane. His solution? He built Replies for Mac to lighten his workload. It also helped to keep his team small and continue staying connected with his customers.

We believe in direct communication between customers and the people who develop products or provide services. That’s why we automate as much as possible and make efficiency our highest priority.

Interested in giving it a try? Use Replies for free for 30 days! Be sure to let us know what you think!

Limit customer support to your own website

2017-05-22T00:00:00+00:00

Of course, you need to support your customers, but are foreign platforms really the best way to go? Limit your support activities to your own website that you control and it will benefit both you and your clients.

Participating in online forums all over the Internet can be exhausting. Not only is it hard to keep track of all possible sources, it may bring you unwanted trouble. You might, for example, run the risk of being accused of not providing enough support when you miss a post by accident.

Providing regular support on online forums can also stretch you to your limits. Reacting to user comments on foreign platforms can turn into a burden once your audience gets the impression they can reach out to you anywhere on the Internet.

Do yourself and your clients a favor and try to keep it as simple as possible. Stick to one centralized support page and everyone will appreciate it.

How to start the week with an empty inbox

2017-04-19T00:00:00+00:00

Should you reply to customer support questions over the weekend? Answering emails on a weekend is a good thing - until your customers actually receive your emails.

If you feel like it, there’s no problem with cleaning out your inbox on a weekend. There is nothing more liberating than facing an empty inbox on a Monday morning. However, maybe you should ensure that the emails get delivered during your conventional business hours.

Instead of clicking ‘send’, try scheduling your answers to be sent on the next workday. Nobody expects an answer between Friday afternoon and Monday morning. Do yourself and your customers a favor and do not break with this convention.

While it may look nice to your customer, it won’t feel professional. You don’t want to convey the impression that your product is merely a pet project and that you tinker with in your spare time.

Answers can wait until Monday. You don’t want to raise your customer’s expectations so they think you are available 24/7.

Déjà vu: how to deal with repeat questions

2017-03-13T00:00:00+00:00

Do you have a lot of repeat questions from your customers? Getting the same questions over and over again should tell you something. You need to ask yourself why your customers ask these questions so often in the first place.

Maybe all those customers are doing something wrong, but that’s probably not it. More likely: your product just has a serious shortcoming. But don’t panic! It’s probably just a tiny thing that can be corrected in the next version or by adding another line to your ‘how to’ page.

Repeating the answers to these questions is just a temporary solution. In the end, you need to simply fix the problem. The solution is not just putting the issue in your FAQ – this can be seen as a capitulation. It is better to try a bit harder so that the questions do not come up in the first place.

Do you really need a dedicated support staff?

2017-02-16T00:00:00+00:00

Is it best to hire dedicated support staff? Or should your company do its own product support? It’s definitely better to keep it simple. In small companies, support should be done by the people responsible for the corresponding product.

A support person located in a country with low costs may look tempting at first glance. However, it might not actually lighten your workload. In the end, the easy, repetitive answers will be handled by a person who is often not that familiar with the product. And the hard questions? Those will still need to be reviewed by the people who know the most about it.

And even worse – your support employee is probably making a living on the shortcomings of your product. From their perspective, there is not a lot of benefit in improving it or making it better.

For instance, let a programmer do the support for the software he or she created, and you will get very different results. Programmers can be lazy. Often, they would rather solve a problem with code once and for all, instead of answering the same question over and over again. Not only is this more efficient, it also constantly improves your product.

Support is marketing!

2017-01-05T00:00:00+00:00

Are you tired of bothering people with marketing emails? There may be a better way to market your product that is right at your fingertips: your customer support. Support is one of the best marketing strategies around.

Try to view your customers as ambassadors. Most people tend to recommend things they have had good experiences with. Whether it concerns cool spots for a weekend getaway, great wine, time-saving software, or anything else – personal accounts are your most powerful tool.

If one of your customers is contacting you for help, this is a perfect opportunity to shine! Offering a helpful and timely response will remind your customer how great and useful your product is. Good customer support can lead customers to recommend your product to others. As we all know: Word of mouth is the best marketing.