How your team hears about a new customer message or request, how to choose
which alerts you get, and where a customer's whole conversation history
lives.
Who is notified, and how
| What happened | Who hears about it | How |
|---|---|---|
| A customer texts, replies to an email, or calls and you miss it | Admins and dispatchers | Bell and push |
| A customer starts or replies to a portal conversation | Admins | Bell and push |
| A customer starts a new portal conversation | Your company's support address | Email, when switched on (see below) |
| A customer sends a request from the portal | Admins and dispatchers | Bell, push and email |
The alert names the channel and the sender, for example New text from
Mike Paulson, New email reply from Mike Paulson, Missed call from
Mike Paulson, or New message from Mike Paulson for a portal message. A sender PortaPro
can't match shows their phone number or email address instead of a name.
Assigning a conversation doesn't change who is notified, and a conversation
assigned to someone else still notifies everyone above.
Requests have their own article: Customer Requests.
Choosing your alerts
Go to Settings → Notifications and use the Notification Preferences
card. Two rows cover the Inbox:
from customers.
- In-App and Push are your own choices.
- Email is a company-wide switch, not a personal one: turning it on or
off changes it for everyone. When on, a customer starting a new portal
conversation sends an email headed New Service Request to your
company's support email (or the company email if no support email is
set). Texts, email replies and portal follow-ups don't send this email.
equipment, service, a pickup, a dumpster or supplies, or reports a problem.
In-App, Push and Email are all your own choices.
On a phone the matrix shows one channel at a time: pick In-App, Push
or Email at the top, then switch each alert on or off.
Push goes to the phone app
Push notifications go to the PortaPro app on your phone (App Store or Google
Play). A web browser doesn't receive push.
on push (Enable Push Notifications). Allow notifications when your phone
asks. Send Test Notification checks it end to end.
Not set up, so you can tell whether your phone will get alerts.
If push is switched on but nothing arrives, check that notifications for
PortaPro are allowed in your phone's own settings, then use Send Test
Notification.
The notification bell
The bell at the top of the app opens Notifications, with three tabs:
subject, the customer and how many messages are unread. Click one to open
the conversation.
Each tab shows its unread count, and Mark all as read clears the tab you
are on. On a phone the same three tabs open full screen.
Unread badges
Besides the bell, unread customer messages show in three places:
and on each channel filter.
Counts refresh about every 15 seconds. Opening a conversation marks it read
for you; other staff still see it as unread until they open it.
A customer's communication history
Every customer profile has an Inbox tab (second, after Overview). It is
one timeline, newest first, of everything with that customer:
Acknowledged, Approved, In Route, Delivered, Declined).
The filter above the timeline switches between All, Portal, Text,
Email, Calls and Requests. Click a conversation to open it, or a
supply request to open its discussion thread. New Message starts a
conversation with this customer (see
Equipment, service, pickup and dumpster requests aren't in this timeline;
they are in Inbox → Requests.
Automated messages are part of the history
Texts and emails PortaPro sends for you are recorded in the customer's
conversation on the channel they went out on, so a customer's reply lands
right under the message it answers. That includes service reminder texts,
on-the-way and job status texts, invoice and pay-link texts, overdue
reminders, supply request updates, review requests, service completed
notices, septic pump-out reminders, statements and installment reminders.
Marketing campaign emails are not added to conversations; their results are
in Marketing.
The Inbox tab needs the Growth plan. The Review Safety card sits on the
same tab.