Customers can message the company from the portal, see alerts in the
notification bell, and choose which emails, texts and phone alerts they get.
Messages
Messages is in the portal's top row when the company is on the Growth
plan or above (Enterprise counts). On a lower plan the section and the
Contact Support quick action are hidden; requests sent with Make a
request still reach the company on every plan.
The page is titled Support & Messages ("Contact us or view your message
history"). It has:
a phone number and email on file.
Closed (N), with a Search tickets... box and an unread count.
company shares it.
Starting a conversation
Question, Equipment Problem, Schedule Change, General Inquiry, Other) and
a Priority (Normal, High, Urgent).
"Message sent! We'll get back to you soon." confirms it. Open a
conversation to read the history and reply in the Type your message...
box.
Messages arrive live: a reply from the company appears in the open
conversation without refreshing, and you can see when they are typing.
Requests you send with Make a request, and the company's answers to
them, also appear as messages.
How quickly the company replies is up to the company. If Hide Employee
Names in Customer Portal is on at the company, their replies are signed
"<company> Admin" instead of a person's name.
For new equipment, service, pickups or problems, use Make a request
rather than a message: it lands in the company's request queue and shows
under Your requests.
The Contact Support card
On the Overview page (Growth plan and above), Contact Support shows
the company's phone number (tap to call), email address (tap to start an
email) and business hours, plus Send a message, which opens Messages.
It shows how many conversations are open.
A green dot and Online, or a grey dot and Offline, appear only when
the company chooses to share its online status. Depending on the company's
setting, "online" means someone at the company is signed in, or that and
it is during their business hours.
The notification bell
The bell at the top right shows a red dot when something is unread. Click
it to see your notifications: support replies, supply request updates,
payment confirmations, invoice reminders, quote updates, agreements sent to
you and reminders. Unread items are highlighted. Mark all as read
clears them, and clicking a notification opens the related item. With
nothing new it says "You're all caught up".
Settings: email, texts and push
The gear at the top right opens Settings ("Manage how you receive
updates and notifications"):
| Section | Switches |
|---|---|
| Push Notifications | Alerts on this phone when there are updates. |
| Email Notifications | Supply Request Updates (status changes for your consumable requests) and Support Messages (replies to your support conversations). |
| Text Messages | Text Messages, the master switch for all texts (reminders, updates, ETAs), and Driver On-the-Way Texts (a heads-up with a live ETA when your driver is heading over). |
Click Save Changes after changing a switch. You can also stop texts at
any time by replying STOP.
Push notifications
Push alerts come to the PortaPro app on your phone, never to a web browser.
Sign in to the app and the phone registers itself; Settings then reads
"This phone gets an alert when support replies. To turn alerts off, change
notifications for PortaPro in your phone's settings." If alerts are blocked
it says to allow notifications for PortaPro in the phone's settings and
reopen the app. In a browser, the bell and email keep you informed.