How to work the WhatsApp inbox

One shared inbox for the shop: link a chat to a customer, file it with labels, and answer with saved replies.

6 min read

The inbox is shared for the location, so a conversation is not stuck on whoever happened to answer first. The three habits that make it work are linking chats to customers, labelling them, and saving the answer you keep typing.

  1. 1

    Open the inbox and pick a conversation

    Go to WhatsApp from the sidebar. Conversations are listed on the left; pick one to read it. Messages customers send to your number land here.

  2. 2

    Link the conversation to a customer

    Use Link to a customer — "Who is this?". Search an existing customer by name, phone or email, or create a new one. When you create one, the phone number from the conversation is saved with them, so their next message arrives already identified. Do this first: everything else in Lunix hangs off the customer record.

  3. 3

    File it with a label

    Labels are how you find a conversation again. Create the few that match how you actually work — "Waiting for part", "Quoted", "Warranty" — and put them on. Deleting a label that is in use removes it from those conversations, and Lunix tells you how many before you confirm.

  4. 4

    Save the answers you keep typing

    Quick replies are the biggest time saver here. Save the answer you type five times a day with a name and a shortcut; typing the shortcut drops the text into the box. You can include a token that writes the customer's name automatically, so a saved reply does not read like a form letter.

  5. 5

    Act from the conversation

    The inbox is not only for talking. From a chat you can send a receipt, send a product, send a payment link, or build and send a quote — all priced from your own catalogue, without leaving the thread.

  6. 6

    Understand the 24-hour rule

    WhatsApp only lets you message freely inside a 24-hour window after the customer's last message. Outside it, the message has to go as an approved template, and Lunix tells you when that is what happened. It is a Meta rule, not a Lunix limitation — which is why answering the same day matters more than it seems.

  7. 7

    Read a refusal properly

    "This number cannot send right now" is about the channel, not the customer. Check the number's state and quality on the integration screen rather than retrying the message.

Pro tips

  • Link the customer even for a one-line question. An unlinked chat is a conversation nobody can find next month, and it cannot become a quote or a receipt.
  • Quick replies belong to the whole store, so deleting one removes it for everybody. Agree the wording before you save it.

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