The inbox for messages visitors send from the forms on your website: questions, call-back requests, appointment bookings, RSVPs and newsletter sign-ups. You read each one, answer the visitor, and mark it handled.
When to use it
- Every day, to answer new messages from your website.
- When someone phones with an enquiry and you want to keep it with the others.
Before you start
- Your company must have the Online Store add-on.
- You need rights on the Enquiries screen. Enquiries hold visitors' names, phone numbers and email addresses, so give access only to the staff who answer them.
- Which forms your website shows depends on its design. A contact form is the most common, and some designs also have call-back, booking, RSVP or newsletter forms.
Where to find it
Setup > Online Store > Enquiries.
The fields on this screen
How it works
Each message a visitor sends becomes one record with the status New. The Enquiry group holds what the visitor sent:
- Type: which form it came from (Message, Call back, Appointment, RSVP or Newsletter).
- Name, Phone, Email and Message.
- Service (on a booking form), Guests (on an RSVP form) and Date (the date asked for on a booking or RSVP form).
- Sent from page: the page of your website the form was on.
What the visitor sent cannot be changed afterwards. The Follow-up group is yours: set Status to Handled once you have answered, and keep a Note of who answered and what was agreed.
The website checks each message before saving it. It needs a name (except for a newsletter sign-up) and a phone number or email address (a newsletter needs an email). A booking date cannot be in the past. To keep out floods of junk, each shop accepts up to 200 messages a day, and one visitor cannot send many in a row.
No alert is sent when a new enquiry arrives. Open this screen regularly and sort or filter by Status to see the New ones.
Adding a record
Most records arrive from your website by themselves. To log an enquiry taken by phone:
- Open Setup > Online Store > Enquiries and add a record.
- Choose the Type, then fill in the caller's Name, Phone or Email, and the Message.
- Click Save.
Changing or deleting a record
- Edit: open the record and change Status or Note. The visitor's own details stay as sent.
- Delete is not available. Mark the enquiry Handled instead, so you keep a record of it.
Worked example
A visitor fills in the booking form on Asha's salon website: Name "Rita Karki", Phone 9811111111, Service "Bridal makeup", Date next Saturday. It appears in Enquiries with Type "Appointment" and Status "New". Asha phones Rita, confirms the booking, sets Status to "Handled" and writes in Note "Called by Asha, booked for 10 am".
Tips and common mistakes
- Check Enquiries at least once a day. Visitors expect a quick reply.
- A newsletter sign-up is a request to hear from you. Keep your own list of these and respect it.
- Enquiries are not orders. Orders from your shop arrive as sales orders, not here.
Related guides
- Website Settings: your contact details shown next to the forms.
- Website Templates: designs differ in which forms they include.
- Sales Order: where shop orders arrive.