Interaction Management

This guide will help you manage interactions from the Inbox: how to take them, start them, send messages, and perform all available actions during a conversation with a customer.

Before continuing, we recommend reading the Inbox introduction, which explains the core concepts: what a campaign, a channel, an interaction, and more.

Go to the introduction

How to take an interaction?

When a customer contacts you, they enter the channel queue directly and the interaction appears in the Pending tab. If the campaign has a bot or IVR configured, the customer interacts with it first and the bot or IVR redirects them to the queue when appropriate.

To handle the interaction, simply click on it and it will automatically move to the Active tab. Once taken, the interaction detail opens in the right panel and you can start attending to the customer.

Depending on the strategy configured in the campaign, the interaction may be automatically assigned to you, in which case it will appear directly in Active without needing to take it manually from Pending.

How to start an interaction?

In addition to handling inbound interactions, you can start outbound interactions directly from the Inbox. This lets you contact a customer by Phone, WhatsApp, SMS, or Email without waiting for them to reach out first.

Prerequisites

Before starting an outbound interaction, check the following:

You must be a member of at least one campaign. If you're not, contact your Supervisor to verify.
Within the campaign, you must have permissions to start outbound interactions in at least one channel.

If you have questions about your permissions or assigned campaigns, check with your Supervisor or Administrator.

Steps to start one

Follow these steps to start an outbound interaction.

Click the New button in the upper-right corner of the left panel of the Inbox.

Select the channel through which you want to start the interaction. Only the channels available for outbound interactions appear based on your permissions and campaign configuration. If you don't see a channel, it may be because you don't have permissions to start outbound interactions in that channel, or because the channel is not enabled or configured in any of your campaigns.

Select the campaign from which you want to start the interaction. Only campaigns that have the selected channel enabled and in which you have permission to start outbound interactions will appear.
Fill in the form fields according to the selected channel. You can see the detail of each field in the Fields by channel section below.
Click Start new interaction.

Once confirmed, the interaction will appear in your Active tab and open in the right panel. For Phone, the call starts immediately. For text channels, the message is sent to the customer and you can continue the conversation from there.

Fields by channel

The fields you need to fill in vary depending on the channel you chose. The form saves a draft per channel: if you switch channels and come back, the data you had entered is preserved.

Phone

Enter the number you want to call. Only digits, #, and * are accepted, and the number must have at least 5 digits. Invalid characters are automatically removed as you type.

This depends on the Administrator's configuration. If you're not sure how to dial it, check with your Supervisor.

Enter the customer's number and the message you want to send. You can also select an existing template or attach files.

To start a WhatsApp interaction, the first message must always be an HSM template approved by Meta. If the first message is not an HSM, it will fail and the customer will not receive it. Once the customer replies, you can send any message without needing to use a template.

SMS

Enter the customer's number and the message you want to send. You can also select an existing template. SMS does not support attachments.

Email

Enter the customer's email address, the subject, and the message body. You can also add recipients in CC (carbon copy) and BCC (blind carbon copy). To add more than one, press Enter after each address.

What is CC and BCC?

CC (carbon copy): all recipients can see who else received the email.
BCC (blind carbon copy): recipients cannot see who else received a copy.

If the campaign has a signature configured, it will be automatically added to the email body when you select the channel.

For formatting the email body (bold, tables, headings, etc.), see the Email styles guide.

Actions in an open interaction

Once you have an active interaction, you can perform various actions. Each one is explained below.

Send messages, attachments, and audios Text channels only

From the interaction's text field you can send written messages, file attachments, and voice messages.

Send a message

Write the message in the interaction's text field. You can compose it freely, use a template, or add emojis. To send it, click the send button.

Send attachments

You can send file attachments in all text channels except SMS and Instagram. Click the attachment button, select the file category (image, document, or audio), and choose the file from your computer.

Supported formats are:

Images: .jpg, .png, .jpeg, .gif, .webp, .svg, .webm
Videos: .mp4, .mov
Documents: .txt, .pdf, .rar, .zip, .doc, .docx, .xls, .csv, .xlsx
Audios: .mp3, .wav, .ogg, .acc, .m4a, .aac, .flac

The maximum allowed file size depends on the provider configured in the campaign:

Provider	Images	Audio	Video	Documents
Meta	8 MB	25 MB	25 MB	100 MB
Gupshup	5 MB	16 MB	16 MB	100 MB
WhatsApp Business	5 MB	16 MB	16 MB	100 MB

If the file exceeds the limit or the format is not supported by the provider, the system will notify you when you try to send it.

Send voice messages

You can record and send voice messages in all text channels except SMS, Phone, and Email. For Email, you can attach an audio file, but you cannot record it directly from the Inbox.

To record, click the audio button. To discard the recording, click the trash icon. To send it, click the send button.

Additional actions Phone only

When you have an active phone interaction, the following options appear:

Mute: mutes you on the call. The customer will not hear you, but the call remains active and you can still listen.
Hold: mutes your audio and the customer hears the configured hold music.
Transfer: lets you transfer the call to another agent, campaign, or external number.
Keypad: displays the numeric keypad for dialing digits.
Parking: puts the call on hold with music until you resume it yourself. Learn more in the Parking section.
Conference: allows adding multiple participants to the ongoing call via your own conference room. Learn more in the Conference section.
End call: hangs up the call.

Parking

Parking lets you put a call on hold without hanging up, while you handle other calls. The customer hears hold music until you resume the call yourself.

How to put a call in Parking:

During the call, click the Parking button.
The call goes on hold and the customer hears music.
The interaction continues to appear in your Active tab.

How to resume the call:

Go back to the interaction in your Active tab.
Click the Unpark button.
The call resumes and you can talk to the customer again.

Only you can resume a call you put in Parking — another agent cannot do it.

Conference

Each agent has their own conference room. You can send active calls to your room and keep adding participants one by one, with no limit. Once there are participants in the conference, you can join to talk with everyone at the same time.

How to send a call to the conference:

While you have an active call, click the Conference button.
The call is automatically transferred to your conference room. The customer waits inside.
You can repeat this with other active calls to keep adding participants.

How to join your conference room:

Inside the conference interaction, click the Join button to enter the room and talk with all participants at the same time.

Participant management:

From the conference panel you can see in real time who is in your room, who is currently speaking, and manage each participant:

Mute / Unmute: silences or activates a specific participant's audio without affecting the others.
Mute all: silences all participants at the same time, except yourself.
Remove: removes a participant from the conference. Their call is ended and they leave the room.

When a participant hangs up their call, they disappear automatically from the list. The conference ends when all participants leave.

Signal quality Phone only

During a call, you can monitor audio quality by looking at the icon in the upper-right corner:

Green: audio quality is good.
Orange: audio quality is fair. There may be small interruptions.
Red: audio quality is poor. If it persists, check your internet connection or use the Network test tool.

Message states WhatsApp only

Each sent message shows its delivery status:

The message could not be sent.

The message is being sent.

The message was sent but the customer has not yet received it.

The message was read by the customer.

Reply to a message WhatsApp only

In WhatsApp interactions you can reply to specific messages, just like in the app.

Hover over the message you want to reply to. A reply icon will appear — click it.

The message will be quoted in the text field. Write your reply and send it.

The reply will appear linked to the original message in the conversation.

A few things to note:

There is no limit on replies.
The customer will see the reply linked to the original message in their WhatsApp.
If the customer also replies to a message, that linked reply will appear in the Inbox.
You can only reply to messages with sent or read status (grey or blue double checkmarks). Messages with errors or a single checkmark cannot be replied to.
You can reply to messages with attachments. A preview and the file name will be shown.
Replies remain visible in closed, transferred, historical, spy, and interaction detail views.
You can also reply to messages sent by a bot — the bot's name will be shown in the reply.

How to transfer an interaction?

As an agent, you can transfer an interaction to another agent or campaign when the customer needs attention from another area. For example, if you're in the Marketing campaign and the customer has a billing question, you can transfer it to the Finance campaign.

Transfers have a timeout configured in the campaign. If the time limit is exceeded and nobody responds, the interaction will be reassigned to the agent who attempted the transfer.

Transfers work across all channels, although Phone has additional options.

Phone transfers

In Phone you have more transfer options than in other channels: you can transfer to a user, a campaign, or an external number, and choose between blind or attended transfer.

How to start the transfer:

During the call, click the Transfer button.
Choose the destination:
- User: transfers to a specific agent. Green means available, red means disconnected or busy.
- Campaign: transfers to a campaign, where the first available agent will take the interaction. Green means within operating hours, red means outside operating hours.
- External number: transfers to an external phone number. You can enter it manually or choose one from your saved contacts.
Select the agent or campaign from the list, or enter the external number.
Choose the transfer type:
- Blind: you transfer the call and are immediately free to handle other interactions.
- Attended: before completing the transfer, you can speak with the recipient to give them context about the customer. Once you finish talking, you hang up and the customer is connected to that person. While you are on that consultation call, all other transfer options are disabled until you confirm or cancel it.
Confirm. The customer will be on hold while the transfer completes.

During the transfer, the customer hears the hold music configured in the campaign. If none is configured, the default hold music plays.

For an agent to be a valid transfer destination, they must be connected and have no active status or break. Agents with a status set or who are disconnected will not appear as available.

Text channel transfers

Text channels are WhatsApp, SMS, Email, WebChat, Instagram, and Messenger.

How to start the transfer:

Click the three dots in the upper-right corner of the interaction.
Select the Transfer option.
Choose the destination:
- Agent: select the campaign and then the specific agent you want to transfer to. Green means available, red means disconnected.
- Campaign: select the campaign and the system will assign an available agent. Green means within operating hours, red means outside operating hours.
Confirm. The interaction will move to the destination agent's or campaign's tab.

Unlike Phone, in text channels you cannot transfer to an external number. You can only transfer to an agent or a campaign that has the same channel as the interaction enabled. For an agent to be a valid destination, they must be connected and have no active status or break.

How to open a form?

If the campaign has a form assigned (whether the uContact CRM, an internal form, or an external one), you can open it during the interaction to fill in customer data in parallel.

To open it, click the form icon in the icon bar in the upper-right corner of the interaction. The form will open in the right panel. You can also access this option from the three-dot menu.

Expand: click the expand icon to view the form in full screen. Especially useful when using a form with a lot of information.
Close: click the same button you used to open it.

You can also open forms without an active interaction, directly from the forms icon in the left sidebar of the Inbox.

This icon only appears if the following conditions are met:

The campaign has a form assigned.
The Manual form access option is enabled in the campaign configuration.
You are a member of that campaign or have a profile with access (for example, Super user).

If you belong to multiple campaigns with the same form, you will see the form listed once per campaign. For example: Contact form – Sales Campaign.

Hovering over the icon expands the list of available forms. Each form opens in a separate tab. You can have one form open at a time per campaign, and if you leave the Inbox and come back, the form retains the data you entered.

If the form was created in uContact: Form name – Campaign name.
If the form is external: Form URL – Campaign name.

How to finish an interaction?

Finishing an interaction marks the end of the conversation with the customer and leaves it ready to be dispositioned (if applicable) and closed.

In Phone: the interaction moves to Finished automatically when the call ends.
In text channels: click the three dots in the upper-right corner of the interaction and select Finish.

Once finished, the interaction is in Finished state and you can close it:

If the campaign has dispositions: you must add a disposition before closing. Once done, use Save to save it without closing the interaction, or Save and close to save and close it in one step. See How to add a disposition?.
If the campaign has no dispositions: you can close it directly by clicking the Close button in the upper-right corner of the interaction, or from the three-dot menu selecting Close.

Wrap Up period Phone only

After a call ends, the campaign may have a wrap-up period configured: a set number of seconds during which the agent is temporarily unavailable to receive new interactions. This period is designed to give the agent time to complete post-call tasks such as adding a disposition or taking notes.

During wrap-up, the agent remains connected but does not receive inbound calls. A purple icon with a countdown timer showing the remaining time appears in the top bar of the Inbox. Clicking that icon ends the wrap-up manually without waiting for the time to expire, making the agent immediately available to receive new calls. When the configured time ends, the agent automatically returns to available. The Administrator configures the wrap-up duration in the campaign.

How to add a disposition?

Dispositions record the outcome of the conversation before closing the interaction. This step only applies if the campaign has dispositions configured.

Not sure what a disposition is? See the core concepts guide.

You can select the disposition levels before the interaction finishes, the data is saved. That way, when the interaction moves to Finished state, you only need to click Save or Save and close without having to fill anything in again.

Click the disposition button in the upper-right corner of the interaction, or from the same button in the interaction list.
The disposition form will open in the right panel. Select the disposition levels one by one — each selection enables the next level. You can also add a comment; depending on the campaign configuration, it may be optional or required.
Choose how to save:

Save: saves the disposition but the interaction remains in the list (stays in Finished state).
Save and close: saves the disposition and closes the interaction, which will no longer appear in the Inbox.
Reschedule (Outbound Hub interactions only): appears when the selected disposition is of type Reschedule. In addition to saving the disposition, allows scheduling a new contact attempt for the customer at a specific date and time.

Credentials

Common errors