DaoDesk allows you to receive messages from users and initiate correspondence yourself. But if for the first case it is enough just to connect the desired channel and wait for the user to write to you, then to initiate correspondence you will need to do additional actions.

You can first write to the client in such channels as: e-mail, Telegram, Viber, WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business API. You can send a letter to a user's e-mail even if he has never contacted you before, but to create a chat with a client from the above mentioned messengers, he must have contacted your DaoDesk system at least once before. Such restrictions are due to the security policies of the messengers themselves, including those to combat spam and mailings. 

To create a request, the first thing you need to do is to go to the general list of requests and click on the “Create request” button:

In the upper left part of the request interface, select the user on behalf of whom the request will be created: 

Next, depending on the desired channel, the application creation process may vary slightly.

1. Initiation by e-mail

If the user has already been created in the system automatically (when he/she contacted you earlier) or manually, it is enough to specify his/her e-mail, name or phone number and then choose from the proposed list. If the correspondence will take place for the first time, click on the “Add user” button and create a new contact: 

The subject of the request and its content are mandatory, and some individual fields may also be mandatory - without filling them in, the system will not allow you to create requests. In the right part of the screen you can fill in various attributes, including the request priority, executor and its department. The choice of the latter directly determines from which box the letter will be sent.

For example, there are two departments: the 1st support line - the conditional box “support@company.com” is connected to it and the IT department - with the box “IT@company.com”. Accordingly, if you select the 1st line department, the e-mail to the user will be sent from the support@company.com email.

There are two checkboxes at the bottom of the request creation form:

• Send e-mail. If the checkbox is checked and the corresponding notification templates are enabled, an e-mail will be sent to the client/creator of the request. It works only for requests by e-mail! I.e. if you initiate a correspondence in Telegram or WhatsApp, then letters will not be sent to messengers, of course.
• First reply from end user. Means on behalf of whom the request will be created. If the checkbox is ticked, it means that the client initiated the request (for example, by phone), and the support operator recorded the request from his words. If there is no checkmark, the request will be created on behalf of the operator/support employee. They are used in cases when you yourself want to be the first to contact the client - to clarify something, to deliver information, to get feedback, etc.. When using standard notification templates, depending on whether the checkbox is checked or not, the corresponding template will be sent:

Now all that is left to do to create a request is to click the “Create Request” button. If you sent an email, you can go to the request audit and make sure that the email was sent to the client:

The principle of creating a request to messengers is similar to creating a request by mail. The main exception is that a user from Telegram/Whatsapp/Viber must at least once contact your channel, which is connected to the system (number for WA and bot for Telegram). After that you will be able to select the desired contact from the list.

If you have different channels for one contact (for example: mail, Telegram and Whatsapp), then after selecting the contact you will be able to specify the desired communication channel separately:

Warning!

Initiation of correspondence with a user in WhatsApp in this way is possible only when using unofficial (gray) API. However, you should also keep in mind the risks of using unofficial WhatsApp API: first of all, your Whatsapp account (number) may be blocked without the possibility of recovery. In this case, the phone number will remain, you can still make calls and send SMS, but it will be impossible to use WhatsApp on this number.

In practice, we have not yet encountered such cases, but everything happens for the first time. Nevertheless, providers assure that if the client himself writes to you first (i.e. he will be the initiator of the correspondence), you will never get blocked.