Message a colleague directly

Open a private room between staff inside the console, so a question between two people does not have to move to a separate chat application.

Not every question between two agents belongs to one customer's conversation. The console keeps private rooms for those, next to the queue.

Goal

You have a chat room with one or more colleagues, sharing the same timeline and notifications as the rest of the console.

Before you begin

A signed-in account, and colleagues who already have accounts in the workspace.
A sense of the boundary: anything about one specific customer belongs in that customer's conversation as an internal message — see Reply to a customer, or write a note.

Steps

Open Direct messages inside the Conversations group in the left column. The rooms you take part in fill the queue column.

Press New direct message at the top of the list. The Start a direct message panel opens with a Search teammates… box.

The Start a direct message panel at the top of the queue column, its search box holding a name that matches nobody, with the list of existing private rooms below painted over — The panel that starts a private room. The real list of rooms below it is masked.

Search by name, select one or more colleagues, then press the Start button carrying the number you selected. The room opens in the timeline.

Write and send as in any conversation. A private room has no composer tabs, because there is no customer at the other end to tell public from internal.

Type @ to tag somebody in the room. Inside a private room the @ picker works in the composer directly.

Rename the room by clicking its name in the header and typing a new one. That is open to members of the room and to administrators.

A private room is not a customer record

A decision about a customer that lives only in a private room is invisible to whoever picks the customer up next. Anything belonging to one customer should be written as an internal message in that customer's own conversation.

Verify

The new room is listed under Direct messages, and shows up in the list of everyone you selected. Your message appears in the timeline with its delivery state. The Contact Info panel stays closed in a private room, because the room is attached to no customer.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	What to do
The search finds no such colleague	That person has no account in the workspace yet	Start with Invite a colleague into the workspace
The start button is dim and does nothing	Nobody is selected yet	Select at least one name and try again
The room opens but cannot be muted	Only a follower of the room can silence it	Ask a member to add you to the follower list
The room name will not change	Renaming is open to members of the room and to administrators	Ask somebody already in the room to rename it