How to turn a conversation into work

Hover a message in What is chat? and a small toolbar appears. Three of its buttons turn talk into something the business keeps: Create task, Create outreach and Record a decision.

On a touchscreen, tap the message to show the same toolbar.

How do you make a message into a task?

Click Create task (the green tick). The new-task form opens with the title taken from the message's first line and the description from the whole message. It lands in the channel's department unless you pick another.

You still choose the assignee, the due date and anything else, as with any task, so nothing is created behind your back. See How to create a task.

The task shows From #channel, a link back to the message it came from. Whoever picks the task up in a fortnight can read the conversation that caused it, which is almost always where the real detail is.

We recommend writing the first line of a message as a title when you already know it will become work. "Chase Portside Mills on the lab dip" makes a better task than a sentence that starts "so I was thinking".

Create task appears in channels where you have Create tasks for that channel's department.

Do the message's photos and files come too?

Yes. Any photos or files on the message are copied onto the new task, so the picture of the faulty seam travels with the job.

Up to 10 files go on the new task. Files you add in the form go on first, and the message's files fill the remaining places. See How to add files and comments to a task.

How do you raise outreach from a message?

Click Create outreach (the coral phone). The New outreach form opens, and a card headed Outreach is posted into the channel once you press Create outreach.

Outreach is the shared list of everything the shop owes a customer: a call, an email or a text. See How to log and work through outreach.

What does the outreach form fill in for you?

The first teammate tagged in the message becomes Assign to, and a tagged customer becomes the contact. Tag the customer before any product in the message, so the form picks them up. See How to tag people, tasks, documents and products.

The rest of the form:

• Assign to: a teammate, or Nobody, anyone can claim it.
• Reach by: Call, Email or Text. The contact field then reads Who to call, Who to email or Who to text.
• Kind: one of your workspace's outreach types, set in How to set up your kinds of outreach.
• Urgency: Normal, Urgent or Emergency.
• Phone number for a call or a text, or the email address for an email.
• What's it about? (optional), for the reason.

How do you work the outreach card in the channel?

Anyone on the team can work it from the card, without leaving the conversation:

• No answer counts a try and keeps it open. The card then shows "tried 2×", and so on, so the team can see how many tries there have been without opening anything.
• Mark called back (for a call) or Mark done (for an email or a text) opens a note box. Type what happened, then press Save & mark done. The button waits until there is a note.
• Reopen brings a finished one back.
• The pencil, Edit outreach, changes the details.

A finished card reads Called back for a call, or Done for an email or a text.

How do you record a decision from a message?

Click Record a decision (the amber gavel). The Record a decision form opens with the message text in Why.

Fill in What was decided and when it was decided, and optionally What we didn't do. Under Affects, pick the kind of thing it is about (Purchase Order, Supplier, Campaign, Task, Wholesale Account or Wholesale Order) and search for the one you mean. Then press Record decision.

A short confirmation is posted back into the channel. See How to record a decision.

A decision reached in a channel at 4pm on a Thursday is otherwise gone. Recording it takes a minute and saves a week of reconstruction a year later.

Record a decision needs Record decisions, which leads and admins have by default.

What if the confirmation does not appear in the channel?

The decision is still saved. You see "Decision recorded, but the confirmation couldn't be posted to this channel.", which means only the announcement did not go out.

Tell the channel yourself if the team needs to know.

Which buttons show inside a thread?

Create outreach works on any message in a channel or a thread, except an outreach card. Create task and Record a decision are on messages in the channel itself.

So if a thread settles something, post the outcome in the channel and record it from there. See How to reply and start a thread.

How do you start a conversation about an order?

From Selling › Analytics rather than from chat. On the Recent orders card, click Discuss in chat (the speech bubble) on an order's row.

The Discuss order form opens with the order attached. Name the thread, pick the channel and press Start thread.

It is the fastest route from "this order looks wrong" to the right people looking at it. See How to look up orders and check your fulfilment backlog.

Can you do this on the iPhone?

Yes. Long-press a message and choose Create task, Raise outreach or Record a decision. See How to use chat and tasks on your phone.

What happens if the message is deleted afterwards?

Nothing. A task, outreach or decision made from a message stays when the message is deleted.

The text was copied at the moment you made it, so later edits to either side do not carry over. What the task says is what the message said at the time.

Which should you use?

• Somebody has to do something: a task.
• Somebody has to call, email or text a customer: outreach.
• Something was settled: a decision.

If two apply, use both. A decision about an order and a task to place it are different records, and both are worth having.