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MesyGuide

Get reply suggestions in customer chats

Checked against the app on

When a customer asks a question in a chat, Mesy can write a reply for you to check and send. Everyone on your team can use it.

It works in Inbox › WhatsApp. It also works in Messenger and Instagram if your business has the Social channels add-on. An add-on is an extra part of Mesy your business can turn on.

A customer asks about delivery days. Mesy's suggested reply waits above the empty reply box.

Turn on reply suggestions

Section titled “Turn on reply suggestions”

Suggestions are off until you turn them on. Suggest replies only affects you, and it covers all your customer chats. To turn suggestions on:

  1. Open a conversation in Inbox › WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram.
  2. Click Suggest replies in the conversation header. The dot on the button fills in to show suggestions are on.

Click Suggest replies again to turn them off. While they’re off, Mesy doesn’t read your chats or save anything for suggestions.

Use or dismiss a suggestion

Section titled “Use or dismiss a suggestion”

When a customer’s newest message asks something, a Suggested reply card appears above the reply box. Mesy writes it when you open the conversation. On a WhatsApp line assigned to you, it writes it as soon as the message arrives.

There’s one suggestion per customer message, shared with everyone who can see the chat. If a teammate inserts, sends or dismisses it, it goes away for you too.

Under the reply, a line starting “Grounded on” shows what Mesy used. For example, it names an answer from your Knowledge library, or “This conversation”. Your Knowledge library holds answers your admin writes once so everyone replies the same way.

To use the suggestion:

  1. Click Insert, or press Tab with your cursor in the empty reply box. The reply moves into the reply box.
  2. Change any words you want.
  3. Press Enter or click the send button. Your reply appears in the conversation, with any changes you made.

To throw a suggestion away, click Dismiss, or press Esc with your cursor in the reply box. If you start typing your own reply, the card hides.

Get more suggestions

Section titled “Get more suggestions”

Mesy only suggests a reply when it finds the answer in one of these:

  • your Business Profile: your business name, what you do and your hours
  • your Knowledge library
  • the customer’s record and its notes, if the chat is linked to one. A record is one entry in Mesy, such as one customer.
  • up to the last 12 messages of the conversation

The more questions your library covers, the more often you get a suggestion. Your admin fills in the library on the Business Profile page, as Fill in your Business Profile explains.

See why Mesy did or didn’t suggest a reply

Section titled “See why Mesy did or didn’t suggest a reply”

The Assistant panel shows what Mesy did with the customer’s latest message, and why. To open it, click Assistant in the conversation header. It’s a different panel from the one above your chat list, which Use the AI panel in your Inbox covers.

The top part, Latest, says whether Mesy suggested a reply. If it didn’t, it gives the reason, such as “No draft: nothing in your library answers this.”

The next part, What it was handed, lists the linked record, the library entries Mesy used, and “The last 12 messages of this conversation”. Library entries and the conversation line are marked cited when Mesy used them. This part is left out when Mesy stopped before reading anything, such as when the customer asked for a person.

The last part, Recent, lists the last 10 times Mesy looked at this conversation, including when it made no suggestion. Each line says what happened: “inserted”, “sent as suggested”, “sent, edited”, “dismissed” or “sent by your line”.

When nothing in your library answers the question, an admin sees Add to your library →. It opens the Business Profile page with a new library question filled in from the customer’s message. Your admin writes the answer and saves it, so Mesy can use it next time. Anyone who isn’t an admin sees a note that an admin can add the answer.

Let your WhatsApp line reply by itself

Section titled “Let your WhatsApp line reply by itself”

If a WhatsApp line is assigned to you, Mesy can send its suggested reply for some question types by itself. An assigned line is a WhatsApp line only its assigned person can see. Team lines, which everyone on your team shares, don’t have this option.

You need Suggest replies turned on first. Your choices apply to every WhatsApp line assigned to you. To choose which questions your line answers:

  1. Open a conversation on your assigned WhatsApp line.
  2. Click Reply automatically. A panel lists question types such as hours, price and booking.
  3. Turn on the switch beside a type. Your line now answers that type of question by itself.

A switch stays greyed out until your team has enough history with that type. Each row shows your team’s numbers for the last 90 days. You can turn a type on when all of these are true:

  • your team has sent or dismissed at least 20 suggestions of that type
  • at least 75% of those were sent
  • people changed 20 characters or fewer on average before sending

You can turn on greeting once your Business Profile has its Name, plus What we do or Hours. Mesy only writes a greeting for the customer’s first message in a conversation.

Mesy checks these numbers again before every automatic reply. If a type falls below them, its switch greys out. Your line stops answering that type. When the numbers recover, it starts again by itself.

Your line only sends the reply Mesy would have suggested to you. Each automatic reply ends with a sign-off such as “Sent by Kallang Fresh Produce’s assistant”, in the customer’s language. In the conversation, the message shows a small assistant label.

To stop, turn a switch off. You can’t turn off a greyed-out switch. To stop that type before it starts again, turn Suggest replies off. That pauses every automatic reply. Mesy keeps your choices for when you turn suggestions back on.

To have a WhatsApp line answer every enquiry as a bot, see Let a bot answer WhatsApp enquiries.

See how your team uses suggestions

Section titled “See how your team uses suggestions”

Admins can see how often your team sends or changes Mesy’s suggestions, for each question type. Go to Admin, open the Models tab and find the Reply suggestions table. It covers the last 30 days, so its numbers can differ from the Reply automatically panel. Set up the AI covers that tab.

If something doesn’t work

Section titled “If something doesn’t work”

Mesy doesn’t suggest a reply when:

  • the customer’s last message is more than 24 hours old (WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram only let you reply within 24 hours)
  • the message has no text, such as a photo on its own
  • nothing in your library answers the question
  • you or a teammate already replied after the customer’s last message
  • the WhatsApp line is set up as a bot

When a customer asks to speak to a person, the card shows “The customer asked for a person” instead of a reply. Click Dismiss or press Esc to clear it.

If Latest in the Assistant panel says “Something went wrong on our side”, click Retry. Mesy tries the same message again.