This article explains how to send messages to your customers and receive messages that they send through trashbilling.com.

Send a Customer Message

1. Open a customer account from the Trash Flow tilebar and click Msgs.
2. Click Send New Message.
3. Use the dropdown under Message: to choose a template you've already created or enter a Subject for the message.
4. Use the Message: field to create or edit the message.
5. Click Send. (You can also click Delete to get rid of the message or Cancel to save it as a draft.)

When You're Done

The customer will receive an email that they have a new message from you. That email contains a link for them to log in to trashbilling.com. They can read the message there and respond if necessary. The message will be saved to the Msgs tab with the From line reading "Us."

Receive a Customer Message

You don't need to take any action to receive messages sent by your customers. Once you’ve enabled Messaging, Trash Flow automatically checks for new messages every 5 minutes. The Notifications tile keeps a count of new messages, though keep in mind this includes any bounceback messages where an email you sent didn't arrive. Incoming messages are automatically saved to the Msgs tab on the account.

To see messages from all your customers, click Notifications on the Trash Flow tilebar.

By default this window shows the Inbox—any new messages you’ve received that you haven’t done anything with yet. Each line shows the customer’s account number and name, the subject line, and the date and time the message was received. Click anywhere along the line to read the message.

There are four buttons across the top of the Message window that let you do something with a message: Reply, Open Cust, Archive, and Reminder.

• Reply: Type your response to the customer and click Send, or Cancel if you decide to not respond right now. Replies to a customer’s message always go to whichever email address they provided in their initial message; this may or may not be the same email address listed on the customer’s account.
• Open Cust: Click to open the customer’s account.
• Archive: Takes the message out of the Inbox, though it remains viewable from the customer’s account or by changing the view in the Messages window.
• Reminder: Create a Reminder for you directly from the message.

You can change the view using the drop-down menus at the upper-right hand corner of the screen. Switching from All Messages to Customer Messages shows only the messages that your customers have actually sent you. Switching to Bounced Messages shows only the automated messages from Trash Flow letting you know that an email bill could not be delivered. The second menu lets you switch between the Inbox (that is, new messages that haven’t been archived yet), or all messages from today, the past week, or the past month.

You can always send a new message to a customer directly from their account. Click the Msgs tab on their account and click the Send New Message button at the bottom. If you close the window or cancel the message Trash Flow will automatically save a draft of what you typed. If desired, use a saved template from the dropdown menu directly above the Cancel button; otherwise write the message and click Send. The will be sent to the email address on file under the customer’s Billing Address. This tab will also list any messages you’ve received from the customer; double-click the line to read the message. If you find yourself frequently needing to send the same kind of message to different customers you can write a reusable template.