Feature
An omnichannel inbox for every customer conversation
Naffes CRM puts email, WhatsApp, SMS, customer-portal chat, Messenger and Instagram DMs, and public comments on your posts into a single queue at /inbox, with the contact and deal shown beside each thread. Every conversation has one owner, and a rep's reply moves the deal forward without extra clicks.
The job: no conversation falls between phones and mailboxes
Most growing sales teams answer customers in too many places. WhatsApp lives on reps' personal phones, the shared mailbox belongs to whoever checks it first, and Instagram DMs sit with marketing. When a buyer asks for a quote on Thursday evening, nobody knows who owns the reply, and the manager only finds out when the buyer has gone quiet.
The Naffes inbox is built around three rules. Every channel lands in one queue. Every thread has exactly one owner. Every thread is tied to a contact and, where there is one, a deal. The reply and the pipeline update happen on the same screen, and a message from an unknown number becomes a contact before anyone opens it.
Inside the inbox screen
Inbox is pinned near the top of the sidebar. The left column lists conversations, with a channel filter and a single search box that looks across every channel. The middle shows the open thread. On the right, the Context panel shows the contact, their deal, what they still owe, their open tickets and their timeline. While the app is open, the list updates live, and a toast on any screen flags new unanswered conversations.
Built-in views split the work:
- Mine: threads assigned to you.
- Unassigned: nobody has claimed them yet, which makes this the first view to clear each morning.
- Waiting for us: the customer is waiting on a reply from your side.
- Bot handling: WhatsApp threads the bot is still running.
- Done: closed threads, which reopen by themselves if the customer writes again.
- All: everything you are allowed to see.
Here is how a typical evening lead plays out. A new number writes to your WhatsApp line at 9 pm. Naffes creates a contact named from the sender's profile, with WhatsApp as the lead source. Exactly one person is notified: the thread's assignee, otherwise the contact owner, otherwise the workspace owner. A burst of messages produces one alert, in the app and as a push notification. Next morning a rep claims the thread from Unassigned, creates a deal from inside the conversation and replies. That reply moves the new deal to the contacted stage without a trip to the pipeline board.
Channels at a glance
| Channel | How it connects | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Gmail, Outlook/Microsoft 365 or any IMAP mailbox | Personal or shared mailboxes; the full mail client is one click away | |
| Your workspace's own Twilio account and registered number | Only approved templates go out once the 24-hour window closes | |
| SMS | The same Twilio account | Shows sent and delivered, but SMS never reports read |
| Customer portal | The project portal that opens when a deal is won | Portal chat from the customer lands here |
| Messenger and Instagram DMs | Your Facebook Page and its linked Instagram business account | Reply-only, and dependent on the permissions Meta grants |
| Public comments | The same connected Page | Reply in public, hide the comment, or turn the commenter into a contact |
WhatsApp and SMS run through your own Twilio account. You buy the number and get the WhatsApp sender approved in the Twilio console. An admin then registers it under Settings > Integrations > Channels > WhatsApp Number, where a readiness check shows each setup stage and the webhook URL. A backfill button imports messages from the last 1, 3 or 7 days that arrived before the webhook was wired.
Ownership, visibility and closing threads
By default a rep sees the threads assigned to them plus the unassigned queue. Workspace admins, and any role with permission to see the whole team's conversations (Managers have it), see everything. Customer conversations stay with the people working them, and managers still get the full picture.
- Claim, assign, release: a rep claims an unassigned thread, hands it to a teammate or puts it back in the queue. The new assignee is notified.
- Ownership follows the thread: assigning a thread moves its deal to the same person, and the contact too when it had no owner or belonged to the previous assignee.
- Pin, block, tag: pins are personal, spam senders can be blocked, and a service-type tag marks what the thread is about.
- Close with a reason: resolved, won, lost, no response, spam or other. A new message from the customer reopens it.
- Act without leaving: create a deal or contact, link an existing deal, set a reminder on the thread, or open a help-desk ticket whose public replies go back on the same channel (tickets are a Pro feature).
The pipeline also moves on its own. The first reply from a rep puts the deal in contacted, a bot that qualifies the lead puts it in qualified, and a booked meeting puts it in consultation. Moves only go forward and only touch open deals, so an advanced deal is never dragged back.
Working inside WhatsApp's rules
Meta opens a 24-hour customer service window when a customer messages you, and only template messages can be sent outside it. The composer shows whether the window is open, closing soon (under an hour left) or closed. Once it closes, the rep is steered to an approved template and fills in its variables. Templates are written in Twilio's Content Template Builder, approved by Meta and imported into Naffes in one click.
- Delivery status on every outbound message: queued, sent, delivered, read (WhatsApp only) or failed. For eight common WhatsApp error codes, such as a closed window, a number that is not on WhatsApp or Meta's marketing-message cap, the rep sees a plain-language explanation.
- Media: images, audio, video and documents up to 16 MB per file on WhatsApp, plus a per-thread media gallery you can download as a zip.
- Voice: reps record voice notes in the browser and the server converts them to a format WhatsApp accepts. Customers' voice notes are transcribed, so the text is searchable and shows on the timeline.
- Copilot: one click returns up to three ready-to-send reply suggestions based on the conversation.
Silence rules keep quiet threads from dying
Silence rules are on by default and run every 30 minutes. Admins adjust them under Settings > Integrations > Channels > Silence rules; a value of 0 turns a rule off, or all rules can be switched off together.
| Rule | Default | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Alert the assignee | Customer waiting 2 hours | The owner is alerted; managers are alerted at once if nobody is assigned |
| Escalate to managers | 24 hours | Managers get an alert |
| Check-in message | 48 hours of customer silence | One follow-up message is sent |
| Auto-close | 14 days | The thread closes as no response and its open deal is marked lost |
The check-in is a fixed text. On WhatsApp it goes out as free text only while the window is open; outside the window it needs a template that is currently set as a server setting, so with the defaults the WhatsApp check-in is usually skipped. A deal lost to silence reopens if the customer writes again. Managers watch the desk from the manager dashboard preset, which counts new, waiting and unassigned conversations and shows how fast a person first replies and how often the bot hands over.
Limits and what to expect
- No round-robin or load-balanced routing of new conversations, and no automation action that assigns a thread. Assignment is manual or comes from a bot handoff step.
- No saved replies in the WhatsApp and SMS composer (snippets exist for email only), and one attachment per outgoing message.
- Messenger and Instagram are reply-only: you cannot start a DM, and replies work only inside Meta's 24-hour window. These channels and comments depend on permissions Meta grants to the Naffes app, and the connection screen shows what each Page actually has.
- No direct WhatsApp Cloud API or provider other than Twilio, and no Telegram or website live-chat widget.
- If one person ends up with two threads, Naffes does not merge them for you.
- View counts cover the loaded page of each channel, not exact server totals.
Questions
Questions 4
Do I need the WhatsApp Business API?
Yes, through Twilio. Naffes sends and receives WhatsApp through your workspace's own Twilio account and an approved WhatsApp sender there. Email and portal chat work without Twilio.
Can two reps end up answering the same customer?
Each thread has one assignee, and reps only see their own threads plus the unassigned queue. Claiming a thread takes it out of Unassigned, and reassigning it notifies the new owner.
What happens when the 24-hour WhatsApp window closes?
The composer marks the window as closed and offers your approved templates. The rep picks one, fills its variables and sends it. The customer's reply opens a fresh 24-hour window, and the rep can write freely again.
Can I use the inbox on my phone?
Yes, in the browser. The layout adapts to phones, where an open thread fills the screen. You can also install Naffes to your home screen as a PWA and get push notifications for new customer messages; on iPhone, push works once Naffes has been added to the Home Screen.