Inquiry Inbox

The Inquiry Inbox gives office staff one place to receive, classify, assign, and follow up on requests from the Website and Email Monitor. An inquiry is the coordination record for a request; it links to the existing customer, ticket, estimate, or scheduler workflow instead of replacing those records.

Process a new inquiry

1. Open Hub → Inquiries.
2. Open the newest inquiry and confirm its contact details and message.
3. Check the category: Sales, Support, Admin, or Needs classification.
4. Assign it to an active office user when ownership is needed.
5. Use the appropriate action: reply or ask for details, log a call, create an estimate or ticket, send scheduler options, snooze, reassign, or close.
6. Confirm the linked record and the inquiry timeline before closing it.

How requests are routed

Website delivery modes

Legacy email only

The Website uses the original independent notification email. Use this before Hub intake is launched.

Dual-run

The Website sends the same request to the Hub and the independent legacy email service. This is the recommended initial deployment mode.

Hub only

The Hub becomes the sole intake path. Use this only after Dual-run testing and monitoring are satisfactory.

Configure the mode under Hub → Settings → Inquiry Inbox. The settings page shows the configured and effective mode. Safety interlocks can force a safer effective mode when direct intake is unavailable.

Email Monitor and replies

Sales, Support, and Admin messages classified by Email Monitor feed the same inquiry service. Replies carrying the inquiry reference attach to the existing inquiry. The internal Website notification copy is recognized as a mirror and is not turned into a duplicate inquiry.

Delivery, SLA, and Action Center

• Important inquiry signals appear in Action Center for permitted office users.
• The default launch targets warn after 15 configured business minutes and escalate after 60.
• Outside business hours, the clock starts at the next configured opening time.
• Outbound inquiry email uses a durable queue with retries. Failed delivery remains visible for office follow-up.
• When communications test mode is on, customer email is redirected to the configured test recipient.

Permissions and safety

• Super Admin always has access.
• Office access and optional inquiry actions are controlled in Settings.
• Technicians do not receive Inquiry Inbox navigation, pages, APIs, settings, email, or Action Center signals.
• Estimator invitations remain unavailable unless secure ownership-token authorization is enabled.
• AI automatic replies and live customer sending should remain off until deliberately approved.

Troubleshooting

• A request is missing: check the effective Website mode, Inquiry Inbox, Email Monitor, and delivery-failure signals. In Dual-run, confirm the legacy email arrived.
• A duplicate appears: compare the source and external reference. Do not merge or delete records until the source is confirmed.
• A reply failed: leave the inquiry open, review the delivery failure, correct the cause, and retry from the inquiry.
• Hub intake is unreliable: return the Website mode to Legacy email only while the issue is investigated.

Delete a test Inquiry

Super Admin can use the trash button on an explicitly labelled UAT, synthetic, or test Inquiry. The safety check shows exactly what will be deleted and what linked records will be preserved. Type the displayed DELETE INQ-… confirmation to continue.

Cleanup is blocked for ordinary customer requests, Gmail-derived Inquiries, estimate or scheduler work, follow-ups, and email that is still pending or processing. Existing customer/property and linked workflow records are preserved. Office and Technician users never receive this control or API access.

For related workflows, see Email Monitor, Tickets, and Estimates.