Using in-app secure chats
At the beginning of the lesson, let's observe what TaxDome chats are:
Chats allow you to communicate with your clients securely in real-time. You can use it to schedule appointments or ask clients for additional information. What chats can offer:
- Clients receive push notifications about new messages and chats on their TaxDome mobile app
- Both you and the clients can upload documents directly in the chat thread
- You can add a checklist to the thread to speed up and simplify tasks for clients
- You can exchange internal messages with team members in the same thread to communicate with the client.
Sounds cool? Let's find out how to start chatting.
Starting a chat thread
There are many ways to create a chat in TaxDome. We will start with a way that works on any page. To do so, click the New button at the top left. This button is a real helper because it helps to create nearly everything in TaxDome. Right now, we will create a chat, so you need to select Chat in this menu.
Then select the clients you need, write the message and click Create chat. You can find the message you sent by clicking on Go to chat in the popup:
By the way, here we used a template to speed up the communication, and you'll learn how to do it too, but a little later.
Another way to find the sent message is to go to the Communication tab of the client account:
Restricting clients from creating new chats
By default, clients can initiate new chat threads just like team members. If they use that power wisely or if you have few clients, it doesn't cause a mess. But if you have, let's say, 50 clients, and each creates separate chat threads for any reason, it overwhelms the interface with dozens of them, and you feel like an online store advisor on the eve of Black Friday.
To avoid confusion, you can disable clients' ability to create new chats in the Firm settings. This way, they can only reply to the ones you've created for them.
Tweaking chat notifications
Your clients will always get email notifications about new messages and tasks. By default, we keep the message content and client tasks hidden in the email body for security. But, if the content isn't sensitive, you can display it in the email by turning on the Show message context in the client-facing notifications toggle in your Firm Settings. It's all about giving you control over what your clients see in their emails!
Internal messages
You can send internal messages to your team members within a chat thread with a client.
This resource can help you accelerate activities and enhance transparency related to a service you and your team provide to clients.
To use this feature, toggle the Internal message option in a chat. The messages will be visible only to team members, not clients, and you can notify specific colleagues.
To summarize, TaxDome's in-app secure chats provide centralized, real-time communication, enabling document sharing, task checklists, and internal team messaging within the same thread.
In the next lesson, let's explore such a timely resource to accelerate your services when exchanging documents.