How to create and use collections

Neelke Stadler Updated by Neelke Stadler

Collections can be likened to folders that help you to organise your conversations.

When you navigate to the Dashboard section in the left navigation panel, you’ll notice a number of white boxes - these are called collections.

At first glance, you’ll see that each collection has a title and that it shows the number of users that have open chats in that collection.

Create a collection

You can structure your collections in a way that makes sense to your team and chat service. There are two ways to create a new collection.

Option 1: Scroll to the end of your current collections and click the +Add Collection button.

You will be taken to the search page where you can define the criteria for your collection.

Option 2: On the Dashboard page navigate to the main search bar (top right) and click on it. You will be taken to the same Search page where you can define the criteria for your collection.

Define the criteria for your collection

A simple way to think about a collection is that it is a saved search. All messages that match the search criteria you define will automatically be visible in that specific collection.

Using the search page you can filter your conversations by:

  • keywords
  • message direction (sent or received)
  • coaches
  • labels or
  • dates

For example, if you tick the box next to a coach’s name, you’ll be able to see all the conversations they’re handling. If you select a label, you’ll be given a list of all the conversations that have that particular label (e.g. “high risk”). If you click on Message Direction Received, you'll only see messages that you have received from your users. Lastly, by clicking on the dates, you can select a time frame for the conversations you’d like to see (e.g. all conversations from the last week).

Once you are happy with your search criteria click the +Save as a Collection button at the top of the Search page.

You will be prompted to give your collection a name.

Once you click Save the collection will be added to your Dashboard page. 🚀

Two things to remember about search:

  • Filters are additive. So, if you add a label and a coach to your search, only those messages that have been assigned to the coach AND the label will show.
  • You’ll notice that the labels and/or coaches that you’ve used as filters appear right at the top of your screen. If you’d like to do a new search, you can simply click “Clear” to add new filters to your search.

Edit or delete a collection

On most collections you’ll notice a menu top right (three little dots). From here, you can edit the collection title and/or delete the entire collection. Some collections will automatically form part of your dashboard; others can be added as you start to work together as a team.

Use collections to collaborate

Typically, teams would divide the collections among themselves to split the work. One team member could, for example, be put in charge of handling all conversations in the “high risk” collection, while another could take responsibility for the “question” collection.

Or you can have a collection of conversations that have media attachments or a collection of conversations that have a specific label such as “opt-in”, “question” or “high risk” attached to them. You can also have a “coaches” collection that will pull in all the conversations that have been assigned to the coaches on your team.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with your collections. It might take a bit of tweaking, but you’ll soon find a way to manage all your conversations with ease while doing coordinated teamwork! 🤓➕🙂➕😎

Take note: Conversations can be in multiple collections at once. For example, if you have a collection for conversations assigned to Thandiwe (one of your coaches) as well as a collection for messages with the “high risk” label, a conversation that’s assigned to Thandiwe and which has at least one message with the “high risk” label will appear in both collections.

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