The WhatsApp inbox: reading along with your assistant
What is the WhatsApp inbox?
Under Admin → WhatsApp you read along with the conversations that clients have via WhatsApp with your assistant on your number. For each conversation you see the full transcript and which conversations need your attention. You reply in WhatsApp itself on your phone; the inbox is for reading along and ticking off.
If WhatsApp is not in your admin menu, the channel is not yet active for your account. The Golfly team arranges connecting it; there is no button for it in your settings. You sign up under Admin, Subscription: see Requesting the WhatsApp assistant.
The three statuses
Each conversation has exactly one status. It appears as a coloured label next to the conversation in the list and at the top of the conversation itself.
- Needs attention (red). The assistant has handed the conversation over to you and you have not replied since. This is the only label you really have to do something about.
- Coach active (orange). You replied yourself via WhatsApp. The assistant then stays quiet for 2 hours, so it does not talk over your conversation.
- Handled (green). The assistant is handling the conversation itself. Nothing is needed from you.
The list always puts Needs attention at the top, then Coach active, then the rest. Within each group the conversation with the most recent message is at the top. You see the hundred most recent conversations, plus all conversations that need attention, even if they are older.
The badge in your menu
Next to WhatsApp in the admin menu is the number of conversations with the status Needs attention. That counter refreshes automatically every 30 seconds while you are in the admin panel, so you do not have to reload the page. If there are more than nine, it says 9+. If nothing is open, the badge disappears.
Above the list are filter buttons with the number per status, so with one tap you see only the conversations that need attention.
Handling a conversation
- Go to Admin → WhatsApp. The conversations that need attention are at the top.
- Tap the conversation. At the top is the client and the status of the conversation.
- Read back the transcript, from top to bottom. The client's messages are on the left, the assistant's messages on the right.
- At the top right, tap Open in WhatsApp. That opens the conversation with this client in WhatsApp, where you simply type your reply.
- As soon as you have replied in WhatsApp, the conversation disappears from Needs attention by itself and is set to Coach active.
- If you resolved it outside WhatsApp, for example by phone or at the club, tap Mark as handled. That button only appears for a conversation with the status Needs attention.
The difference between those last two steps lies in what the assistant does afterwards. If you reply yourself via WhatsApp, it stays quiet for 2 hours. If you mark the conversation as handled, it may join in again straight away at the client's next message.
What you see in the transcript
The inbox shows the last 200 messages of a conversation.
- On the left are the client's messages.
- On the right are the assistant's messages. Below them is the delivery status that WhatsApp itself returns, for example
sent,deliveredorread. - Dotted and in italics is
[coach reply via WhatsApp]. That is a message you sent yourself from your phone. Golfly deliberately does not keep the text of it, only that you replied and when.
If the assistant sent something other than plain text, you see a short description instead of the content: [location shared], [buttons sent], [tap list sent] or [button sent].
At the top of the conversation is usually the client's phone number. A WhatsApp number is currently not linked automatically to a client in your client base, so expect to work by number.
What the assistant handles itself
Without you, the assistant can:
- name your lesson types, duration and prices, and offer them as a tap list or buttons;
- look up free moments in your calendar, up to a week ahead;
- propose a booking, cancellation or rescheduling and really record it after confirmation by the client;
- automatically use an outstanding lesson credit, or otherwise send a payment button;
- send the location as a map pin after a confirmed booking;
- pass on a wish for which there is no offer, for example a lesson type you do not have;
- record whether the client wants a WhatsApp reminder, 24 hours before their lesson.
Booking, cancelling and rescheduling always go through a proposal with two buttons. Only when the client taps the confirm button is it really recorded. If the client does not respond, nothing happens.
After a confirmed booking the assistant sends at most one extra message: the question whether the client wants a WhatsApp reminder, a tip to put your app on the home screen, or a reference to your lesson card. Never more than one at a time.
The assistant replies in Dutch or English, depending on the language the client writes in. Messages that have nothing to do with lessons with you it deliberately leaves unanswered.
Practical info about your location
Clients also ask your assistant questions that have nothing to do with booking: where can I park, is there a toilet, until what time is the lounge open, do I have to bring my own clubs. It answers those from one block of text that you manage yourself. You find it at the top of the inbox, under Practical info for the assistant.
Put in it, in plain sentences, what a reception desk would tell: address and route, parking, toilet and changing rooms, catering, opening hours, what to bring and what can be borrowed. At most 2000 characters, and Save is enough; there is no publishing step.
What is not in it, the assistant does not know. It then makes nothing up, but says honestly that it does not know and that the client can ask you. If you leave the block empty, it does not get involved in such questions: as a first message it leaves them to you, and in a running conversation it says it does not know.
The same distinction applies to small talk. As a first message it deliberately ignores it, so you can simply answer it yourself. In a running conversation it responds with one short, friendly sentence and steers back to what it can arrange. If it concerns something for you personally, such as lost property, an injury or a complaint, it offers to bring you in.
When the assistant brings you in
The assistant hands the conversation over to you if the client explicitly asks for it, or if it really cannot solve it itself after a serious attempt. Cancelling or rescheduling within 24 hours before the lesson is such a case: it refuses that, and then offers to bring you in. A request for money back also goes to you.
With such a handover the following happens:
- The client gets a fixed message: "I'm passing your message on to
<your name>. You'll hear from the coach personally." - You get an in-app notification and a push notification with the title "WhatsApp client is waiting for you", with the reason and the client's last message. If you tap it, WhatsApp opens at that client. No email goes out; this is deliberately a "have a look at your phone now" signal.
- The conversation jumps to Needs attention in the inbox and the assistant goes quiet, so the client does not get two replies.
Two things to know. If something goes technically wrong on the assistant's side, it also sets the conversation to Needs attention, but then there is no push notification. So look at the badge in your menu yourself now and then. And if you do not respond at all for 24 hours, the assistant may pick up that client's next message itself again.
If you want to receive those push notifications on your phone, you must have Golfly on your home screen. See Push notifications and installing the app.
WhatsApp's 24-hour window
WhatsApp only allows free messages within 24 hours of the client's last message. Outside that, only a message in a template approved beforehand by Meta is allowed.
Golfly has one template for that: the lesson reminder, which goes out about 24 hours before the lesson to clients who said yes to that themselves via the assistant. It goes once per booking.
Practically that means: if a client has sent nothing for more than a day, the assistant cannot reopen the conversation on its own. That is a WhatsApp rule, not a setting in Golfly. If you still want to reach such a person, use another channel, for example Messages or just a phone call.
Frequently asked questions
Can I type a message from the inbox?
No. The inbox is for reading along and ticking off. You reply in WhatsApp on your phone, via the Open in WhatsApp button at the top of the conversation.
Why is a conversation I already answered on "Needs attention"?
Then your reply probably did not go via WhatsApp, for example by phone or by email. In that case tap Mark as handled, and it is out of your list.
Does the assistant talk over me if I reply myself?
No. As soon as you respond via WhatsApp, the assistant stays quiet for 2 hours. If the client keeps talking after that, it picks up the conversation again.
Why do I not see my own text in the transcript?
Golfly does not keep the content of your own WhatsApp messages. In the transcript you only see that you replied, with the time. The text itself is simply in WhatsApp on your phone.
The assistant did not reply to a message, how come?
Three possibilities. The message was not about lessons (or, if you have filled in practical info, about your location), so it deliberately ignores it as a first message. Or you had just replied yourself, so it stays quiet for 2 hours. Or the conversation is on Needs attention and is waiting for you.