Sales and support quick start

This guide is for people who talk to customers every day: sales reps, account managers and support agents. You'll learn how to find and answer a conversation, check who you're talking to, keep notes and tasks so nothing slips, and move deals forward. You don't need to change any settings.

What you'll have at the end

Every customer request you handle has the right contact record, a reply (or a reviewed draft), a clear next step and a named owner.

Before you begin

• Role: Editor or higher to reply, add notes and update records. Viewers can read but not change things.
• Connected channels: someone on your team has connected at least one channel, such as email, SMS or chat. If your Inbox is empty, ask your workspace owner, or select Try sample inbox to practise.
• A test conversation: ideally a message you sent to your business from your own email, so you can practise safely.

Your daily start (5 minutes)

1. Check the workspace name at the top of the left sidebar.
2. Open Inbox → All channels and look at Unread conversations first.
3. Open Tasks → My Tasks or Tasks → Daily plan to see what's due today.
4. Press ⌘K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows) and ask Orbit "What needs my attention?"

Answer a conversation from start to finish

1. Find the conversation

1. Go to Inbox → All channels, or pick one channel, such as Email, SMS or WhatsApp, from the Inbox menu.
2. Use the filters to narrow the list: Filter by status, Assignee, Filter by priority or Filter by label. If you can't find something, clear the filters first.
3. Open the conversation and read the original message, not just the preview.

What you should see: the full message thread in the middle and the contact's details on the right.

2. Check who you're talking to

Look at the contact panel on the right. Compare the name, email, phone number and company with what the customer said. Select View Lead Details to see their full record and history.

If you're not sure it's the same person, don't share account details yet. Add an internal note and ask a teammate.

3. Take ownership

Use Assign to… to assign the conversation to yourself, so teammates know you're on it.

If an AI agent is already answering, you'll see AI is handling this conversation. Select Take over before you write your own reply. When you're done, you can select Return to AI.

4. Leave an internal note (optional)

Switch the reply box to Internal note, write what you checked and what's needed, and select Add Note. Customers never see internal notes.

Example: "Checked order #1042 – shipped Tuesday. Waiting on courier update. Priya to confirm by 3pm."

5. Write and send your reply

1. Type your reply, or select Draft a reply with AI to get a starting draft.
2. Read the AI draft carefully. Remove anything you can't confirm, such as promised dates or prices.
3. Check the sending address or number, the recipient and any attachments.
4. Select Send once.

What you should see: your reply in the thread. If the status looks slow, wait and check again before resending, so the customer doesn't get two copies.

6. Set the next step

• Snooze the conversation (Later today, Tomorrow or Next week) if you're waiting on the customer.
• Close it when the request is done.
• Create a task in Tasks → New task when someone needs to do something later, with a clear title and due date. For example: "Call Jordan Lee about renewal – due Friday."

Keep leads and deals up to date

Leads and contacts

• Open CRM → Leads or CRM → People to see a record's details, notes and activity.
• Select Ask AI on a record to have Orbit summarise it or suggest a next step.
• Add a note after every important call or meeting. If your workspace records meetings, notes appear in Calendar → Meeting Notes.

Deals

1. Go to CRM → Deals and switch to the board view to see deals by stage.
2. Drag a deal to its new stage, or open it and use Move to stage.
3. Open a deal to see its summary and next steps. Select Add task if there's no next step yet.
4. Managers can open Forecast to see expected revenue by close month.

Hand work to a teammate

1. Assign the conversation or task to them by name.
2. Leave an internal note with what's happened, what's needed and by when.
3. For anything involving security, privacy, billing, legal issues or an angry customer, follow your team's escalation process and tell your manager.

Worked example

A message arrives in Inbox from [email protected]: "Can I move my appointment to Thursday?"

1. You open it from Unread and see Jordan's record on the right. The email matches.
2. You assign it to yourself.
3. You check the calendar, then reply: "Thursday at 2pm works. I've updated your booking."
4. You add an internal note: "Moved from Tue to Thu 2pm."
5. You Close the conversation. The record, note and reply all tell the same story.

If something goes wrong

FAQ

Can customers see internal notes?

No. Internal notes are only visible to your team.

Should I rely on AI summaries?

Use them to catch up quickly, but read the original messages before you reply or make a promise.

When should a conversation become a task?

When the work needs to happen later, needs someone else, or has a deadline. Tasks stay on someone's list after the conversation is closed.

Next step

Learn more about conversations and handoffs or deals and pipelines.