Side Conversations

What is a Side Conversation?

A side conversation is a separate thread with someone who is not the customer, attached to the ticket it came from. A supplier, a carrier, a marketplace seller, a colleague in another department.

It has its own recipient, its own subject and its own history, and it links back to the ticket in both directions. The customer is never part of it, and the third party never sees the customer's thread.

Snooze parks a ticket and reminds you about it later. A side conversation is the actual conversation you need to have while the ticket waits, kept on the ticket instead of in your own mailbox.

Starting one yourself

Open the ticket and find Side conversations in the panel on the right. The plus button opens a new thread: pick the channel, pick or type the recipient, and write your message. The thread lands in your queue like any other conversation, and the customer's ticket carries on as normal.

The ticket's timeline shows the side conversation and who it is with, and the thread itself carries a banner at the top with a link straight back to the ticket. Nobody gets lost in a side thread.

Note: A side conversation cannot have a side conversation of its own. The original ticket stays the home of the case.

When the AI opens one

This is where the feature earns its keep. A workflow step can open a side conversation on its own: the message comes from the template in the workflow, and the recipient usually comes straight from the order data, for example the seller's email address on the order.

The AI also gets a done condition, one sentence describing what it is waiting for. From there the ticket runs itself.

• The ticket pauses ⏸ It moves to Blocked and the AI stops working it, so no half answer goes out while you wait. The side conversation sits at Waiting for customer.
• Every reply is judged 🔍 The AI reads each reply from the third party and decides whether the done condition is met. An out-of-office or a bare acknowledgement is not, so the thread keeps waiting.
• The answer comes back to the ticket 📝 Once the condition is met, the AI writes a short, factual internal note on the ticket in the language of that conversation, and closes the side conversation.
• The ticket resumes ▶️ It moves to Needs next response and the workflow picks up exactly where it paused.

Note: A ticket waiting on three parties waits for all three. It only comes back when the last open side conversation is closed.

Each of those steps is written on the timeline, including the rounds where the AI decided the condition was not met yet. You can always see what is being waited for and why the ticket is still parked.

Writing a done condition

This is the one part worth spending time on. A good condition describes an outcome you could read off a reply. A weak one describes a feeling, and leaves the AI nothing to measure against.

• "The seller confirms or rejects the cancellation" ✅ Covers both outcomes, so a no closes the wait as cleanly as a yes.
• "The carrier states the parcel status or confirms it is lost" ✅ Concrete enough that an automatic reply with a tracking link does not count as an answer.
• "We have heard back from the supplier" ❌ An out-of-office satisfies it, and the ticket resumes without anyone being any wiser.
• "The case is resolved" ❌ Never says what had to be resolved.

The AI only marks a side conversation done when the condition is clearly met, and keeps waiting when it is in doubt. A vague condition therefore costs you time rather than sending the customer a wrong answer.

Forwarding instead

Forward, from the reply box, is the one-shot version. It sends the whole correspondence, minus internal notes, as a single message and closes the thread immediately. The ticket is not paused, because nothing is being waited for.

Forward when you are handing something over. Open a side conversation when you expect a reply.

Not only email

• Email ✉️ The everyday case, and the one workflows use.
• SMS 📱 When the third party is a driver or a shop that answers a text far faster than an email.
• Direct messages 💬 A public comment on Facebook or Instagram can be taken into a DM. The comment stays the ticket, the DM becomes the side conversation, and the two stay linked. See Social: AI on comments and DMs.
• Carrier cases 📦 A side conversation tied to a specific carrier, so a parcel trace can be followed as a case in its own right.

When to pick something else

• Snooze ⏱ You have already written to the third party and simply want the ticket back in front of you at a set time. See Snooze.
• Internal note 📌 An internal note is for people who already have access to the ticket. A side conversation is for people who do not.
• Waiting for customer ⏳ The ball is with the customer rather than a third party, and there is nothing for you to chase.

Good habits

Write the condition as an outcome, and cover both a yes and a no. Most side conversations that hang do so because the condition only described the happy path.

Read the timeline on your first few cases. Held open too long means the condition is too strict. Closed too early means it is too loose.

Keep the thread on the ticket, not in your own mailbox. The whole point is that the reply lands where the next person to pick up the case can see it, including when you are off.

Say who you are writing on behalf of. The third party is seeing a fresh thread, not the customer's, so give them the order number and the question in the first message rather than assuming context.