Create a New Conversation

In addition to replying to emails, you can also start new emails out from Help Scout, or log phone calls to keep track of those conversations. This article is all about how to start new conversations. 

Head into the Mailbox where you want the new conversation to appear then click New Conversation to open the conversation editor. You'll find this button down at the bottom of the left navigation menu. 

If you're a keyboard shortcut fan, type gn while you're on the Mailbox view. 

A new conversation can be one of two types, Email or Phone.

Email

Email is the default option. Your email will be sent to the email address(es) you enter and this will be saved as the beginning of the conversation with your customer. 

A few notes on sending new emails from Help Scout: 

• Looking for a spell checker? All of the supported web browsers offer spell checking built in to the browser itself. Enable your browser's spell check feature and that will work in the Help Scout editor as well. 
• The option to start new conversations in Help Scout is not meant to replace your marketing email tools and the number of recipients is limited to 25. If you're looking to send out bulk emails such as newsletters or advertisements, you'll want to use an email service dedicated to email marketing instead. We offer integrations with Campaign Monitor, Mailchimp, Constant Contact, HubSpot (on the Plus plan), along with a few others to help you keep in sync with those services. 
• To create a new customer profile with name as well as the email address while you're starting a new conversation, use the following format in the To field: FirstName LastName <email@domain.com>. For example, to create a new customer named Betty Shears, you'd enter Betty Shears <betty@domain.com>. See Customer Profiles for more on those. 

Phone

Choose the Phone icon to change your new conversation to a phone note. Phone notes are internal conversations only, and the editor color will change to yellow, indicating that you’re adding a note.

The customer will not receive an email. 

Phone notes have their own reporting! Check out Reports: Phone for more information on the metrics you can find there.