How to Use Team Chat in LeadLocate

Team Chat is the conversation that is not with a customer. It opens from the top bar at the desk and from the dock on the phone, and it belongs to the store instead of to somebody's personal phone.

1. Open the drawer

   On the desktop, click Team Chat in the top bar, the same row as Send a Text, Make a Call, Send an Email and Support. The drawer opens over the right of the screen and the page you were on stays where it was. On the phone app, tap Team on the bottom dock and the panel rises from the bottom. Same conversations, same history, either way in.

2. Pick a channel or a person

   The list on the left holds the store's channels and the people on the account. Use the search box at the top to find a channel or a teammate by name instead of scrolling. Most stores run three channels to start: one for the whole sales floor, one for the BDC and one for managers. If nobody has made one yet, the new channel control at the top of the list creates it, names it, and adds the people who belong in it.

3. Say the thing

   Type in the message box at the bottom of the drawer and send. If you would rather talk than type, the microphone in the message box takes dictation and drops the words in the box for you to read before you send. Drop a file straight into the conversation with the attach control when the answer is a spec sheet, a spiff sheet or a photo of the lot.

4. React instead of replying

   Hover or long press a message and add a reaction. Twelve people acknowledging the weekend spiff sheet is one line of reactions rather than twelve replies, and the channel stays readable for the person who was off yesterday. Use a poll for the small decisions that would otherwise take a meeting, such as which two units go on the front line.

5. Turn the sound on so you hear the next one

   Open your user record in User Management and find the notification preferences. Play Team Chat sound plays a tone whenever a teammate messages you, unless the drawer is already open in front of you. Turn it on for the people who need to be reachable, such as the desk and the BDC, and leave it off for anybody who lives in the drawer all day anyway.

6. Close it and get back to work

   Close the drawer and the CRM is exactly where you left it, because the drawer sits over your work rather than replacing it. The unread count on the button tells you when something new arrived, so a rep working a lead does not have to keep checking.

There is nothing to switch on and nothing to buy. Team Chat is part of LeadLocate CRM for every user on the account from the first login, at the desk and on the phone app. If you can sign in, you have it.

What is worth deciding before the first message is who is in which channel. A Master Administrator or a Manager makes the first channels and posts the first announcement in one of them, rather than in the group text, so the floor learns where announcements now live. The people available to add are the users your store already manages in User Management, which is also where a departing salesperson's access ends, and with it their access to the store's conversation. The Team Chat feature page makes the case for moving off personal phones; this page is the clicks.

A drawer, not a new page. Channels and people on the left, the conversation on the right, the message box at the bottom. Presence tells you who is actually online, which at a dealership means who can take a walk in right now. Read receipts answer the question a BDC manager asks a dozen times a day, which is whether the rep saw it, and they change behavior: a message everyone knows was read tends to get acted on.

On the top bar the button carries its unread count, so it reads 0 Team Chat when you are caught up and shows the number when you are not. On the phone the same conversations are behind Team on the dock, next to Text, Call, New Lead and Email, so a manager between tasks answers from the lot without walking back to an office.

Leave your number and a lead specialist calls you back to answer your questions about pricing, coverage, and setup. Mon - Sat, 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM Pacific.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.

You do not see the channel your team is talking in. Channels hold the people who were added to them. Ask whoever made it to add you, or search the list first, because a channel you were added to this morning may simply be further along than you scrolled.

No sound when a teammate messages you. Check Play Team Chat sound on your user record. It also stays quiet on purpose when the drawer is already open in front of you, which is correct behavior rather than a missed message.

The person you want is not in the list. They do not have a login yet. A Master Administrator adds them in User Management, and they appear in Team Chat as soon as the account exists.

You meant to message a customer and used Team Chat. Team Chat is between employees only, so nothing you type there reaches a shopper. Customer messages go out from the texting inbox or from the lead, where the delivery status, the consent record and the do not call check live.

Two conversations run at a dealership and they should never share a room. Team Chat is the store's internal conversation: the manager telling the floor a unit got marked down, the rep asking the tower for a number, the BDC saying the two o'clock just pulled in. It is owned by the store and tied to the users the store controls.

The customer conversation lives on the customer's record. Texts and calls run through the lead, where every message carries a delivery status and the whole thread sits in the communications log. On a deal, the card the buyer types into is labeled Customer Chat, and the deal chat page covers how that one works. Keeping the line clean is most of a messaging policy: customer conversation in the lead, team conversation in Team Chat, and no more screenshots of a customer's information flying around on personal phones.

The LeadLocate Help Center has the guides for the work Team Chat usually interrupts: texting a customer, making a call from the CRM, setting your notification preferences and working the lead inbox. The LeadLocate mobile app page covers the rest of the dock the Team button sits on.

Two habits make Team Chat stick in a store. Managers answer in the drawer for a week instead of walking over, so reps learn that a message gets a reply. And the old group text gets retired on purpose, with one last message in it saying where the conversation moved. A channel structure your store wants that is different from the usual three is available on request, and our team puts it in production for your dealership.

Can customers see Team Chat?

No. Team Chat is only between users on your account. Customer conversation happens on the lead, in the texting inbox, or on a deal page, and never crosses into the team drawer.

Do I need a separate app for Team Chat?

No. It is inside LeadLocate CRM at the desk and behind the Team button on the phone app dock, under the same login as everything else.

How do I know a teammate read my message?

Read receipts. The message shows when the other person has seen it, which is how a BDC agent stops chasing a salesperson about an appointment.

Who can create a channel?

Any user can start a conversation, and most stores let a Master Administrator or a Manager set up the standing channels so the floor, the BDC and the managers each have one place.

Team Chat is included for every user on every LeadLocate plan, at the desk and on the phone. See it next to the leads and the deals in the pre-recorded demo, or start month to month.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.