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Changelog

New updates and improvements to ThriveDesk.
April 5, 2023

Recap Q1 2023: WPPortal, Learning Hub, SureCart integration and more…

Ayoooo!! We’re back, and this time we’re here to drop a refresher on all the fire hits we’ve been dropping the last few months. 🔥💯😎 

As always, our team has worked tirelessly to provide our customers, with the best-in-class support.

We’ve come a long way since the last time we did this, so without further adieu, lets get into it, amigos! Vamonos!

WPPortal – Communications Hub for WordPress

In our latest and most significant release recently, we launched WPPortal, a customer support platform that allows customers to access their entire conversation history on the portal interface. 

We launched on Product hunt and as of now we’ve received positive reviews from the entire SaaS community on Product hunt.  

WPPortal introduced an optimized search function that allows customers to find specific conversations, streamlining the issue-reporting process for businesses using our service. 

WPPortal also offers faster communication and issue resolution by allowing customers to initiate new conversations with just one click from their customer dashboard. 

Customers also have built-in access to WordPress’ native knowledge base, which they can use to troubleshoot their issues, reducing support ticket volume for support agents and allowing them to focus on more critical support issues.

The comprehensive experience of WPPortal includes a fresh new UI and an extensive range of invaluable features and functions on the customer end, significantly boosting your support and overall business.

SureCart Integration

Next we released the first of our many planned integrations. ThriveDesk’s Surecart integration, offers a range of features designed to enhance customer service and streamline order management. 

The User Access Control feature ensures that only authorized personnel can process refunds, reducing the risk of fraudulent activity. 

The integration also features a custom UI and a unique widget designed specifically for SureCart, making the integration user-friendly and effortless. In the future, ThriveDesk plans to introduce a partial refund feature, increasing the flexibility and versatility of the refund process.

Saved Reply – Redesigned

We started the year off strong with the new and improved Saved Reply feature that enables agents to work more efficiently and enhance the customer experience.

The previous version had issues with managing saved replies, including the use of folders, which made it challenging to locate and organize replies effectively. With the updated feature, we have eliminated the folder option to provide a more seamless and intuitive experience. 

Saved replies can now be found in a single list under the inboxes tab, and the Search replies bar allows for quick and easy access to desired replies. 

Users can also access the Saved Reply feature from the inbox settings tab without having to navigate to the general settings tab. Additionally, the optimized inbox button improves accessibility and speeds up support. 

Just to highlight, this update was powered by our users. Our customers reported all the previous issues of the old Saved reply and help us craft the changes that they wanted to see. We value our customers and the fact that we were able to effectively listen to them and implement the changes was relieving.

Draft Takeover

Draft takeover was a significant feature we added for support agents. Before adding the takeover option, once a message was drafted by a specific support agent, that ticket became off limits to other agents. 

Basically, the only agent that could reply to the conversation was the agent that drafted the first message. This created an issue. What if the agent that drafted the initial reply goes on vacation? Will the customer have to wait till he gets back to receive support? 
The answer: Draft takeover. This allows other agents to reply to a conversation even if the initial reply was drafted by another agent.

New and Improved Reply Editor

This change was very much pushed through by our user feedback. The old ticket reply editor was slow and a real source of anguish for support teams that used our platform. 

We looked into it, and even though cosmetically, the editor might appear the same, save a few tweaks here and there, the main changes were skin-deep. 

We decided to update the packages we used to load the editor, and as a result, the performance significantly improved. Currently, the editor is stable and fast, and as of now, we’ve received positive feedback on the changes. 

Disabled Email Open Track – Privacy Matter

In purely software development terms it was a minor release but ethically it was a massive step for us, ThriveDesk disabled email tracking on its platform for three main reasons.

Migration to AWS EU

Do you feel that speed? Are our services running smoother than a baby seal sliding on ice? Well of-course they are! 

That’s because we’ve migrated some of our major servers such as the ThriveDesk main server, community, cache, database and search servers to AWS europe. This migration has not only improved speed but also reliability, and security of our services, ensuring that our customers have the best possible experience. 

With AWS cutting-edge technology, we can offer even better performance and scalability, allowing us to handle increased traffic and demand. 

Our team has taken great care to ensure a seamless transition, and we are confident that our customers will benefit from this migration.

Chat notification system fix

Chat notification was another back end issue we fixed. Before the fix, the notification data was saved on the client’s server. This resulted in false notifications. To stop these false notifications, we decided to store the data on our server. This fixed the issue all together.

New Learning Hub

Walkthrough videos on demand: Introducing our new learning hub! Our learning hub contains a vast collection of short and easy-to-follow videos that will guide you through every aspect of ThriveDesk, making it easier for you to use and manage your workload.

Whether you’re a new user or an experienced one, our learning hub offers a wide range of topics, including setting up your account, managing your team, and optimizing your workflow. You’ll also find useful tips and tricks that will help you get the most out of your ThriveDesk experience.

So, if you want to take your ThriveDesk skills to the next level, head to our learning hub and start exploring today!

Minor improvements and fixes

Fixes:

  • Wrong In-Reply-To appending on outgoing email.
  • Wrongly including self-message id in the email reference list.
  • Malfunction message id on auto-reply email.
  • Missing previous mail references in the auto-reply email.
  • Parser throwing error when attempting to convert CSS through the transform package.
  • Fix missing message body issue due to td-quote.
  • Wrong waiting since, closed_at, deleted_at time showing on conversation.
  • Conversation sorting not working (newest/oldest).
  • Ignore notifying if the assignable id is null.
  • Bulk and single operations (delete, status change, restore, etc) redirecting to home page or other folder.
  • Viewing trash conversation on modal showing ticket not found.
  • Set the is_draft flag to false after committing an event as note.
  • Allow inbox delete route for billing mismatch feature exception.
  • Message sending state not updating.
  • Waiting since time was showing server time instead of client time.
  • Disable updating mail message state if already sent.
  • Saved reply inbox change update issue fixed.
  • Remove the domain from hostname (inbox).
  • Duplicate event dispatching on draft sent.
  • Conversation event not updating after sending mail issue fixed.
  • Fixed a bug where draft sent event was redirecting all organization agents on that sent conversation.
  • Draft takeover more smoother than before.
  • Fixed where draft take over wasn’t appending on editor agent end.
  • Fixed where takeover draft appending as null which leads to triggering the draft delete event on frontend.
  • Fixed an issue where conversation event wasn’t updating sometimes after sending a reply.
  • Assistant language support has a styling issue for WooCommerce. The newly created assistant doesn’t load immediately.
  • The assistant contact form error inside customization is fixed.

Improvements:

  • Added capability to handle auto-reply messages from various email platforms.
  • Improved ability to recognize and process replies from customer service agents.
  • Implemented referencing feature for linking emails and conversations for improved organization and tracking.
  • Users can now switch between multiple organizations within the same browser window.
  • Users can have multiple tabs open, each displaying a different organization.
  • Users can now provide support to multiple organizations simultaneously.
  • Improved time management and increased efficiency for users with multiple organizations under the same company.
  • Added more mime types for message attachments.
  • Redesigned draft conversations with existing conversations also.
  • Public API conversation sorting by newest/oldest.
  • Enhanced OpenAI expand and reduce feature for selected text response.
  • Allowed opening attachments in new tab.
  • Allowed downloading an attachments multiple times.
  • Download non-image file with the same name as uploaded

Wrapping up

This release note has covered several updates and enhancements to ThriveDesk that will improve the experience for both businesses and their customers. 

The revamp of Saved Reply makes responding to support inquiries faster and more efficient, while the Surecart integration provides an easier and more streamlined experience for Surecart business owners. 

We also made the decision to disable open email tracking to prioritize privacy for our users. 

WPPortal serves as a centralized communications hub for WordPress businesses, providing customers with a comprehensive experience that includes access to conversation history, an optimized search function, and a built-in knowledge base.

We’ve also done numerous minor tweaks, fixes, and improvements, which are too many to mention.

These updates show our commitment to continuously improving our platform and providing exceptional customer service solutions. Our team works extremely hard to ensure our vision and keep our goals clear. We appreciate your continued support for our product and hope we can keep growing exponentially. 

March 22, 2023
Introducing WP Portal and API

Introducing WPPortal & API – Bringing your customers closer to WordPress

There was a time when software manufacturers were stingy, rigid, and set in their own ways. They changed the world around them through innovation but expected the public to understand the complexities of software and use them as they did. 

In the world of consumerism, people have simple needs and demands when they are looking to buy a product. 

They roughly consider 3 things: How is this saving me money? How is this saving me time? Is this adding any value to my life/operations?

If you consider these 3 questions, software companies used to be very closed off. 

They would develop software or service, but accessibility to their functionalities were extremely limited, which meant that to use certain functionalities or data, you needed to purchase that specific software or service. 

The overhead on buying and maintaining multiple software just to use one or two of their features was immense and nonsensical.  

We at ThriveDesk consider our customers resources and always strive to provide them with solutions that utilise their resources most efficiently!

Keeping this in mind, we are releasing a unique integration between ThriveDesk and WordPress that will make the interaction between our clients and their customers easier, hassle-free, and rapidly fast. 

Introducing WPPortal

ThriveDesk has always focused on making the lives of business owners easier. 

Over the past couple of years, we have received numerous requests from our customers to make ThriveDesk API available for our customers. 

We were initially a bit insecure, just as many startups usually are in the beginning stages. 

However, over time we have given it thought and have decided to be that valuable tool in a toolbox that goes hand in hand with all other business tools.

So here, we announce the release of our API for developers and businesses worldwide to use as per their suitability. 

We believe the API release will open new horizons for our clients. 

Our first offering in this new API chapter for us is WPPortal.

WPPortal is a custom communication portal to initiate new conversations, check message history, and access important existing WordPress resources via a knowledge base.

Our clients can now facilitate customer loyalty by providing maximum convenience and improved service.

What Your Customers Get With WPPortal

  • Complete branded experience: Your clients will not have to leave your platform to communicate with your business if they have any issues. This provides a much more complete brand experience.
  • Easy navigation through conversation history: All previous conversations can be viewed through a unified interface and searched individually.
  • Seamless access to the knowledge base: WordPress native knowledge base access with search allowing customers to diagnose their own issues before needing to submit a ticket.  

If you operate a business in any of the following categories: 

  • Theme sellers 
  • Agencies
  • E-learning/coaching centers
  • Accounting and finance firms
  • Legal firms
  • E-commerce vendors

WPPortal is a must-have for you to ensure the best customer experience, improved customer retention, and ultimately cement customer loyalty. 

View all conversations

Conversation dashboard

WPPortal allows you to grant your customers access to their entire conversation history on the portal interface. 

The optimized search function makes it easy for customers to find any specific conversation without needing to scroll through a list of conversations. 

WPPortal
Paginate all conversations

This is a necessary convenience as it streamlines the process of issue reporting by cutting down on time wasted manually looking through endless conversation lists. 

Faster Communication and Issue Resolution

Create new conversation

With WPPortal, your customers can reach out to you faster. 

Once you have it integrated into your website, customers will be able to initiate a new conversation with just one click directly from their customer dashboard. 

This means more convenience for your customers.

Built-in Access to Knowledge Base

Access to KB

DIY is the order of the day, and WPPortal lets your customers do exactly that!

Before creating a ticket, customers are given a search option to scour your business’ native knowledge base on WordPress to find any pre-existing resource to help them tackle their issues. 

Arming customers with the ability to solve their own issues means reducing support ticket volume for your support agents. 

This means instead of repeatedly solving the same trivial issues over and over again, support agents can now focus more on resolving more critical support issues that require more time and finesse. A win-win for everyone!

Comprehensive Experience 

Fresh new UI

ThriveDesks WPPortal allows for an extensive range of invaluable features and functions on the customer ends.

Giving your customer such freedom will help you improve your support by leaps and bounds. 

And we all know at this point that customer support has a massive impact on factors such as customer retention, experience, loyalty, and brand image.

No matter how you look at it, it’s a no-brainer! WPPortal can provide your support and overall business with a significant boost. 

How to set up:

How to set up WPPortal

Well, enough said, now how do you integrate WPPortal in your admin panel for your users to get the benefit? Pretty simple. We’re gonna walk you through a step by step process.

  1. First, go into the your ThriveDesk dashboard => Admin panel => Settings => API keys
  2. Now you will see a window => “API keys’’
  3. Click on the “Create new API key” button
  4. Input a suitable key name and then press on “Create”. This will generate your ThriveDesk API key.
  5. Copy the key
  6. Now go to the “Get started” page and paste the API key and press the “Verify” button and it’s done! Now you can reap the full power of WPPortal.
  7. Finally, go into the ThriveDesk app store and press the “connect” button under WPPortal  and it’s done! You are now ready to reap the full power of WPPortal.

Now, unless you are Skynet (😅) , to expect you to know everything about everything is a stretch. It’s quite normal to not know about API even if you may already be using them. Following is a quick crash course of APIs and why they are so beloved. 

NOTE
All Pro plan customers will have access to the WPPortal feature. Previous LTD owners who will have access to WPPortal: Founder LTD – Business,  Business – LTD, Agency LTD

We have covered a complete overview of WPPortal in the following video. If you find video tutorials more suitable to your taste, we recommend you watch this video.

What are APIs? 

An API which is short for Application Programming Interface is basically a contract between software to communicate with each other. 

APIs often allow third-party developers to create tools and applications that work with a given piece of software. 

Why do we need API?

API serve as a way for different software applications and systems to communicate and interact with each other. APIs are essential because they allow developers to create new applications and software that can easily integrate with other systems and services.

Here are some specific reasons why we need APIs:

Inspires innovation

88% of customers expect companies to accelerate their digital initiatives. 

Using APIs, developers can extract, manipulate and apply data to improve the capabilities of existing systems.

Facilitates automation

95% of business owners prefer to use automation to run their business and 88% consider automation to be a critical investment.

API integrations save development time and effort by making tasks that were once manual now effortless.

Makes customizations fast and smooth

Now, APIs improve customization by allowing developers to access and use data and functionality from other applications without needing to rewrite any code. 

Websites apps running on different OS can share the same customizations and reap the same rewards without needing to be redesigned. 

Improves customer service experience

APIs use is widespread nowadays among software developers and this allows developers to design and build software that meets and surpasses customer expectations day in and day out. 

Customers are the happiest they’ve ever been as they receive all sorts of functionalities through one window. 

Wrap up

ThriveDesk’s release of its API for the new WPPortal feature marks a significant milestone for us and our customers. 

With the release of our API, ThriveDesk is offering a powerful tool for businesses to enhance their customer support and streamline their workflows. 

From improved automation and efficiency to enhanced scalability and innovation and as more businesses adopt APIs in their digital transformation initiatives, we can expect to see even more exciting developments in the years to come.