Reply to Inbound Emails

Answer the Customer Right From the Colab

When a customer emails your shop, the message opens as a Colab in your Inbox. You reply without leaving KeyBolt, and your answer goes out from your own shop address. This works on both KeyBolt Basic and KeyBolt Pro. You just need an active subscription (a paid plan or your free trial) to send.

How to Send an Email Reply

1. Open the Colab from your Inbox.
2. Scroll to the message box at the bottom. Under Reply to customer you will see two tabs: Email and Text.
3. The Email tab is already selected when the customer reached you by email. Type your message in the box.
4. Tap Send Email.

Your reply lands in the customer's inbox like any normal email, threaded under their original message.

The Subject Line

• If you are answering an email the customer already sent, KeyBolt reuses the original subject and shows it as Re: their subject. You do not type a subject, and it stays grouped with the conversation in their mail app.
• If you are starting a brand-new email on a Colab with no prior email, you will see a Subject field to fill in.

What the Customer Sees

• From: your shop name, with your inbound address. The customer sees your business, not KeyBolt.
• Subject: the original subject with Re: in front when you are replying.
• Body: exactly what you typed.

When the customer replies, their answer routes back into the same Colab automatically, so the whole conversation stays in one place even if they hit Reply All or change the subject line.

Attaching Photos and Files

In the Email tab, tap Attach to add files. You can send:

• Photos (they are compressed before sending).
• PDFs, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and plain text files.

Each file must be under 8 MB, and all attachments together must stay under 20 MB (most mail providers reject emails over 25 MB). If you go over, KeyBolt tells you which file is too big or that the total is too large, before anything is sent. You can remove a file from the list with the small x next to its name.

Replying by Text Instead

If the customer also has a phone number on file, you will see a Text tab next to Email. Texting a customer from a Colab needs KeyBolt Pro (the plan with your own business phone line). On Basic, stick with the Email tab, or upgrade to add texting.

If You Cannot Send

• An active subscription is required to send email. Your trial or plan has lapsed. Check Settings > Subscription.
• Your shop has reached its email limit for now. Your shop hit its monthly email allowance, shared across invoices, receipts, and replies. It resets on the 1st of the month. Most shops never come close.
• Inbound email slug not configured. Your shop has not set an address yet. An owner or manager sets it in Settings > Inbound Email. See Your Shop's Inbound Email Address.

Internal Notes vs. Customer Replies

The Reply to customer tabs (Email and Text) go to the customer. The Internal tabs (Note, Photo, Document) only your team sees. Use a note to jot down details for the tech without emailing the customer.