# Customer messages & enquiries

> Read and respond to messages customers send through your store's contact form, all in the Messages tab.

Guide: https://sitesplaced.com/help/online-stores/customer-messages · Section: Online Stores · Last reviewed: 2026-08-23

When a customer fills in your store's contact form, their message lands in the **Messages** tab of your dashboard (the page is headed **Enquiries**) and you get an email at your account address. From there you can reply on WhatsApp, by email or with a phone call in one tap, track each message as **New → Read → Replied → Archived**, and keep a private note on it. Messages are free on every plan.

## Read and reply to a message

1. Open the **Messages** tab. A strip at the top shows **Total**, **New**, **Read** and **Replied** counts, and the dropdown on the right filters the list by **All**, **New**, **Read**, **Replied** or **Archived**.
2. Each row shows the customer's **name**, a status pill, their email and phone if they gave them, the date, and the first line of the message. A blue dot marks unread messages.
3. Click a row to expand it. Opening a **New** message marks it **Read** automatically.
4. Use the reply buttons: **Reply on WhatsApp** opens a chat with *"Hi [name], thanks for reaching out!"* pre-filled (shown only when the customer left a phone number), **Reply by email** opens your mail app with the subject *Re: your enquiry*, and **Call** dials the number. Tapping **Reply on WhatsApp** or **Reply by email** marks the message **Replied**.
5. Under **Update Enquiry**, change the **Status** or add an **Internal Note (not visible to customer)** — e.g. *"Followed up via WhatsApp on 15th Jan"* — then click **Update Enquiry**.

Use **Archived** for anything you are done with; there is no delete, so archiving is how you keep the list tidy. Switch the filter to **Archived** to see old messages again.

## Where the messages come from

The contact form is the **Contact Form** section on your **Contact** page. It asks for **Name** (required), **Email**, **Phone** and **Message** (required) and submits with **Send Message**. Below the form there is an optional **WhatsApp** shortcut that opens a chat to your store number with the name, phone and message pre-filled — that shortcut does **not** create an entry in Messages, because the conversation happens in WhatsApp.

Edit the section's heading, intro text and information sidebar in the [Design tab](https://sitesplaced.com/help/md/online-stores/design-your-storefront.md) — open **Design → Contact** and click **Contact Form**. Some templates also let you enter your response hours there; the card only appears once you fill them in, so the store never promises a reply time you did not set. Hidden the Contact link from your menu? Customers can still reach the page at `/contact` if you link it from the footer; see [Navigation & menu](https://sitesplaced.com/help/md/online-stores/store-menu-navigation.md).

## Other ways customers reach you

- **Order questions** — the customer's full contact details are on the order itself in [Orders](https://sitesplaced.com/help/md/payments-and-orders/orders-and-shipments.md), with a WhatsApp link, so you do not need the contact form for those.
- **Pre-sale questions** — switch on the **WhatsApp chat bubble** in **Settings → Sales boosters** to put a floating WhatsApp button on every page, with an optional pre-filled message. It uses the number from [Store details](https://sitesplaced.com/help/md/online-stores/store-details.md).
- **Newsletter sign-ups** — email addresses collected by newsletter sections go to the **Subscribers** tab, not Messages.
- **Automatic WhatsApp alerts** for new orders are a Growth-plan integration — see [WhatsApp order notifications](https://sitesplaced.com/help/md/payments-and-orders/whatsapp-order-notifications.md).

## Good to know & troubleshooting

- **No email arrived** — notifications go to the email on your SitesPlaced account. Check spam, and check the message is in the Messages tab; the tab is the source of truth even if an email is delayed.
- **Form says the store was not found** — the form only accepts messages on a **published** store. Drafts cannot receive enquiries.
- **Reply on WhatsApp is missing** — the customer did not enter a phone number. Reply by email instead, or make the phone field more prominent in the form's intro text.
- **Internal notes** are only ever visible in your dashboard. The customer never sees status changes or notes.
- Messages are per store; if you run two stores, each has its own Messages tab.

**Q: Do I get notified when a customer sends a message?**

Yes. Each new enquiry triggers an email to your SitesPlaced account address, and the message appears in the Messages tab with a New status.

**Q: Can I reply from inside SitesPlaced?**

The reply buttons hand you off to WhatsApp, your email app or the phone dialler with the details pre-filled. The conversation then continues there; use the Internal Note to record what you did.

**Q: How do I delete a message?**

Messages cannot be deleted. Set the status to Archived and it drops out of the default view; the Archived filter shows it again later.

**Q: Why don't WhatsApp chats from the contact page show in Messages?**

The WhatsApp shortcut opens a chat directly with your number instead of submitting the form, so nothing is stored. Only Send Message creates an enquiry.