The morning inbox: a routine for comments and DMs

Why the inbox comes first

A comment or a DM is a customer standing at the counter. They asked about opening hours, a price, a booking or an order, and most will not ask twice. Posts can wait an hour. People who wrote in should not wait longer than the business has promised.

For the part-time manager, the inbox is also the part of the job most likely to produce a result you can point to: a table booked, a class filled, a sale saved.

Sort into four piles

Read everything once before answering anything. Each message goes into one of four piles.

• Questions. Hours, prices, availability, how to book. Answer these first, with a link where one helps.
• Complaints. Anything about a bad experience, a refund or safety. Send a short holding reply and pass it to the named person.
• Compliments. Thank them by name. Save the good ones for the owner note and, with permission, for future posts.
• Noise. Spam, sales pitches and arguments between strangers. Hide or ignore, according to the house rule.

How to write the answer

A good reply does three things in two sentences: it answers the actual question, it gives the next step, and it sounds like a person. 'Yes, we're open until 9 on Fridays. You can book here' followed by the link beats a paragraph of welcome.

Answer in public when the answer helps other readers. Move to DMs when it involves someone's order, health or money, and never ask for card details in a message. If you do not know the answer, say when you will.

Questions that repeat

After two weeks you will see the same handful of questions come back. Write them down with the approved answer beside each, and go through the list once with the owner. Repeating questions are also a signal for the rest of your work. If people keep asking about parking, the profile and next week's posts should say where to park.

Some repeat requests can be handled by a rule. One widely used pattern is the keyword comment. The post asks readers to comment a set word, and anyone who does gets a DM containing a link.

What an app should do with the inbox

Ask any vendor to show you four things on your own messages.

• Comments and DMs from each connected platform gathered into one list.
• A draft answer beside each message.
• A way for a person to edit and approve before anything is sent.
• Agreed keyword requests handled by rule, so the same link is not pasted in by hand all day.

Link AI and the morning inbox

Link AI by Linkme is our pick for the morning inbox. Linkme's page describes a Social Inbox in which Link AI drafts your replies to comments and DMs, and you approve. Its DM Automations follow the keyword pattern: when someone comments a word you choose, a DM with a link is sent.

This reference does not state which platforms feed the Social Inbox or how a draft is edited before sending, so confirm both. When you book a demo to try Link AI, have a real morning's messages with you, including an awkward one.

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Questions & answers