The Chat with Garage feature lets inside sales reps communicate directly with the organization's team about a specific rental folio. Use it to ask questions about pricing, availability, customer requests, or anything related to the rental.

How to Start a Chat

1. Open the Folio View for any lead (see Requesting and Viewing a Rental Folio)
2. Tap the Chat with Garage button at the bottom of the screen
3. The chat screen opens with a conversation linked to that rental folio
4. Type your message and tap Send

The first time you open Chat with Garage for a folio, the system automatically creates a new conversation. If you've chatted about this folio before, the existing conversation is reopened with your full message history.

Who Is in the Conversation?

Each folio chat includes:

• You (the inside sales rep) — your messages appear on the right side in the brand color
• The organization's team — administrators, managers, and other team members who have access to the organization's chat inbox. Their messages appear on the left side.

Organization team members see the conversation in their Chat Inbox in the RentalOS web app, alongside other customer and rental chats. The conversation is labeled with your name and the rental number so they can easily identify it.

What You Can Chat About

Common topics for folio chats include:

• Pricing questions — "Can we offer a discount for a 7-day rental?"
• Availability checks — "Is this vehicle available for these dates?"
• Customer requests — "The customer wants airport delivery, can we accommodate?"
• Folio updates — "I've updated the dates, please review the pricing"
• Approval requests — "Customer is ready to book, can you approve the folio?"
• General coordination — any back-and-forth needed to close the deal

How Messages Work

• Real-time updates — the chat checks for new messages every few seconds while the screen is open
• Day separators — messages are grouped by day (Today, Yesterday, or the specific date)
• System messages — automated messages (like "conversation created") appear centered in italic text
• Message limit — individual messages can be up to 2,000 characters

One Conversation Per Folio

Each rental folio has exactly one inside sales chat conversation. No matter how many times you open "Chat with Garage" for the same folio, you'll always return to the same conversation thread. This keeps all communication about a rental in one place.

Where the Garage Team Sees Your Messages

The organization's team members see inside sales conversations in their RentalOS Chat Inbox (web app). The conversation appears with:

• Your name as the sender
• The rental number in the conversation title
• An "inside sales" label so the team knows this is from a sales rep, not a customer

They can respond directly from the web app, and their replies appear in your mobile chat screen in real time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I send images or files in the chat?
A: Currently, inside sales chat supports text messages only. For file sharing, coordinate with the garage team through other channels.

Q: Will I get push notifications for new messages?
A: Messages are updated in real time while the chat screen is open. Push notification support for inside sales chats may be added in a future update.

Q: Can the customer see this conversation?
A: No. This is a private conversation between you and the organization's team. Customers have their own separate chat conversations.

Q: What happens to the chat after the rental is completed?
A: The conversation remains accessible as a historical record. You can view past messages but the conversation is typically closed once the rental is finalized.