Hotplate

Hotplate, Help!

Hotplate Chat lets all your communication with customers exist in one centralized place: your Hotplate Portal, saving you time!

As an example, let's look at how much better handling a refund is with and without Chat:

Customer emails you: "I would like a refund"

You read the email and search for their order, but it turns out they emailed you from a different address than the one they used to place the order

After a couple hours, they respond with the correct email

You then switch back to Hotplate, search for their order, find it, and initiate a refund

Finally, you switch back to your email and let them know you initiated their refund

Customer sends a message: "I would like a refund"

Their profile is automatically pulled up next to the chat for you, so you just click on their active order and initiate a refund, without leaving the inbox page at all

You let them know the refund is on the way!

After placing an order, customers can see a "Message {your business name}" prompt right below their pickup time.

If you do not want customers to be able to initiate chats with you

, you can turn this off in your settings under "Chat"

You can start chatting with any customer right from their profile or by looking them up in the inbox!

Every time you receive a new message, you will see a notification pop up in your portal. If you are not active in your portal, you will receive a text letting you know you have unread messages.

When you send a message to one of your customers, they will receive an email letting them know! If they are subscribed to your drop notifications, they will receive a text as well.

What customers see when they chat with you

When you send a customer a message, they get a direct link to the chat, branded according to your storefront settings. Your about section, social links, and any additional links you add to your storefront are also easily accessible to them as they are chatting with you.

That's it! If you have any questions about Chats on Hotplate, or feedback on how it can improve, reach out to support! We would love to hear your thoughts.

A walkthrough and guide on the ins-and-outs of chat on Hotplate.

Inbox & Chat

Hotplate automatically sends out text notifications to customers:

Right before pre-orders open - Drop Notification

After they place an order - Confirmation Message

When their order is marked complete (off by default)

You can toggle these on and off as you see fit, and customize these messages in 

. Feel free to write in whatever fits in the character limit.

The rest of the notifications are appended with

View your order time, location, and additional details here: https://www.hotplate.com/confirmation?orderId=XXXXXX&phone=+11111111111

To send a text blast to all customers outside of (or in place of) the automated texts that get sent out, go to the Customers tab, click the 3 dots on the right side and click the "Text customers".

To send a text blast to just the customers who have already placed an order, go to the insights tab, scroll down to the text blasts feature and click the "Text Customers" button. 

Always feel free to reach out to us at support@hotplate.com or text / call us at (214)833-9248, and we'll gladly help you with anything you need!

Text message reminders

One of the best features of Hotplate is our drop text notifications. Once your account is up and running, customers can go to your Hotplate storefront and click the "Never miss a sale", "Join", or "Remind me" buttons to put their phone number in and get notified whenever your next event goes live. 

Adding customer subscriptions to your new Hotplate account

We can add your customer subscriptions for you! Reach out to support@hotplate.com with a .csv file that includes the following info:

Customer SMS lists

Reviews are an amazing way for you to get feedback from your customers and built trust with new ones when they visit your storefront for the first time. Lets run down the basics of how reviews work!

Reviews are tied to orders, so only customers who have placed an order with you will be able to leave a review. There can only be one review left per order.

When are customers prompted to leave a review?

We automatically send a text to customers 6 hours after the start of their pickup time.

The only thing customers have to provide to submit a review is a rating, from 1-5 stars, but we let them provide a lot more info if they choose to!

Here is everything a customer can additionally provide when they leave you a review:

Likes and dislikes of items are visible to you, but are not shown publicly on your storefront.

When do reviews appear publicly on my storefront?

After a customer leave a review, you will see a notification appear in your Customers page. You get to choose which reviews you publish, and which you hide. Reviews are never visible on your storefront until you publish them.

After you publish reviews, you can also choose to "Feature" a review. Featured reviews will always be displayed before other reviews on your storefront. You can have up to 3 featured reviews at a time.

What do reviews look like on my storefront?

Reviews appear right below your current drops on your storefront. If you have featured reviews, they will be displayed first.

Head over to your Customers page and click on the "Reviews" tab

In your Settings page, under "General", right at the top of the page

After you turn it on, every order placed will be prompted to leave a Review via SMS, 6 hours after the start of their pickup time.

Customer communication

Inbox & Chat

Text message reminders

Customer SMS lists

Customer Reviews