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Conversations are threaded discussions attached to a record, so the discussion, the participants, and the record data all stay together. Every conversation belongs to one of two channels:
  • Comments — the internal channel, for discussion among your team.
  • Customer Chat — the external-facing channel, where external Limited Users (your customers) and internal users exchange messages.
Both channels are governed by the Conversations and Messages permissions.

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Comments channel

Comments are for internal discussion on a record.
  • @mentions grant access — Mentioning a user in a comment grants that user access to the record.
  • Attachments — Files added to comments can be public or private. Private attachments require the recipient to be logged into Elementum; public attachments can be opened without logging in.
  • Notification preferences — Each user controls which comment notifications they receive by email in their profile settings.
  • Reply by email — An email reply is only processed when it comes from a known, active sender who is either a participant of that conversation or has policy-based access to the record. Watcher status is not checked: a non-participant with record access can reply, while someone without an active account or access cannot. Replies that don’t meet these conditions are dropped on the back end and are not processed.

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Customer Chat channel

Customer Chat is the external-facing channel. It lets external Limited Users (your customers) and internal users exchange messages in the context of a specific record, separate from internal-only comments.

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Participation and notify resources

  • Notified Users — The Notified Users list defines who is engaged in a Customer Chat, including external Limited Users (your customers) and any internal users you add. Internal watchers on the record also receive Customer Chat messages without being on the Notified Users list.
  • Message delivery — When a message is posted, notifications go to everyone on the Notified Users list plus the record’s internal watchers. Senders are not notified of their own messages. If the Notified Users list is empty, no one is notified — not even watchers.

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What Customer Chat supports

  • External and internal messaging — External Limited Users and internal users post messages on the same record, keeping customer-facing communication distinct from internal comments.
  • Attachments — Attach files to a Customer Chat message. See File Uploads & Attachments for how files are handled.
  • Outbound email notifications — Notify participants by email when a new message is posted. The body and footer support rich text, the subject and header are plain text, and all four can include value references to record data and the new message.
  • Custom sending domain (optional) — Send notification emails from your own branded domain.
  • Notified Users list — Maintain the list of notify resources who receive Customer Chat notifications, including both existing organization users and new external customers.

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Enable Customer Chat

Customer Chat is enabled per object.
  1. Open the Details page for your object.
  2. Toggle Customer Chat on.
  3. Optionally, set a custom display name so the channel appears with a label that fits your process instead of the generic “Customer Chat”.
The availability of some Customer Chat configuration options can depend on your Elementum edition. If you don’t see a setting described here, check with your administrator about your plan.

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Configure email notifications

Once Customer Chat is enabled, customize the email that participants receive when a new message is posted:
  • Body and Footer support rich text. Subject and Header are plain-text, single-line fields.
  • All four fields can include value references that pull in data from the record and from the new message, so each notification reflects the specific conversation.

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Custom email domain

If you want notification emails to come from a branded domain, you can configure your own sending domain. This requires adding Elementum’s CNAME and TXT records to your domain’s DNS. Work with your administrator and DNS provider to set this up.

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Manage Notified Users

Add notify resources to the Notified Users list directly in the Customer Chat panel on a record. You can add existing organization users or invite new external customers. Two separate permission layers apply:
  • Adding existing organization users is governed by the Update Conversations permission on the user’s role — not by the invite policy.
  • Inviting brand-new external users into the organization is governed by the organization’s User Invite Policy (Org Settings → General), which can be set to:
    • Only Admins can invite
    • Allow any email domain
    • Allowed email domains only (restricted to approved managed domains)
    Administrators always bypass the invite policy. Non-administrators also need the Create Organization Users permission before they can attempt an invite.

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Canned Responses

Canned Responses are pre-written reply templates that speed up and standardize common replies. They are available only inside Customer Chat — not in the Comments channel.
  • Plain text — Canned Responses are plain text and do not support value references.
  • Visual distinction — Customer Chat and Canned Response messages appear with a distinct background color, making them easy to tell apart from internal comments.
  • Read-only for some roles — Users with the Content Viewer role can see the list of Canned Responses and Notified Users but cannot add or modify them.
Use Canned Responses when the same questions or updates come up repeatedly, when replies should follow a consistent tone or include required information, or when you want to reduce the time it takes to respond.

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Settings configured by Elementum

Some Customer Chat behaviors are configured by Elementum on the back end and are not self-serve in the UI. Contact your Elementum representative to change:
  • Inline images — how images embedded in the body of an inbound email are handled. Regular file attachments are always processed and need no configuration.
  • Email reply content — whether inbound email replies capture only the latest reply or the full email thread.

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How email replies are logged

An inbound email reply is logged when it is a reply to a specific conversation, or when the record has a Comments channel for it to land in — as long as the sender is active and has access. A plain email reply lands in the internal Comments channel, so it is still logged even when Customer Chat is turned off.

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Access and permissions

Both channels are controlled by the Conversations and Messages permissions on a role:
  • Create Conversations / View Conversations — Start a conversation and see that one exists.
  • Update Conversations — Required to add existing organization users to a Customer Chat, and to modify conversation participants and metadata.
  • Create Messages / View Messages — Post and read messages.
  • Update Messages / Delete Messages — Edit or remove individual messages, typically reserved for the author or an admin.
For external collaboration, roles such as External Create and External Update let people read and post to conversations on records they can access.