Private notes for your team
Private notes let agents communicate with each other inside a conversation without the customer seeing the messages.
A private note is an internal message you leave inside a conversation that the customer never sees. Your team uses notes to share context, ask a teammate for help, or record why a decision was made, all without leaving the conversation thread. Think of them as sticky notes on a ticket that only your agents and admins can read.
How do I add a private note?
- Open the conversation where you want to leave an internal comment.
- In the reply area, switch from the Reply tab to the Note tab.
- The composer turns a yellow background, which is your signal that what you type stays internal.
- Write your note. You can format text, add links, and attach files exactly like a normal reply.
- Send it. The note lands in the conversation timeline with the same yellow highlight so the team can tell it apart from customer messages at a glance.
Who can see a private note?
Customers never see private notes, on any channel. It does not matter whether the conversation started from live chat, email, WhatsApp, or any other inbox. Notes are stripped out of every customer-facing message and out of transcripts you share with the customer. Only agents and admins with access to the conversation can read them.
Can I mention a teammate in a note?
Yes. Mentions are a standard part of notes, not an extra you have to turn on. Type @ inside a note, pick the teammate from the list that appears, and send. That person gets a notification pointing them straight at the conversation, so you do not have to assign the whole thread to them just to get their eyes on it. For the full picture of how mentions and notifications behave, see mentions and team notifications.
Mentioning is the fastest way to pull in the right person mid-conversation. Ask your billing lead a quick question, flag a tricky edge case to an engineer, or loop in a manager for approval, all without changing who owns the ticket.
When should I use a private note?
- Hand off cleanly. Before you reassign a conversation, drop a note summing up what was discussed and what the customer needs next. Your colleague skips re-reading the whole thread. See assigning conversations to agents.
- Ask for help in place. Mention the teammate who knows the answer instead of copying the thread into chat somewhere else.
- Record the why. Note why a refund was approved or a ticket escalated. It becomes a useful trail the next time someone opens the conversation.
- Keep it short. Write clear, actionable notes so teammates can act fast without wading through paragraphs.
What goes wrong with private notes?
- Typing on the wrong tab. Glance at the composer color before you send. Yellow means private. White means it goes to the customer. If you were on the Reply tab by mistake, your internal comment goes out as a customer reply.
- Expecting everyone to notice on their own. A plain note does not ping anyone. If you need a specific person, mention them. The mention is what triggers the notification.