Our Chat Feature enables therapists, and the Ruh team to securely message and communicate with clients, from within the platform.
With the chat feature, you can message your clients one-on-one, create group chats, send message blasts, and even message other Ruh team members. We also have a Client Care group for each therapist.
You are additionally able to leverage features to engage with clients at scale such as:
Auto-responder / Out of office
Scheduling a Chat Message
Sending an audio message
Smart Phrases
Chat provides a powerful way to stay engaged with clients in between sessions, as well as securely discuss health information.
Note: Therapists will need to reach out to the client first to initiate a chat conversation within Ruh Care. That is why an auto-welcome message is sent to them when they book a session with you.
Accessing Chat
Select the Chat tab from the main Ruh Care dashboard on the left-hand side of your screen. Your most recent chat conversation will appear. To switch to another conversation, click on the message in the side panel.
By default, you will have one message thread with each of your clients.
Start a New Conversation (single or group conversation)
You can create a one-to-one or Community Chat (group chat), as well as send a message blast.
To start a chat with a single client (from the web browser)
Click "New" and search for your client.
Click their name to select them.
Click the "Start Conversation" button > type your message and hit "Send"
To start a chat with multiple clients or a group
To add another client or group, scroll through your list of groups or clients, or use the search bar to search by name. Click the name. When multiple clients are selected, you'll have the option to send a Community Chat or Message Blast.
Notes:
Groups with no members will not appear in your dropdown of options.
If you have chat enabled with a client, they will be able to start a conversation with you. Clients will NOT be able to start a message blast or community chat. To contribute to a community (group) chat, they must already be added to the conversation.
If you create a group conversation, clients will know that there are other clients in the conversation. They will see each other's initials, not full names. Before creating a group conversation with multiple clients, please confirm that you are comfortable with this, and let clients know accordingly.
By default, all new conversations are titled with your client's name. You can edit the conversation title at any time for your internal workflows and organization. Think of conversation titles like subject lines in emails.
Once a chat message has been sent, you can see an indicator of whether the recipient of their chat message has 'seen' it (Note: Clients will NOT see this notification at this time. Only you will be able to see if clients/recipients have viewed their message). You will see an "eye' icon next to the chat message when your client has seen it.
A welcome message will be automatically sent to new clients.
All of your existing conversations will appear in the Chat section.
Unread conversations are easy to identify, the text of these conversations will be entirely in bold, and they will also have a blue indicator next to them. Once you click on the conversation, it is automatically marked as "read," the blue indicator will disappear and the subject text line will no longer be bolded.
When you send a chat message to a client (or team member), they'll receive a notification & email that they've received a new message. The email message will prompt them to log into Ruh Care read (and respond) to the message.
You'll see an indicator noting when your client has "seen" your message.
This message for example has not been seen yet:
Edit or Delete a Conversation
Add or remove members from your conversation following these instructions:
Click on the desired conversation (you can also filter by community chat or 1x1)
On the right side you can see all members of the community chat and add/remove participants:
To add a member to the conversation, select their name from the scrollable list or start typing their name to select the client you wish to add. A pop-up notification will appear to confirm that you want to add the participant to the conversation before making the change.
Note: Members removed from a conversation are completely removed, meaning they won’t have access to new messages or old messages. Only you can edit a conversation.
To DELETE a sent message:
From a web browser, open a chat conversation, and hover over a sent message, and you'll see a small trash icon appear. Click the icon. From the therapist perspective, you'll see confirmation that the message has been deleted. Your client will not see this message. If you wish to delete an entire thread, we suggest that you archive the thread.
Clients can also delete a message. If you need a chat that was deleted or restored, please reach out to Client Care team.
Archive a Conversation
Archive or hide chat conversations that no longer need a response.
Click on the conversation you no longer would like to see on the list of conversations
On the right side, you will see the "Archive" icon in the right-hand panel in your chat conversation. If you do not see "archive" in the side panel, then you may need to scroll down (there is a scroll bar to the right of the menu).
Archiving a conversation does NOT delete the conversation. Your data will be saved, and you will have the ability to retrieve it if needed.
You can access all Archived conversations within your chat inbox.
Go to your chat inbox from the web browser
Click the drop-down arrow under "Visibility"
Choose "Archived Conversations"
You'll now be viewing all archived conversations. If you are viewing ALL conversations within your chat inbox, you can also search by a client's name. Both active and archived conversations will be displayed.
Unarchiving a conversation
When you open an archived conversation, the right-hand side panel will now have an "Unarchive Conversation" button. Simply click this button and your conversation will be restored as an active conversation.
Disable Chat or Adjust Chat Notifications
By default, the therapists who organized an individual or community chat will receive a notification every time there is a new entry within the chat. If you prefer to not be notified, you can disable chat notifications for individual and/or community chats for your account.
Advanced Functionality for Chat
Search Conversations
Quickly find a conversation by searching for it in the search box. You can search by the name of the conversations or by the members in a conversation. If you'd like to change the name of a conversation, you can do so by clicking the client's name or group name.
Start a Video Meeting
You can start a video meeting from a one-on-one conversation with a client by clicking the video chat button on the top right. Only therapists can initiate a video meeting.
Chat Menu Bar
Send an Image or Video
There may be instances in which you would like to share images and videos with your clients, and you are able to do this within chat feature (as well as within the Documents feature). To send an image or video within a conversation, click the image icon on the bottom right then select an image or video.
File types supported include: .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif .mp4 format; mp4
Send a File/Attachment
To send a file or attachment within a conversation, click the paperclip icon on the bottom right then select a file or attachment.
Send a Link
To send a link, click on the link icon and type in the link you would like to open and a display text. (Display text on top actual link on button) (All actual links must begin with “http://”, the display name can be anything.
Send a Video
To send a video click on the video icon then type in a Youtube, Vimeo, Vine, DailyMotion or Youku URL. Click the insert video button, then send. The video can be viewed right from the chat page.
Create an Ordered List
To create an ordered list click the list button and start typing. Press enter/return when you ready for the next item in your list. When your list is complete press Send.
Add a Client or Team Member to a Chat
Adjust the participants for a chat to add (or remove) another provider, team member, or client.
Quick Tips
Engage with clients through one-on-one or group chats.
Use features like auto-responder, smart phrases, and scheduling messages for efficient communication.
Archive or unarchive conversations to manage your chat history effectively.