Perhaps it’s because I am American and may not understand the way the British organize things, but I really don’t see the point of the template that @Ben-ProductManager is suggesting we use to let THS know about our issues and ideas having to do with “Messaging & Applications”. Why can’t I just tell you what my Frustration is and then tell you my Idea for Improving it?
So I’ll start, using my own format:
- I am both a homeowner and a sitter. The messages that come into my inbox are sometimes from homeowners to whom I have applied and some are from sitters who have applied to me. It would be nice if there was a way to have some way that would keep them separate. The way it is now, all my inbox messages are jumbled up from homeowners and sitters and it’s difficult to go back and try to find someone I once had contact with.
- How do you actually delete a message from the Inbox? I don’t see a way to do that. I can archive them, but I’d really like to delete them. If I get an application from a sitter and I know he/she is a hard no, then I would like to just delete it (after politely declining their application). And same on the other side, if I receive an invitation to sit from a place/situation that I would just never go, I’d like to delete that too (again, after politely declining the invitation).
- Why is the place to pause and unpause applications found to the left of the inbox? I’ve seen lots of posts on the forum from homeowners who don’t know where to look for it. And, with the Five and Pause, it seems the place to unpause should have more visibility. Wouldn’t it be more visible if it was on our dashboard?
- And how does the “My Favorites” to the left of the inbox work? I click on it and there’s nothing there, but I also don’t see how to make something in my inbox a “favorite”. I have certainly favorited lots of listings, and some of them are listings of those that I have communicated with in my inbox, but absolutely nothing shows up in “My Favorites” in my inbox. How can I learn to best use the “My Favorites” in my inbox?
- And the Search function to the left of the inbox – what types of things can you actually search for? As far as I can tell, I can only search for someone that I’ve communicated with by their name. But what if I can’t remember their name but I remember they lived in Chicago – it doesn’t look like I can search on Chicago as a way to find them. Or maybe I remember their dog’s name and I know the dog’s name is in the body of the message somewhere, so why can’t I search on the dog’s name? Or what if I know about what month we corresponded, why can’t I search for all messages in my inbox based on a range of dates? Perhaps improving the search function to allow us to search on several parameters rather than just name would be a welcome improvement for me and others.
- Folders, well, let’s just say they seem cumbersome and not useful. Maybe someone can point me somewhere that will help educate me on folders. But, why are we limited to 3? I know we can rename them, but what if we would like to have more than 3?
I could probably go on, but I guess the bottom line is that there is lots of room for improvement in the area of “Messaging & Applications.”