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Direction vs Direction Type attributes

Last Update: Oct 2024 • Est. Read Time: 2 MIN
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When building reports or constructing workflows, you'll likely want to incorporate messages coming into your Kustomer organization. The types of attributes you use — and the values you pair them with — can produce different results. This article will help to quickly clarify some differences between the various attributes we offer.

Who can access this feature?
User typesAdmins can create and manage and reports and workflow settings. Managers can access reports.


In this article

Message object attributes

The message object has a range of attributes that help to specifically identify what type of message it is in the conversation timeline:


AttributeDescription
DirectionDirection > in
Direction of the message is inbound to Kustomer.
Direction > out
Direction of the message is outbound from Kustomer.
Direction TypeDirection Type > initial-in
The first inbound message sent in a conversation. This can fall after the initial-out but not after any other values.
Direction Type > initial-out
The first outbound message sent by an agent or the system in a proactive conversation. 
Direction Type > response-in
A response to a previous outbound message in a conversation.
Direction Type > response-out
A response to a previous inbound message in a conversation. This falls after the initial-in message when a customer reaches out and an agent responds.
Direction Type > followup-in
A message a customer sends where the previous message in the conversation was also from the customer (i.e. when a customer send two messages back-to-back, the 2nd is a followup-in).
Direction Type > followup-out
A message a Kustomer organization sends where the previous message in the conversation was also from your organization (i.e. when an agent sends two messages back-to-back, the second is a followup-out).


Tips

A common misunderstanding when trying to run a report on inbound conversations is to look at the Conversation object and apply the Direction equals in filter. You'll get a more accurate count of inbound conversations created in the time period you selected it you instead look at the Message object and use Direction type equals initial-in filter.