How to Enable the Conversation Feature

If you’d like to communicate with your clients directly through messages, not just email, Whols offers a Conversation feature. This allows you to message customers from the dashboard, and customers can continue the conversation from the My Account page. This messaging system improves communication, enabling faster responses.

What Is the Whols Conversation Feature?

Managing a wholesale store means constant back-and-forth with customers — about quotes, orders, pricing, and availability. The Whols Conversation feature lets you handle all of that directly from your WooCommerce dashboard, without relying on email threads.

Once enabled:

Customers can start a message thread from their My Account page
Store admins receive and reply to messages from the Whols dashboard
Every conversation is stored in one place, linked to the customer account
A new conversation can automatically start when a customer submits a Request a Quote

This is particularly useful for wholesale businesses where pricing negotiations, custom orders, and bulk queries require direct, ongoing communication.

Requirements Before You Start

Whols plugin must be installed and active
You need admin access to your WordPress dashboard
If you want conversations to trigger from quotes, the Request a Quote feature must also be enabled (see: How to Enable Request a Quote)

Benefits:

Direct communication with customers.
Streamlined messaging for quicker problem resolution.
Conversations stored in one place for easy reference.

How to Enable the Conversation Feature

Step 1: Enable the Conversation Feature

Enable Conversation: Go to the Dashboard > Whols > Settings > Conversation. Toggle this setting to “Yes” to allow customers to initiate a conversation with the wholesaler from their My Account page.

Start Conversation Label: Enter the text that will be displayed on the title for starting a new conversation. This title will appear on the My Account page in a popup form, allowing the customer to start messaging.

Once saved, a new Conversations menu will appear in your Whols dashboard sidebar.

Note: The label you set appears on the My Account page inside a popup form. Keep it short and action-oriented so customers know what it does.

Step 2: Link Conversations to Quote Requests (Optional but Recommended)

Link with Request a Quote: If you use the Request a Quote feature, you can automatically create a conversation thread whenever a customer submits a quote. This keeps all communication connected to the original request.

To enable this:

Go to Dashboard → Whols → Settings → Request a Quote
Make sure Enable is toggled to Yes
Toggle Create Conversation When Request a Quote to Yes
Save settings

Create a conversation when requesting a Quote

Now, when a customer submits a quote, a conversation thread is automatically created. You can reply directly from the Conversations menu without asking the customer to message you separately.

Step 3: Customer Creates or Manages Conversations

Once the feature is active, customers access it from My Account → Conversations.

Starting a new conversation:

Click the Start New Conversation button at the top of the Conversations section
A popup form appears with the label you configured in Step 1
The customer fills in the subject and message and submits

Viewing existing conversations:

The Conversations section lists all past threads with Subject, Date, and a View button
Clicking View opens the full message thread

Inside a conversation, customers can see:

The full back-and-forth message history
Product details (Product, Price, Quantity) if included in the thread
A text input field with a Send button to continue the conversation

Step 4: How Admins Manage Conversations

Viewing incoming conversations:

Go to Dashboard → Whols → Conversations
You will see a list of all conversations with subject, status (e.g., Pending, Pending Reply), and last modified date
Click Edit next to any conversation to open it

Replying to a customer:

Inside the Edit Conversation screen, you can see the full thread — customer messages and your previous replies
The conversation view shows product context (product name, price, quantity) when relevant
Type your reply in the Your Message field at the bottom
Click Send

The customer will see your reply the next time they view that conversation from My Account.

Troubleshooting

The Conversations menu is not appearing in my dashboard. Make sure you saved the settings after toggling Enable Conversation to Yes. Try clearing your WordPress cache and refreshing the page.
Customers cannot see the Conversations section on My Account. Check that the customer account has the correct wholesale role assigned. If the role is not set, the My Account page may not display the Conversations section.
No conversation was created after a quote was submitted. Confirm that the Create Conversation When Request a Quote option is enabled in the Request a Quote settings, not just in the Conversation settings. Both must be saved.
The Start Conversation button is not showing a popup. Check if any JavaScript errors are appearing in your browser console. A plugin conflict may be blocking the popup from loading.

How to Enable the Conversation Feature