Respond To an Escalation in Care

When you reply to a case, your options are determined by the type of the message you are responding to.

Public reply
The message type depends on what you are replying to. It can be a comment under a wall post or a reply under a comment.
Direct message
This option only appears under a direct message from the customer or if the platform offers the public-to-private workflow that allows you to reply with the direct message.

You can respond in several ways:

write a message
add an emoticon
upload an asset (for example, a photo)
use a template
Click Manage to enter the Answer templates page in Settings.
Alternatively:
1. Click Answer templates to open a mini template browser.
2. Find the template that you want to use.
  The template appears in the message text field.
3. (optional) Edit the template.

Change the status of the case

To change the status of the case, click the status selector in the top right corner:

If the case is not assigned, only the Delete option is visible and the Mark case as Done option is grayed out:

Keeping the context of the conversation

Replying with a direct message always adds a new message to the direct conversation. Replying with a Public reply adds the message as a reply to the last public reply or comment in the conversation. Comment on post option instead adds a comment to the last parent post in the conversation.

Reply options and limitations

The conversation within a case can contain various types of messages from the brand and the customer. Care groups the interactions into a single case and combines the public posts, comments, and replies with direct messages.

When responding to Care escalations, your reply options are determined by the platform the original message originated from and the type of the particular message.

Typically, a public reply is available without specific limitations as long as the conversation features a content type is supported by Community, it is supported by Care and can be replied to using the public reply option.

For details, see Content Types & Historical Data, Update Frequency in Community.

Facebook

Public reply
- available for any post/comment
Comment on post
- available for any post/comment
Direct message
- available when a direct message is in the conversation
Reply with a direct message
- available as a response to a comment or a visitor’s post on your page within seven days of the message received
- Limitations:
  - You can reply to a given comment in private only once. Once you send a private message as a reply to a comment, you cannot send another private message. You can reply to the comments in the usual way or wait until the customer comes back with the response in a direct message.
  - You cannot attach media to your reply. Since you can privately reply to comments only once, we support only a text message response.
    Images, video or GIF files are considered a separate message as per Facebook API restrictions. In the following screenshot, while replying its indicated, the attachment is separated as a new message.

Instagram

Public reply
- available for any comment
Comment on post
- available for any comment
Direct message
- available when direct messages are in the conversation
Reply with direct message
- available as a response to a comment or a visitor’s post on your page within seven days of the message received
- Limitations:
  - You can reply to a given comment in private only once. Once you send a private message as a reply to a comment, you cannot send another private message. You can reply to the comments in the usual way or wait until the customer comes back with the response in a direct message.
  - You cannot attach media to your reply. Since you can privately reply to comments only once, we support only a text message response.
    Images, video or GIF files are considered a separate message as per Facebook API restrictions. In the following screenshot, while replying its indicated, the attachment is separated as a new message.

Twitter

Public reply
- available for any tweet
Comment on post
- available for any tweet
Direct message
- available when direct messages are in the conversation
Reply with direct message
- Twitter allows replying with direct messages only if the customer is following the brand's account.