This week we are doing a soft launch of our new chat system - this is a major piece of dev work which will underpin the final stages of the Matchmakers project.

Here's a quick overview of some of the initial upgrades:

• You’ll be able to see the full enquiry history for each enquirer and pet when logged in to the PetRescue site.
• Group admins will be able to see ALL conversations within their group’s PetRescue account, via the conversations button on the listings admin header. This is super handy if a team member is unexpectedly unavailable due to illness, or when training new team members in line with your organisation's communication and customer service expectations!
• Adoption enquiries will no longer appear in the ‘Messages’ section - look for the chat bubble in the top right-hand corner of your screen.
• And it’s all designed to be beautifully mobile-friendly!

These messaging changes are part of a larger plan to enable push notifications via an upcoming app, to provide in-built customisable templates for firing off quick responses to enquirers, and a raft of other features - all designed to help our members make the most of limited resources, and to ensure adoption is THE best option for the 3.6 million pet seekers visiting the PetRescue platform each year.

Being such a HUGE piece of dev work (there’s 10,000 new lines of code added), there may be bugs that pop up with the chat or in other areas. This initial chat roll out is a trial phase, and there are still changes underway. For example, based on member feedback we have just added the enquirer’s phone number to the initial enquiry email sent to listing owners.

Please drop us a line if you see anything weird (or wonderful), via members@petrescue.org.au. Most of the changes we make to the website come from user feedback. And stay tuned for more info hitting your inbox soon!

About the Matchmakers project

The Matchmakers project is an ongoing effort to put the best available technology at rescue’s fingertips - to help with managing the enquiry load, and to help prospective adopters get the best experience when choosing to adopt, rather than buy a pet from a puppy farm or breeder.

Find out more about the Matchmakers project