Open a channel to the public and you will eventually get messages you do not want. Gruvi gives you two tools for that, and using the wrong one is a mistake worth avoiding.

Spam and blocking are different

Marking as spam: Acts on one conversation. It moves the thread out of your way. The person can still contact you again.
Blocking a customer: Acts on the person. It stops them reaching your workspace at all, on every channel.

Spam is housekeeping. Blocking is a decision about somebody. Reach for spam first, and keep blocking for the cases that genuinely warrant it.

What marking as spam does

Spam is one of the five thread statuses. Marking a thread as spam sets that status, and the thread leaves your working list and appears under the Spam tab.

Nothing is deleted. That matters, because filters catch real customers from time to time. It might be a first message full of links, or an unusual address. The Spam tab is where you find them again.

Glance at the Spam tab once a week. It takes seconds, and finding a real customer who has been sitting there for a fortnight is worth the habit.

How to mark a thread as spam

1Open the thread.
2Click the status button at the top of the middle column, which will say Open.
3Choose Mark as Spam. The keyboard shortcut is S.

You can also do it without touching the mouse. Press Cmd+K (or Ctrl+K on Windows) to open the command palette, type "spam", and choose Mark as Spam.

The command palette is worth knowing generally. It holds every thread action: resolve, snooze, assign, label, set priority, reply, add an internal note, attach a file, close, mark as spam and block. It also searches across your threads and messages.

What blocking a customer does

Blocking is aimed at the person, not the conversation. A blocked customer is blocked from your workspace, so they cannot reach you through any channel.

It is the right response to abuse of your team, to persistent nuisance messages, and to an address that does nothing but send junk. It is the wrong response to a customer who is merely angry. That is what sentiment and a careful reply are for.

How to block someone

1Open one of their threads.
2Press Cmd+K (or Ctrl+K on Windows) to open the command palette.
3Type "block".
4Choose Block Customer.

It is also available in the thread's own actions, if you would rather not use the palette.

Mark the thread as spam as well. Blocking stops what comes next; it does not tidy away what is already in your inbox.

How to unblock someone

1Go to Settings, then Customers, then Blocked Customers.
2Everyone currently blocked is listed there.
3Unblock the person you want to let back in.

If the list is empty, nobody is blocked.

Things to watch

Blocking is about a person, and people share addresses. A shared company mailbox may have one difficult sender and several reasonable ones behind it.
Tell somebody. If you block a customer, leave a private note on the thread saying why, so a colleague does not quietly unblock them next week.
The blocked person is not told. From their side, messages go nowhere. That is usually what you want, but it does mean a mistaken block can go unnoticed for a long time.
Spam is reversible, blocking is a policy. If you are unsure which one a situation calls for, it is almost always spam.

Managing spam and blocked customers