Shepherd Connect replaces the existing Message Center and brings client communications into one workspace. From the Communication Center, your team can send and receive messages, manage conversations, assign work, connect conversations to clients and patients, and access common client workflows without leaving the conversation.

Navigate to: Communication Center > Conversations

Email must be enabled in your Shepherd Connect settings before your practice can send or receive email through the Communication Center.

SMS carries over automatically from your existing Shepherd configuration — no additional setup is required for that channel.

The communication channels available in your Communication Center depend on which Shepherd Connect features your practice is testing.

Not all channels will be visible to every beta participant. If a channel is not available to your practice, the corresponding options will not appear in the Communication Center.

Conversation categories are predefined during the beta and cannot be customized.

Available categories include common workflows such as Prescription, Medical, Billing, and Scheduling.

The Messages tab on the Client Profile has been renamed Communications.

Messaging history on a client record is now found under the Communications tab.

Closing a conversation does not delete conversation history. Closed conversations remain accessible and can be reviewed at any time.

Closing a conversation does not delete conversation history.

Closed conversations remain accessible and can be reviewed at any time using the Closed or All filters in the center panel.

The Conversations page is divided into three panels.

The left panel displays client conversations. Use the search bar to locate a client by name.

Select the filter icon to open the Filter panel. The Filter panel is organized into three sections:

​Filter by Assignee

Filter by Type

Filter by Thread Assignment

Select Confirm to apply your filters, or Reset Filters to clear them.

Select a conversation from the left panel to open it in the center. The center panel displays all conversations for that client as expandable rows. Open, Closed, and All are filters — use them to control which conversations are shown. Each filter displays a count of conversations in that status.

Expand a conversation row to view its full content, including message history, call recordings, and voicemail summaries.

Each message heading will have the staff member involved in the conversation, an icon representing the type of message, and a subject if applicable.
​

At the bottom of an active expanded conversation if you'd like to resume messaging, click Message. Click Cancel to close the message box and Assign to a user or team, or Close Thread

When a filter is active in the left panel, Filtered appears in the top right of the center panel. Select Show All Conversations to clear the filter and return to the full conversation list.

The right panel provides additional information and actions for the selected client and conversation. The client name and ID are displayed at the top of the panel — select the arrow icon to navigate directly to the client's full profile.

Quick Actions

Depending on the communication channels enabled for your practice, you can quickly Call, Email, or SMS the client from this panel.

​

Thread Actions

Thread Assignments

Some actions — including Close Thread and Assign to — are also accessible from the bottom of the active conversation in the center panel.

Before messaging a client, confirm that Direct Messaging is enabled for the relevant channel on their profile. If Direct Messaging is unchecked for Email or SMS, you will not be able to reach that client through that channel in the Communication Center.

Client notification preferences are managed from the client's profile.

Open an existing SMS conversation to continue messaging the client. From an SMS conversation, you can:

Incoming replies appear within the same conversation thread.

You can send and receive email directly from the Communication Center. When composing a new email:

The recipient can be changed before sending when necessary. Emails use the Display Name and Email Signature configured in your Shepherd Connect Email settings. Client replies return to the Communication Center so the email thread can continue within Shepherd.

Templates are available when composing both SMS and email messages. Select Apply Template from the Thread Actions panel or from within the message composer to apply a saved template to the conversation.

SMS and email messages can be scheduled for future delivery. While composing your message:

Scheduled messages are sent at or near the time you select. A brief delay may occur depending on system load at the time of sending. You can review and manage scheduled messages from Drafts & Scheduled in the account menu.

You do not need an existing conversation to contact a client. Select Start New Conversation in the upper-right corner of the Communication Center, then:

If the selected client does not have the required contact information for a given channel, that communication method will not be available for that contact.

Conversations can be assigned to help your team identify who is responsible for following up. You can assign a conversation to an individual user or a team using Thread Assignments in the right panel, or by selecting Assign to at the bottom of the active conversation. Assigned users and teams are visible from the conversation.

Use AI Category in the Thread Assignments panel to categorize a conversation. Available categories are:

Categories are predefined during the beta and cannot be customized. You can filter conversations by AI Tag from the Filter panel in the left panel.

Conversations can be associated with the appropriate client and patient from the Thread Assignments panel. From there, you can:

This is especially useful when Shepherd receives an incoming message from contact information not already associated with the expected client.

Two floating buttons are available in the lower-right corner of the Shepherd at all times.

The paper airplane button provides quick access to compose or start a new message.

The Sheppy button, to the right of the paper airplane, opens the Sheppy chat widget for in-app support.

Select your initials in the upper-right corner to access the account menu. From there you can:

The Messages tab on the Client Profile has been renamed Communications. The Communications tab provides a broader history of client communication and can include SMS, email, phone calls, and voicemails. Individual communications can be expanded to review additional details.

You can also start a new communication directly from the Client Profile.

You can also start a new communication directly from the Client Profile.

Closed conversations also appear on the patient's profile under the History tab, listed as type Conversation with a Closed status and the conversation date.

When Shepherd receives an incoming message from contact information not already associated with a client, you can manually reassign that contact to the correct client from the Thread Assignments panel in the Communication Center.

Conversations can close automatically under certain conditions.

Existing Message Center history carries over to the Communication Center. Your prior client conversations are accessible without any additional steps.

Shepherd Connect is currently in beta, and parts of the Communication Center interface may change as we incorporate feedback.

As you explore the Communication Center, please let us know if:

You can reach the Shepherd team through Sheppy with questions or beta feedback.