Staff Chat in Ubik: Keep Clinic Conversations Connected to the Work

Clinic communication moves quickly. Reception needs to ask about an estimate, a technician needs clarification about a treatment, a doctor wants a note attached to a diagnosis, and inventory needs to coordinate with the person placing an order.

Those conversations often happen in separate apps, hallway comments, or messages that are hard to find later. Staff Chat brings internal clinic chat into Ubik so the conversation can stay near the customer, pet, appointment, item, service, or person it is about.

Staff Chat is for your team only. It does not send messages to customers. Customer communications still live in the Customer communications tab of Message Center.

What Staff Chat Is

Staff Chat is the internal team chat inside Ubik's Message Center.

It gives the clinic a shared place for real-time staff conversations without mixing those messages into WhatsApp, email, reminders, or customer-facing threads.

Teams can use it for everyday coordination:

• Ask a quick question during a busy appointment.
• Confirm who is handling a task.
• Leave a note for the next shift.
• Discuss a customer, pet, appointment, supplier, employee, inventory item, service, or diagnosis from the record itself.
• Keep a person-to-person conversation with one teammate separate from the clinic-wide room.

Staff Chat is included for active subscriptions and can be turned on from Account Settings.

The Main Types of Conversations

Staff Chat has three practical conversation types.

The goal is simple: use the smallest room that matches the conversation.

If the whole clinic needs the update, use General. If only one teammate needs it, use a direct chat. If the discussion belongs to a customer, pet, appointment, item, or other Ubik record, use a topic chat.

General Chat for Clinic-Wide Coordination

Every clinic has a General room.

Use it for messages that are useful to the broader team:

• "The lab pickup is running late."
• "Treatment area is ready for the next appointment."
• "The afternoon doctor is in room 2."
• "Please check the freezer inventory before placing the order."

General is always available and does not need to be created manually.

Direct Chats for Person-to-Person Messages

Direct chats are for conversations with specific teammates.

Use them when the message is internal, but not clinic-wide:

• Ask a doctor to review a chart note.
• Confirm a handoff with reception.
• Coordinate a task with one technician.
• Send a quick follow-up to a manager.

A direct chat is visible only to the selected participants. This keeps private team coordination out of the General room and out of customer communications.

Topic Chats Keep the Conversation Attached to the Record

Topic chats are the special part of Staff Chat.

Instead of asking a question in a general room and hoping everyone knows what it is about, staff can open a chat directly from a supported record. That creates or opens a room tied to that record.

Topic chats can be started from:

• Customers
• Pets
• Appointments
• Suppliers
• Employees or users
• Inventory items
• Inventory groups
• Services
• Diagnoses

For example:

• From a customer record, reception can ask about a billing question.
• From a pet record, a doctor can leave context for the next visit.
• From an appointment, a technician can ask about a treatment or estimate.
• From an inventory item, the team can discuss stock, substitutions, or ordering.
• From a diagnosis, doctors can coordinate follow-up documentation.

The topic room stays connected to the thing it is about, so the next person does not have to search through unrelated messages to understand the context.

Active Rooms, Archive, and Unread Counts

The Staff Chat list has Active and Archive views.

Active is for current conversations. Archive is for older topic rooms that are no longer active but should remain available as history.

Archive is not deletion. The room still exists, and the messages are still available. If someone sends a new message in an archived room, it becomes active again.

Unread counts help staff see where attention is needed. When a room has new messages, the count shows how many messages have arrived since that person last opened or read the room.

Live Updates and Message Notifications

When a room is open, new messages appear live.

Staff can also see compact top-center notifications for new Staff Chat messages. The notification shows the sender and a one-line preview, so a teammate can decide whether to open the room immediately or continue the current task.

This helps the team notice new internal messages without turning every message into a full interruption.

Large, Compact, and Draggable Views

Message Center now works better while staff are actively using Ubik.

Use the large view when you want more room to read a longer conversation. Use the compact view when you want Staff Chat open while still working on another screen.

The window can also be moved around the screen. That matters during real clinic workflows: staff may need to compare a conversation with an appointment, chart, customer, inventory item, or payment screen without constantly opening and closing the chat.

In compact mode, the room list can slide out when needed, then get out of the way so the active conversation keeps more space.

How to Use Staff Chat

Use this checklist when your clinic starts using Staff Chat.

Turn Staff Chat On

1. Have an admin open Account Settings.
2. Find Staff Chat in the subscription or add-on area.
3. Turn Staff Chat on.
4. Save the account.
5. Open Message Center from the app header.
6. Select the Staff chat tab.

Send a Clinic-Wide Message

1. Open Message Center.
2. Select Staff chat.
3. Open General.
4. Type the message.
5. Send it.

Use General for messages the broader clinic team should see.

Start a Direct Chat

1. Open Message Center.
2. Select Staff chat.
3. Use the teammate picker or new direct chat action.
4. Choose the teammate or teammates.
5. Start the conversation.

Use direct chat when the conversation should stay between selected staff members.

Start a Topic Chat

1. Open the record the conversation is about.
2. Look for the chat button near the record header or detail area.
3. Click the chat button.
4. Ubik opens Message Center and creates the topic chat if it does not already exist.
5. Type the message in that topic room.

Use topic chat when the conversation belongs to a customer, pet, appointment, supplier, employee, inventory item, inventory group, service, or diagnosis.

Use Active and Archive

1. Use Active for current rooms.
2. Use Archive to find older topic rooms.
3. Open an archived room when you need the history.
4. Send a new message in an archived room if the topic needs attention again.

Sending a message reactivates the room.

Work with Large and Compact Mode

1. Use large mode when reading or writing longer conversations.
2. Switch to compact mode when you want chat open beside another Ubik screen.
3. Drag Message Center to a comfortable position.
4. In compact mode, open the slide-out room list when you need to switch rooms.
5. Return to the active conversation and continue working.

The best habit is to choose the room that matches the work: General for clinic-wide updates, direct chat for selected teammates, and topic chat when the conversation should stay connected to a specific Ubik record.