Email overview
Note: The email channel is a licensable feature of the system.
Email Routing and Configuration
Administrators define the routing of both inbound and outbound emails to and from Contact agents, including the configuration of IMAP and SMTP servers.
Email Queue Management
Inbound emails are placed in an email queue upon arrival, with the destination email address determining Contact queue. Emails coexist in Contact queues with traditional voice calls, albeit at a lower priority by default.
Email Profiles and User Access
Profiles within companies allow administrators to assign Email Queues profiles to user logins, determining which email queues a user can access. The profile may grant visibility to all or selected email queues within the company.
Agent Interaction with Emails
Agents select and respond to individual emails from inbound queues through their web interface, utilizing a rich text editor to reply or calling the customer. Agents can handle emails from queues, even if they already have assigned emails.
Email State Management
Agents can park assigned emails to retain ownership without actively working on them. The system may automatically present a new email if all of an agent’s emails are in the parked state. Agents can view and choose their active email from a list of assigned emails.
Email Allocation and Reallocation
Agents can return allocated emails to the queue or reallocate them to another queue.
Email Composition and Sending
Agents can compose and send emails (and/or SMS messages) either during a call or at any other time.
CRM Integration
Email responses are logged in the built-in CRM system. Customer messages are tagged for the last agent that handled the sender, ensuring continuity and context for the agent handling the email.
Priority Handling
Voice calls are given higher priority over emails by default. If an agent has an email in progress, they remain available for calls and may be interrupted to handle a call if no other agents are available.
Email Pausing and Interruptions
Agents can temporarily pause emails, leaving them in their Inbox for later activation, providing flexibility in handling emails at a more convenient time. Automatic parking and resumption occur if an agent is interrupted by a call while handling an email.
Note: If an email is parked, the amount of time already spent on the email is stored and the timer restarts when the email is made active again.
Customer Communication Options
Agents can contact customers by looking up their record and choosing to send an email, an SMS message, or initiate a call through the Agent Portal’s user interaction buttons.
Email History and Timeline
Agents and supervisors can access a timeline displaying all actions performed on an email since its arrival. This email history aids in answering questions about email handling, such as response delays, queue assignments, priority decisions, and reply details.
Email Processing Limit
Each company has a set limit on the number of emails it can process. When this limit is reached, Contact halts email processing for the configured email accounts until agents or supervisors address the backlog. Once the email count falls below the company limit, normal email processing resumes.
Note: If a company reaches the limit and emails are processed later, this could be a problem if the email account to which these emails were sent uses an email flow that includes a Branch on Time Range node. This node will branch one way or another depending on the time when the email is processed. For example, the node might have a rule that emails sent to the email account between 09:00 and 17:30 are queued but that emails sent after those hours receive the autoreply “We are closed now”. However, if an email was sent to the email account at 17:20 but the company reached its limit at that time, so the email was not processed until 17:40, the email would be branched to be sent an autoreply instead of being queued (which is what should have happened if the limit had not been reached).
Parent topic: Email management