Messages / Support Email

[lpopejoy]

I have played with the "messages" module just a little bit...

As support providers, we all deal with a LOT of email. A lot of times it is a "thread" containing a lot of info. It seems like it would make sense to somehow integrate "support email" into the Messages module inCommitCRM.

For instance, when one tech looks at a ticket that has been worked on via email, he has no idea what has been said and what has been done. It seems like there is a missing link in the "Email Connector" and the "Messages."

Has any thought been given by CommitCRM as to what could be done to "connect" these two silos of information?

What are others doing to integrate email communications with service tickets to make that information readily available to other members of your support groups and also to yourself as a later date.

We've all submitted emails to support systems where it assigns a ticket # and shoots an email back to you. You can then reply to that email and your reply is routed to the appropriate person / tech. Maybe that's asking too much, but at least some of this functionality would be VERY nice for me - and I imagine others as well!

Thanks, Commit, for listening to your customers - you do seem to do a good job of it!

Luke Popejoy

[lpopejoy]

Re: Messages / Support Email

Let me add that I do know that you can generate an email from withinCommitCRM. This uses your Outlook or OE client to send the mail out. It can also save that email back intoCommitCRM. I guess the main thing that it doesn't do is track the recipient's response for other members of your team. It would be really nice to be able to go to a ticket and to see at a glance the emails that have been sent and received regarding that ticket and to create another one.

Thanks,

Luke Popejoy

[asmbit]

Re: Messages / Support Email

Sounds like a good idea, it'll be nice to be able to view a ticket and see all the emails regarding it. Thumbs up. I guess this all have to do with email subject routing. If the email system can read the subject and identify the ticket #, it can then automatically transfer it into the ticket.
validation methods to filter unwanted emails can be 1. check for ticket (anything but not Closed status) 2. Validate the email address against the account. All emails that are identify as linking to a ticket but has error in 1 of the validation can be transfer to a "to be sorted" inbox for manual processing.

[Support Team]

Re: Messages / Support Email

Hi Luke and asmbit,

Thanks for the ideas and comments.

RangerMSP does allow you to keep the email thread within the system by drag-and-dropping the emails into the ticket window. This automatically creates a document in RangerMSP, which is linked to the ticket, and allows you to open the email message from within RangerMSP. This allows other members of the team to see the whole email thread and help you track the ticket activity effetively.

As for the Email Connector part, this currently takes care of opening the ticket from the incoming email from the customer, and sending the customer an automatic response with the Ticket number. If the customer then replies to this email, RangerMSP Email Connector identifies this email as related to an existing ticket, and does not open a new ticket for it. At the moment, it only forwards this email to your internal support mailbox for your review, and we may allow automatically adding this email to the ticket in the future, as we have been receiving requests for this. As asmbit has mentioned, this requires some more validation, etc. In any case, as mentioned above, you can currently easily file the email in RangerMSP and keep track of all correspondences.

Also, as you mentioned, on top of the customer replying to the automatic email response, technicians can also initiate emails from within RangerMSP's Ticket window, and this will also automatically be filed as a document under the ticket. You can then see all the activity for the ticket in the Ticket's History tab.

As usual, your feedback is extremely helpful, and it lets us know what you need exactly so we can provide the most suitable solution. Thanks!

Ethan

[lpopejoy]

Re: Messages / Support Email

Thanks for your reply.

I'm aware of all the functionality that you mentioned. However, what I am trying to say is that the functionality given seems to be lacking.

While it is possible to "file" the emails with the ticket, this method is hardly an efficient way of handling it - at least in my opinion. Yes, it does work, but I was trying to suggest a better way! Hopefully as you consider it, you will see the possible advantages to users to have the "email thread" viewable at a glance...

Again, thanks for your consideration and response.

Luke Popejoy

[techresq1]

Re: Messages / Support Email

Agreed,

Keeping the thread in tact for email support would be much more effiecient than the current method of dropping every email into the docs folder

[allenc]

Re: Messages / Support Email

As you consider a new design for automatically filing the reply email with the ticket, please plan some way to alert us which tickets have new email. Without that alert (visual or whatever), we will not know which open tickets have picked up new email replies.

And I agree that a single thread of emails back and forth will show better if it is presented more like this forum's display of original message and responses.

[AN-Tech]

Re: Messages / Support Email

We really need to get email better integrated intoCommitCRM. We're trying to phase out the internally used public support folder in Exchange and get all emails recorded intoCommitCRM. I like that new email sent in to our help@ address automatically gets a ticket assigned and sent to the customer but we really need to get the replies from the customer or tech into CommitCRM automatically. It just doesn't make sense to do it manually. No matter what process is in place things will get missed.

[allenc]

Re: Messages / Support Email

As you consider emails for a ticket showing as a thread, please be alert to emails which come in as HTML. We previously used Fogbugz for case tracking which has a thread for each case. However, Fogbugz did not handle HTML emails well (and the Docs solution in CommitCRM does). By the way, we bought CommitCRM for its integrated CRM and billing features.

[Support Team]

Re: Messages / Support Email

allenc - thanks for your comments and suggestions!

Sherry