E-mail Interface Setup

This feature is available in CRMdesk Professional Edition only.

Usage

E-mail interface allows customers to submit new and update existing questions via e-mail instead of using the web interface. When mail integration is activated, CRMdesk periodically (every few minutes) checks the specified e-mail account via POP3 protocol, downloads all new messages and then applies Mail and Assign Rules to convert them into questions and move to appropriate categories and assignees.

If incoming customer message contains the reference to an existing question (the pound sign followed by the question number, such as ‘#1234’) in the subject line, the system treats such message as an update to the question with this ID. Then, it adds the message to the question log and sends an e-mail notification to the responsible Support Desk user – the assignee.

If no question reference is provided in the message subject, the system creates a new question (and a new customer, if the sender’s e-mail address doesn’t exist in the customers database) using Mail Rules and then applies Assign Rules to it when applicable.

In addition, the system preserves the entire HTML formatting of the original message including hyperlinks. Any files attached to the incoming messages are also attached to the question. Thus, CRMdesk E-mail Interface completely integrates the e-mail content into question logs.

Despite its seemingly unsophisticated settings, CRMdesk E-mail Interface is a powerful e-mail-tracking tool which can do all the e-mail tracking and sorting work and can become the main or even the only way to handle customer support.

Path

Setup tab – Integration – Mail

Procedure

To activate the Interface, select the Enable mail integration field.

E-mail Interface settings are the same as those used in your e-mail client (e.g. Outlook Express or MS Outlook), so you can simply copy them into your CRMdesk system. You can also ask your e-mail server administrator to provide POP3 settings.

You can use any e-mail account (including web-based e-mail) that supports POP3 protocol as an account for incoming customer messages.

The following settings are maintained in CRMdesk:

• Server (required) – your POP3 server name, such as ‘pop3.mycompany.com’;

• Port (required) – the port used to connect to your mail sever (usually ‘110’);

• Login (required) – login for the e-mail account;

• Password (required) – password for the e-mail account;

• This server requires a secure connection (SSL) – select this check box if secure connection is required on the specified server.

• Leave a copy of messages on server – select this check box if you want the messages be available for later retrieval, for instance, with your e-mail client program. Make sure to set either CRMdesk or your e-mail client program to clean messages from server.

To save your changes, click the Submit button.

To ensure that no messages are deleted from the mail server before they are downloaded by CRMdesk, make sure the following fields in the e-mail client application settings should be maintained:

• Leave a copy of messages on server – selected;

• Remove from server – if selected, then at least after 1 day(s).

Tips

The size of some mailboxes is restricted while your CRMdesk storage space is unlimited. Thus, in many cases it would be reasonable not to leave messages on your mail server for long.

Next: Web-Query (Data Export)