Email has 3 tabs to configure each one consisting of cards with settings related to each other.
Fig 1. Email channels filtered and tabs available for the email channel selected.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Channel settings tab
Fig 2. Some of the channel settings tab options viewable on the tab (you can scroll in the portal for further options).
Channel settings | |
| Name | Here you can enter a name for your channel visible to users and used in reporting. Max 40 characters. |
| Channel type | Select the type of channel from the dropdown to apply. |
| Active | Toggle this to make the channel active/inactive. |
| Description | Here you can enter a description for the channel for internal reference only. Max 1000 characters. |
| Ticket reopening | Toggle this to enable/disable ticket reopening. When enabled, enter the maximum number of days a customer can reopen the previous ticket (happens automatically). If not enabled or the number of days is exceeded, a new ticket will automatically be created |
Ticket reopening examples
If this is on and set for 7 days. A customer may message on day 1 and an issue may be resolved/question answered by an agent. If within those 7 days, the same customer initiates another ticket via Facebook because the issue persists or they have a follow-up question, the previous ticket will be opened for the agent to continue the previous.
Tagging | |
| *Only visible when tagging feature is enabled. | |
| No tags/ add tags | By clicking in this pane, you can assign/unassign tags on your channel.  Simply click on the tags to add or remove. You can also create/edit tags via the icons on the left. |
Tagging example
Tagging can be used to hide or present channels to relevant users who also have the same tag. Some customers have multiple sites/offices using the same portal. In order for each site/office to only see the relevant channels and access them, tagging can be used to hide the non related channels.
Plans | |
| Result code | Here you can select the result code plan used for all interactions on this channel. Only result codes within the selected plan are available for users to disposition an interaction. You can use the 'go to' button to navigate to the result code plans page to edit the selected plan. Its also worth noting here that any result codes you wish to be available must have the relevant channel types assigned in the result codes configuration. See the guide on result codes for more. |
| Schedule | Here you can select the schedule you want the channel to adhere to. Selecting a schedule will allow out of hours and in hours automatic replies, for incoming email (see general tab below). The 'go to' button will take you to the schedule plans page for creation or editing. See this guide for more. |
Result code plans example
Using different result code plans for your different channels will allow you to track and report, in more detail, the outcomes of your interactions within the system.
Schedule example
Using schedules allows you to automatically control when a channel is open or closed for customer to access.
SLA | |
| Response time | Here you can set the maximum amount of time a user should take when responding to an interaction. Users will see the amount of time they have for SLAs on the tabs of interactions. These will tick down with time. |
| Response warning | Here you can set the percentage of the above response time you want users to be warned they are approaching SLA. Visually, the tabs bar changes from green to amber when they hit this time on a response. If this is set to 100%, the user will not be warned they are approaching SLA. |
| Manual park | When enabled, tickets handled by users on the queue associated with this channel will be able to be manually parked. |
| Automatic park | When enabled, all tickets handled by users on the queue associated with this channel will be automatically parked, when the user receives an inbound call. If not enabled, the SLA of the ticket will continue to increase while the user is handling the inbound call. |
SLA response time examples
Some clients have themselves, set SLAs for agents to respond to their customers. For example, "you must reply to the customer on a web chat within 60 seconds or the customer journey will be a poor reflection of our service." Clients working on behalf of other companies may have these SLAs determined for them. This allows them to enter the SLA into the system for users to adhere to.
Purpose of manual park
If agents receive an interaction that requires further work away from the screen E.g. they need to speak to a manager/3rd party or undertake a lengthy process elsewhere, they can park the interaction to do so.
Purpose of automatic park
If you need interactions to be parked when a call comes in, use automatic park, as this is not possible with manual park alone. You can however, have both manual and automatic park enabled on channels.
User settings | |
| Capacity | Here you can set the maximum number of concurrent interactions a user can handle from this channel at any one time. User capacity is cumulative across all channels they are assigned to, unless a specific user capacity is set. For more on user capacity, see this guide. |
| Force ready | By default, when a user receives an interaction, they automatically go not ready to deal with that interaction. This is better for customers that have long processes around dealing with interactions. When force ready is enabled, once a user goes ready on a queue they will be ready until their capacity is filled. Once they deal with one interaction, they will go ready automatically to receive another. They can only leave the campaign/go on break etc. by requesting then dealing with their capacity. |
Capacity
For Facebook conversations, capacity could be set slightly higher than web chat because the customer might not be expecting an immediate response, but should be set lower than email as responses will generally be quicker than email. The more capacity an agent has, the more they will have to deal with at the same time. Its worth remembering however, the higher the capacity, if used in conjunction with 'force ready', the longer an agent will have to wait before being able to go on break etc!
Force ready
To ensure interactions are being dealt with in a timely manner, the system has the ability to push queued interactions to any agents with available capacity. This ensures that agents always have interactions to deal with, thus improving agent efficiency and reducing customer queue times.
Scripting | |
| Enable toggle | Enable or disable the use of a script on the channel. |
| Provider | Select the script you wish your agents to see when engaging with interactions on the channel. Choose 'Max' for bespoke scripts created within the MaxContact system. These are usually built as part of onboarding but can also be created & edited at any time. Alternatively, select 'other' for use with a CRM or 3rd party system. |
| Max Script | Here you can select the Max script to use for the channel. This is required if you have selected 'Max' script and will be greyed out if you have selected 'other'. |
| Script URL | The URL for the script (populated automatically if using a 'Max' script). Enter the URL for the script location only if the Script Provider is set to 'other'. This will be setup during the onboarding process if required and can still be changed created post 'go live'. |
Scripting examples
A BPO running campaigns for different clients will have different scripts for each Facebook channel to provide relevant information to the agent, allowing them to process information and improve the customer journey. Each channel can have a different script if you require. For more on scripting, see this guide.
Mailbox tab
Fig 3. Some of the channel settings tab options viewable on the tab.
Mailbox settings | |
| These details can usually be found with a quick search of the internet if you are using a major email provider such as outlook365. Company specific email accounts may need specific details from your IT team or the email provider itself. | |
| Incoming mailbox (IMAP) | Enter your incoming mailbox address as provided by your email provider. |
| Outgoing mailbox (SMTP) | Enter the outgoing SMTP server settings as provided by your email provider e.g. SMTP.example.com |
| IMAP port | Enter the port used for inbound messages as provided by your email provider. |
| SMTP port | Enter the port used for outgoing messages as provided by your email provider. |
| Display name | The name displayed when sending outgoing emails from the channel. You may wish to name this something similar to the channels purpose, such as 'company name customer services'. |
| Refresh rate | Set how often you wish for MaxContact to check the inbox for new emails. Must be greater than 1. |
| Sub Folder | Toggle to enable emails to be pulled from an alternative location. The source location can be either an inbox sub-folder or an alternative 'top level' folder. If disabled, all emails will be pulled from the top level inbox folder. Be sure to enter the EXACT name of the source folder (not case sensitive). Note - A 'Top level' folder is a folder in your mailbox that sits at the same level as your inbox folder. A sub-folder is a folder contained within a top level folder. |
| Email Alias | AN email alias is an additional email address for an email account. A single user account can have multiple email aliases, with different domains or even with the same domain. In short, an email alias is like a nickname or a 'nick-email address'. Adding email aliases to your primary email address will ensure all emails reach their intended destination. Example - When 'myname@provider.com' is the primary email address, you would add any other email aliases to this field, i.e. 'myname@emailprovider.com |
Authentication details | |
| These details are to do with security, you will need the username and password for either option of SSL or OAuth 2. For more on OAuth 2, see this guide. | |
| Use OAuth 2 | Toggle to enable/disable the connection between MaxContact and your mail server/provider to use secure email interactions via Microsoft Azure. |
| Use SSL | Use a secure connection when sending and receiving emails. |
| Username | Enter the username for the email account being used. Must be between 1 and 250 characters. |
| Password | Enter the password for your email account being used for the channel. Once entered, this will be encrypted and no longer viewable. Must be between 1 and 250 characters. |
| The following are only accessible if you select OAuth2 | |
| Client ID | This is a public identifier for apps. |
| Client secret | This is a secret known only to the application and the authorization server. |
| Auth URL | This is the endpoint used to generate the access token when requesting access to emails. |
| Scope | This is the mechanism in OAuth 2.0 to limit an applications access to a users account. |
OAuth 2.0
OAuth 2.0 is a secure, open data sharing standard. This authentication and authorization standard protects user data by providing access to the data without revealing the user's identity or credentials. It allows you to read data of a user from another application i.e. MaxContact. This applies to all folders used, including sub folders.
Click to test the connection to your mailbox! We'll make sure your authentication details are set up correctly so you can stay connected and receive your emails hassle-free.
When using a standard email account, we authenticate via username, password, incoming mailbox (IMAP) and IMAP port.
When using OAuth2, we authenticate via the Client ID, Client Secret and Auth URL.
You will see one of two 'toast messages' depending on the outcome of the test.
General tab
Fig 4. The general tab which holds some specific features for email interactions.
General | |
| Subject prefix | You can enter text here which will be added to the beginning of email subjects. This will help recipients to identify the source of the message. |
| Push queued emails | Toggle to enable/disable pushing of same sender emails to agents. When this is enabled, agents will receive additional tickets that have a matching email address to any ticket within the same queue. You can also set the max number of those emails that user can receive at one time. |
Subject prefix example
Adding the word Renewals to the channel would mean all emails going out to customers and coming back in to agents will start with 'Renewals'. This will make identifying emails quicker and easier for your agents.
Push queued emails example
If a customer was to email in with a request one afternoon, it may not be dealt with until the next day. If between then, the customer emails in more information to help the initial enquiry, it may be picked up by another agent. This could lead to confusion and miss communication with the customer. This feature will help to alleviate this situation from arising.
| Suspend email | Toggle to temporarily suspend emails being pulled from the configured mailbox. This will only suspend new emails being pulled in and not impact the ability to handle and send emails via this channel. This will remain in force until you toggle to un-suspend (A pause icon in the left-hand channel list indicates any email channels that are currently suspended). For more on this feature, see this guide. |
Suspend email example
The user has been doing Initial testing and doesn't want to fully deactivate the channel until they go live (as this causes other admin changes to have to be made).The user has been having issues with their mailbox and wants to stop emails being scraped in for a period of time (as this causes other admin changes to have to be made).
The user wants to never scrape emails In (as they are using the mailbox as a "no reply" mailbox).
Inbound email lookup | |
| Lead lookup priority | This allows you to select how emails received on the channel are matched to existing leads. The three options from the dropdown are; Match all If an existing lead exists in the system for the senders address, they will be matched automatically. Skip match (all) All emails received will not be matched against any existing leads, and will be treated as new leads. Skip match (specified emails) This will follow the 'match all. process unless the senders email address is listed in the 'Lead lookup exceptions' section. If it matches an email there, it will follow the 'skip match' process for the specified email addresses. |
| Lead lookup exceptions | Here you can enter email addresses that will be used for the 'skip match specified emails' option. Each email should be entered on a new line. |
Inbound email lookup example
Some clients may use webforms that send information via email. These usually all come in from the same email address even though each enquiry would be a different customer. If the client used match all, there would be one lead in the system having all enquiries attributed to that lead. This obviously would cause issues so the skip match specified emails option could be used.
Email templates | |
| Reply template | Here, you can select the email template to use for your agents replies from this channel. Ensure the selected template has the {{messagecontent}} fill point, otherwise, email replies will be sent with no message content entered by the agent. You can use the 'go to' button to navigate to the message templates. Users will not see this response when interacting with the customers email. |
| In hours template | You can select an email template to send automatically when an email has been received during work hours (within scheduled hours). This can be used to acknowledge receipt of an email and to inform the customer of when you intend to respond. |
| Out of hours template | Here, you can select an email to automatically send when the channel is out of hours (out of schedule). This can be used for similar purpose to the in hours template. |
The 'in hours' and 'out of hours' template options will only be accessible if a schedule is assigned to the channel.
Email template examples
A reply template can be built to display company logos etc. and will be sent with each response from the web agent. Ensuring you use the fill point {{messagecontent}} enables what the agent types to be placed into the template on the reply.
In hours templates and out of hours templates can inform the customer that you have received their email and will respond. E.g. 'Thankyou for your email, we aim to respond to all emails within 48 hours.'
Other channel types
Please select a link below to see the other specific channel options.
Webchat |
SMS |