Sending outbound emails

Note:
  • Real-time and reporting statistics are not available for outbound email activity at this time. We recommend instead that agents put themselves into Busy/Make Busy, with an ‘Outbound email’ Reason Code applied, when drafting outbound emails. Make Busy reports and real-time queue statistics will then display time spent drafting outbound emails.
  • If contact centers use preferred agent routing, we recommend that agents do not adjust case and ticket numbers in email subject lines. Removing or otherwise altering case and ticket numbers in subject lines can interfere with preferred agent routing.

DESKTOP - Outbound emails in progress are housed in the agent's personal Drafts folder, in the New Emails subfolder. This functionality is available to employees with email agents answering for queues. Agents can only send outbound emails from the email queues for which they answer.

WEB - Outbound emails in progress are housed in the Inbox, marked as 'Draft'.

By default, the maximum file size for emails, including attachments, signatures, and images, is 25 MB.

Queue signatures are automatically inserted in outbound emails, if signatures are configured for the queue. Queue signatures are inserted each time a queue is selected as the ‘From’ address.

If you are permitted to use personalized signatures in outbound emails, see "Applying personalized signatures to emails".

Agents can perform common email functions when sending outbound emails, including inserting images, attachments, and applying reply templates to email drafts. See the appropriate topics in this guide for applicable procedures.

Outbound email functionality supports preferred agent routing, to enable ongoing interactions between agents and email recipients.

The following procedures explain how to
  • Send outbound emails
  • Discard outbound emails in progress
  • Search for outbound emails

To send an outbound email (DESKTOP)

Note:

Account codes are not supported for outbound emails.

  1. In the My Folders view, expand the Folders pane.
  2. In the Action bar, click New Email.
  3. In the Preview pane, click From… and select an email queue.
    Note:

    Queue signatures are inserted each time a queue is selected as the ‘From’ address.

  4. Insert addresses in the To: field, and copy or blind-copy additional recipients by filling in the appropriate fields. Separate multiple addresses with semi-colons.
  5. Type the email’s contents and, in the Action bar, click Send . An icon displays over the Preview pane, indicating the email is being sent.

    The email queue signature is inserted in the draft email.

To send an outbound email (WEB)
  1. Click Contacts.
  2. If the email destination is not a recent contact, type the email address in the Search field.
  3. Hover over the appropriate address and click the Email icon. For emails to agents, a colored dot on the avatar indicates its availability.

    The system checks if the selected contact is associated with any open cases and if there is an existing open case, the Reusable case found dialog is displayed with the details of the most recent open case for that contact. You can view the case information such as Case ID, subject and the email body and decide if you want to reuse the existing Case ID for this email. To reuse the Case ID, click Yes, else, click No.

    Note:

    If you do not wish to search for reusable cases in future, click the Disable searching for reusable cases in the future check box. You can enable or disable the option to search for reusable cases on the Options > Customization page.

  4. In the new draft, click From… and select an email queue.
    Note:

    Queue signatures are inserted each time a queue is selected as the ‘From’ address. Agents are responsible for deleting non-applicable queue signatures from outbound email drafts.

  5. You can alternatively search for contacts and their associated email addresses by clicking the To:, CC:, or Bcc: buttons. In the Contacts dialog box, select the required contacts, the email address are auto-entered in the appropriate fields.
  6. Type the email’s contents and click Send.
    Note:

    If Contacts is open, click Contacts again to close the window and expose the desired controls.

To discard an outbound email in progress (DESKTOP)
  1. In the My Folders view, expand the Folders pane.
  2. In the Folders pane, click Drafts. If necessary, expand the My Folders folder first.
  3. Expand the Drafts folder and select New Emails
  4. In the List pane, select the outbound email and, in the Action bar, click Discard Draft.
  5. To search for an outbound email in the Drafts folder, see the procedure below.

To discard an outbound email in progress (WEB)

Note:

If Contacts is open, click Contacts again to close the window and expose the desired controls.

To search for an outbound email in the Drafts folder (DESKTOP)

Note:

The Drafts folder contains the agent's emails in progress. To search for sent outbound emails, search the Sent folder.

  1. In the My Folders view, expand the Folders pane.
  2. In the Folders pane, click Drafts. If necessary, expand the My Folders folder first.
  3. Expand the Drafts folder and select New Emails.
  4. If required, in the Search field, click the x button to clear the pane.
  5. In the Search field, type keywords over the ghost text.

    See "Searching Ignite" for detailed search information and procedures.

To search for an outbound email (WEB)
  1. Click History and select Sent.
  2. In the search field, type keywords over the ghost text.

    See "Performing keyword searches" for detailed search information and procedures.

Parent topic: Handling emails in Ignite
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