Reply to Customer Emails

A customer's email message is routed to you as an email task, which may be referred to as an inbound email.

This is different from an email conversation you begin, known as an outbound email.

Information in this article is also available in the Buzzeasy Academy video below:

Redirect on no answer

Before you can work with an inbound email task, the system offers it for your acceptance. In case your administrator sets a RONA time limit for accepting your email conversations, a countdown timer lets you know the amount of time you have before it is taken back to the queue. If such cases, you would be moved into the RONA break state.

With no RONA timer configured, inbound email tasks will stay with you until you close them.

Open an email task

You could work with more than one email task in parallel. The number of emails tasks arriving is configurable by the Administrators.

  1. Select the email task in the list to open it. In case you have this single task only, it will open up automatically.

The work area splits to present the email message details as well as the Customer Data panel, consisting of the Customer details and the Activity History sections.

The subject line of the message appears at the top of the email message section.

In case this email is the last one in the thread of a longer exchange, the conversation details show up below those older entries.

To the right of the subject line is an X icon. This is used to close the task after the message is sent.

The action buttons Reply, Forward and Transfer are visible at the bottom of the email message.

Reply to an email task

  1. Click the Reply button to respond to the email.

  2. If required, use an email template.

  3. Add any further recipients in the To or CC fields by typing the recipient addresses in there directly.

    Press Enter when you finished with typing a recipient address.

  4. You can also add recipients from the Directory by clicking the Directory button.

  5. Enter the message text.

  6. Optionally add attachments, insert pictures inline, add HTML tables, and use the style formatting tools available.

  7. Would you change your mind and discard the message, click the Discard (thrash) icon.

  8. Otherwise scroll to the bottom of the message and click Send to send the email.

Your email conversation is over for now, the message is sent, but your corresponding task is still open.

Waiting for responses

Unlike other media, email conversations are not closed automatically upon sending a response. The conversation is still open. Your agent state is still Busy.

This is because unlike other media, emails are not as fast paced and it is quite possible your recipient will answer your message at one point. If Buzzeasy would close the conversation right when you send your response, then any followup messages from this customer might land with a different agent which forcing them to re-learn the email thread. Because the time it can take for a customer to respond might vary wildly, Buzzeasy lets you decide when it is appropriate to close an email conversation.

  1. You can now either wait for and process any responses the customer might send, or close the conversation to be able to wrap-up the task.

    Note that if you choose to wait for the responses, you remain in the busy agent state. Depending on the configuration your administrator set, you might not be able to receive new email tasks while being busy with this one.

    Also, if your administrator configured a wrap-up timer, then you have a limited amount of time to close the task by hand, otherwise the system will do this for you after a while. In such cases the system will not select a proper Completion code or add Notes.

  2. If the email exchange is over, close the email task.

Forward an email

  1. Click the Forward button to send the email to another recipient.

  2. Enter recipient addresses by hand, or click the Directory icon to select contacts from there.

    Press Enter when you finished with typing a recipient address.

  3. If required, use an email template.

  4. Optionally add attachments, insert pictures inline, add HTML tables, and use the style formatting tools available.

    Note that the overall total size of all the attachments in a message must be below 20 Megabytes.

  5. Would you change your mind and discard the message, click the Discard button.

  6. Otherwise scroll to the bottom of the message and click Send to send the email.

Your email is sent, but your corresponding task is still open.

Close an email task

  1. Would you opt to close the task, click the X icon at the top right corner of the task panel in the work area.

  2. Select a Completion code.

  3. Optionally enter a Note.

  4. Close the task with the button at the bottom.