Handle emails

Emails are handled from the same 8x8 Contact Center app panel as phone calls and chats. To receive or place emails using the 8x8 Contact Center app, you must:

  • Be a member of the email queue to which the email is routed.
  • Set your status to Available in the 8x8 Contact Center app.

What happens when I am offered an email?

When you are logged in to the 8x8 Contact Center integration app with the status set to Available, and an email is offered, a notification pops on the screen, prompting you to accept or reject the incoming email. The notification lists the name of the customer, the email subject, the queue it came from, and the time spent waiting in the queue.

What is a typical inbound email flow?

When an email is offered to an available agent, a notification displays prompting the agent to accept or reject the interaction.

Note: To receive interactions, agents must have their status set to Available.

  1. Log into your Salesforce account.
  2. Go to App Launcher > 8x8 Service Console.
  3. Click the 8x8 Contact Center app icon from the bottom-left corner of the page.
  4. Log in to the integration app using your credentials.
  5. Select Ready to work, or set your status to Available.
  6. When an email interaction is offered, click to accept it.
  7. The email opens in the 8x8 Contact Center app, and the system searches the Salesforce CRM for customer information that matches that email address. The number of matches is listed in the customer’s avatar in the 8x8 integration panel. Depending on the situation, the email could return:
    1. No matching records: The search yields no results for the customer and the CRM screen pops a Case tab, and a New Contact tab for you to fill in with relevant information.
    2. A single matching record: The search yields a single matching record and screen pops a Case tab, and the customer information on the screen. The inbound email message is included in the Case tab in Salesforce.
    3. Multiple matching records: The search yields multiple search results and only the Case tab pops on the screen. In this case, you need to click the avatar and manually select which of the matched record to link the new case to. Once selected, click to return to the email in the 8x8 app panel.
    4. Note: If multiple matches are found, click the avatar and select the correct contact to reply to. By default, the CRM matches the case to the first match in the list.

  1. Click Reply to reply to the email.
  2. (Optional) To preview the original email, click the Show trimmed content icon in the message panel.
  3. Type the response.
  4. Click next to the contact’s name.
  5. Select a From address for your reply.
  6. Click to send the email.
    The post-processing time initiates if your administrator has set it up for your tenant. Post-processing gives you time to wrap up notes for the chat.
  7. Click Wrap up.
  8. Note: If post-processing times out your status will change to Available.

The case is updated with the reply email, and the app sets your status to Available. Click Work Offline if you need more time to complete any post-processing task.

What is the screen pop behavior for email interactions?

When an email interaction is offered, the 8x8 Contact Center integration app looks up the email address of the incoming interaction and then searches the Salesforce CRM for a matching record. The number of matches is listed in the customer’s avatar in the 8x8 app panel. Depending on the situation, the email could return:

  • No matching records: The search yields no results for the customer and the CRM screen pops a Case tab, and a New Contact tab for you to fill in with relevant information.

  • A single matching record: The search yields a single matching record and screen pops a Case tab, and the customer information on the screen. The inbound email message is included in the Case tab in Salesforce.
  • Multiple matching records: The search yields multiple search results and only the Case tab pops on the screen. In this case, you need to click the avatar and manually select which of the matches to link the new case to. By default, the CRM matches the case to the first match in the list. Once the correct match is selected, click to return to the email in the 8x8 app panel.

Forward emails

Note: The forward option is used to forward an email interaction to an external email address.

Let’s say you receive an email from a customer that requires information on a pending invoice. All invoice related issues are handled by the financial department, which is external. You can easily forward the email to the financial department so they can provide a solution to the customer. The forwarded email includes the original message received from the customer.

Note: Forwarded emails remain linked to the customer database in the Salesforce CRM, not to the address the email is forwarded to.

Transfer emails

The transfer option allows agents to transfer an email interaction to another queue. Let’s say as a sales agent, you receive an email from a customer that requires help from Customer Support. You can easily transfer the email to the support queue so they can provide a solution to the customer.

Note: Emails can only be transferred to a single address.

End interaction

Let’s say you receive an email interaction from a customer that informs you he paid the invoice he received from the company. If no follow-up is required, you can simply end the interaction from the 8x8 Contact Center app.

Send new email

Let’s say you have to send a new email to the Sales department regarding a warranty claim. You can easily create new email from the 8x8 Contact Center app. When you start creating an email, the app changes your status to Busy to prevent you from receiving new interactions until you wrap-up or change your status to Available.

Create a follow-up email

Let’s say you sent an invoice to a customer and the invoice is now overdue. You can create a follow-up email to remind the customer of the invoice payment issue, and link the email to the case generated when you first sent the invoice. This will ensure that all follow-up emails are documented within the same case.

Pull emails

Let's say you are on the phone with a customer who says they sent pictures of the damaged product they received to the support email address. The email was routed to the email queue, but you are not enabled to serve emails at the moment. As an agent, you can pull the email from My assigned queues, to assess the damage and speed up the resolution of the case.

This feature allows you to browse pending emails, view the sender and subject, and accept the email that requires immediate attention. You can pull emails from your assigned queues at any time, even if they are not enabled, within the limit set by the admin for handling blended interactions.