Configure the email channel

This guide walks you through the steps required to enable the email channel feature.

Enable the email channel globally

A settings page dedicated to email menu types is available in the Contact Center AI Platform (CCAI Platform) global settings menu.

  1. Go to Settings > Email.
  2. Toggle the Email channel switch to ON to enable the email channel and all of its features and functionalities. The switch is set to OFF by default.

Append the session ID to email subject lines

You can configure the email channel so that session IDs are appended to the subject line when agents respond to emails.

To append the session ID to email subject lines, follow these steps:

  1. In the CCAI Platform portal, click Settings > Email. If you don't see the Settings menu, click Menu.

  2. In the General pane, under Email Management, select the Automatically append session information to email subject on first replies checkbox.

  3. Click Save.

Configure email account data storage

  1. Go to Settings > Developer Settings > Email Account Management and click Manage Email Account. You are brought to the Email data storage tab by default.
  2. Select a storage time period by clicking the drop-down menu in the Data Management section.
  3. Data must be stored in either a Cloud Storage or Amazon S3 bucket. Make your selection and enter the following information:
    1. Bucket name: Name of the destination storage bucket.
    2. Service Account Key: Path to the file containing your JSON service account key.
    3. Folder path: Path to the destination storage bucket.
  4. Click Test Connection to verify that the settings are correctly configured.
  5. Click Add.
  6. Click Save to validate the fields and save the changes.

Configure the email account list

Go to Settings > Developer Settings > Email Account Management and click Manage Email Account. The Email account list tab at the top of the page displays all onboarded email accounts and includes information and actions for each:

  • Username: Username of the person associated with the account.
  • Email: Email address of the agent associated with the account.
  • Service: Displays the email service type for the account. The only service available is Generic IMAP.
  • Status: Valid or invalid, reflects the operation status of the email.
  • Actions: Lets you edit or delete each line item.

Select Add Email Account to display the Add Email menu. Enter the required information in the following fields:

  • Email Service: Drop-down menu, select Generic IMAP.
  • Email Username: Enter the username associated with the email. The username is a value assigned by your company and might be the same as the email address.
  • Incoming Server: Enter the Incoming IMAP server address associated with the email account.
  • Sender Server: Enter the Sender SMTP server address associated with the email account.
  • Email ID: Enter the email address.
  • Password: Enter the password of the email account.

Click Save to validate the fields and save the changes.

Configure CRM record and session status management

Email communications between end-users and agents are organized into sessions. An email session is one single communication stream, defined the same way for chat and voice sessions. Sessions have multiple interactions, for example:

  1. Email enters queue.
  2. Email is answered by an agent.
  3. Email is transferred to another queue.
  4. Email is responded to and resolved by another Agent

CCAI Platform lets you change how email session status is handled as well as how much information is recorded about each session. To change the default settings, navigate to Settings > Email > General. The general settings page for email session configuration contains the following options:

1. *CRM Record Management*
1. *Session Status Management*

CRM Record Management

  1. (Optional) Un-check the Inbound Emails checkbox to prevent the creation of CRM tickets for incoming emails. This option is selected by default.

  2. (Optional) Un-check the Outbound Emails checkbox to prevent the creation of CRM tickets for outbound emails. This option is selected by default.

  3. (Optional) Post email body contents as comments: This option is selected by default. If unchecked all other information about the email will be recorded in the CRM (timestamps, agent ID, end-user ID), but the contents of the email(s) will be omitted. Following this option, there are two additional buttons to let you to choose how frequently you want email contents posted to the case associated with the session:

    1. Post comment at the end of session (default option): This option will post a comment to the CRM with email contents for the entire email thread only once, after the email session has ended.

    2. Post comment at the end of each agent reply: This option will post a CRM comment plus all email contents in the thread up to that point every time the agent sends a reply in the thread.

  4. (Optional) Post email body contents as PDF attachments: This option is selected by default. If unchecked, email contents will not be added to the CRM record as PDF attachments. Following this option, there are two additional buttons to let you to choose how frequently you want email contents posted to the case:

    1. Post PDF at the end of session (default option): This option will post the CRM comment with email contents for the entire email thread once, after the email session has ended.

    2. Post PDF at the end of each agent reply: This option will post the comment plus all email contents in the thread up to that point whenever the agent sends a reply in the thread.

  5. (Optional) Check the Attach email session metadata file checkbox to allow CCAI Platform to generate a session metadata file for each email session and attach it to the linked CRM ticket at the end of the session. This box is unchecked by default. If this box remains unchecked, the session metadata file won't be logged to the CRM ticket.

Session status management

The following settings let you configure timing thresholds related to the status of each email session.

Paused to Closed

This option is enabled by default. If enabled, CCAI Platform will automatically close an email session that is in Paused status after it reaches the specified timer threshold. You can set the timer threshold in the Threshold Timer field, which can be any value from 1-1000 days. The default value is 60 days.

Resolved to Closed

The option is enabled by default. If enabled, CCAI Platform will automatically close an email session that is in Resolved status after it reaches the timer threshold. Case status will automatically convert from Resolved to Closed. You can set the timer threshold in the Threshold Timer field, which can be any value from 1-1000 days. The default setting is 30 days.

Active to Paused

This option is enabled by default. If enabled, CCAI Platform will automatically move Active cases to Paused status after the specified timer threshold. You can set the timer threshold in the Threshold Timer field, which can be any value from 1-1000 days. The default setting is 30 days.

Closed to Reopened

This option is enabled by default. If enabled, CCAI Platform will automatically move a case status from Closed to Reopened if there is new activity in the case before a specified timer threshold. You can set the timer threshold in the Threshold Timer field, which can be any value from 1-1000 days. The default setting is 30 days.

If this option is disabled, CCAI Platform will create a new email session when there is new inbound or outbound activity in the thread of a closed email session regardless of how much time has passed since the last activity.

Configure queue and channel settings

  1. To make queue level configurations go to Settings > Queue.

  2. A tile for the email channel should be visible on the queue menu landing page. If it doesn't appear, make sure that the global email channel settings are enabled.

  3. Toggle the Email switch to ON to enable email messaging for end-users and the sending and receiving of email messages through the Agent Adapter.

  4. Click the Edit/View button to navigate to the Queue Menu Configurations page for email.

  5. The channel drop-down menu lists all enabled support channels. Email will appear here when the email channel has been properly enabled. Select Email to display the Email Channel Queue Menu Configurations page.

  6. The language drop-down menu lists all enabled language menus. Select a language to display the queue menu configuration specific to the selected email channel and language. The left-hand menu displays the email queue menus set up under the selected language.

  7. Select an email queue to display the queue settings for that specific menu on the right side of the page. Toggle the Channel Settings switch ON to enable the email menu and display the mailbox for that queue in the Agent Adapter.

  8. Click the Edit button to open the Queue Builder for the email channel. For more information about adding and editing queues, refer to Web: Add and edit queues.

Channel Settings

The Email Address section displays the support email addresses assigned to this queue. If no support email addresses are assigned, you will see the message "No email assigned".

  1. Click Update email address to display the Email Address Assignment page and make changes.

  2. Select the Email Address drop-down to display all available email addresses for the queue. Select the email address you want to assign to this queue. This selection will apply to inbound and outbound emails. The Queue Configuration page will also update with the selections you make here.

  3. Click Save to save the changes, then click Back to Settings. The Human Agents section will appear if Channel Setting is ON, and will display the total number of human agents assigned to the queue. If no human agents are assigned, you will see the message "No agents assigned".

  4. Click Assign agents to display the Human Agent Assignment page and make changes. Select the individuals or teams you want to assign to a specific queue. This assignment page does not support percentage allocation or cascade groups.

  5. Click Save to save the changes before clicking Back to Settings. For more information about assigning agents to queues, refer to Setting up and assigning agents to channels and queues: IVR, Mobile, Web.

  6. Each email queue will be displayed as an email box in the Agent Adapter. All agents assigned to a specific email queue will be able receive and send emails using the Agent Adapter.

(Optional) Configure auto-assignment for the email channel

  1. Go to Settings > Queue > Email > {queue_name} > Queue Settings > Auto-assignment. These settings allow you to configure the auto-assignment settings at the queue level for any queue that has email enabled.

  2. Click the Configure button to open the Queue Auto-assignment Settings page and set your preferences.

  3. The Auto-assignment toggle switch lets you enable or disable the email auto-assignment feature at the queue level. This switch is OFF by default, so emails are not automatically assigned to agents. Switching the toggle ON will automatically assign all eligible incoming emails to agents assigned to the queue.

  4. the Auto-assignment limit checkbox is unchecked by default, so there is no limit to the number of emails auto-assigned to an agent per day. Click this checkbox to apply a hard limit to the maximum number of emails auto-assigned to an agent per day. The default limit is 10. You can choose any value between 1-100.

  5. Click Save to save your changes.

(Optional) Configure auto-response for the email channel

  1. Go to **Settings > Queue > Email > {queue_name} > Queue Settings > Auto-response. These settings allow you to configure the auto-assignment settings at the queue level for any queue that has email enabled.

  2. Click the Configure button to open the Queue Auto-assignment Settings page and set your preferences.

  3. The Auto-response toggle switch lets you enable or disable the email auto-assignment feature at the queue level. This switch is OFF by default, so automatic responses are not sent. Switching the toggle ON will will automatically send the pre-drafted email responses to eligible incoming emails

  4. The Message lets you draft and save the auto-response email reply. This section is required. It is formatted to allow for drafting the email as you would write one in the adapter, with a space to write the message and a formatting toolbar to allow for customized formatting. Enter the email message into the Email message text area.

  5. Email Text Format Toolbar displays the following buttons to allow for text editing:

    • Bold
    • Italics
    • Underline
    • Bullet
    • Number
    • Hyperlink
    • Alignment (right, left, center)
    • Indent (up to 3 levels)
    • Dynamic tags
    • Attach files (up to 10 attachments, up to 25MB total)
  • Click Save to save to save your changes.

(Optional) Expected automation behaviors

Automated responses

You can configure email auto-responses for use in the following scenarios:

  • All new inbound emails that are the first emails in a thread.
  • Email replies coming into an email thread in Closed status (reopens the case).
  • Email replies coming into an email thread in Paused status (reactivates the case).
  • Email replies coming into an email thread in Active status, but has had 15 days of inactivity without a status update.

The email auto-response will always include "RE:" and the original email subject in the response. It will be recorded in the CRM ticket in the same manner as Non-automated emails.

You can configure a customized, pre-drafted automated email and pre-fill information into the response template based on the following dynamic content](/contact-center/ccai-platform/docs/Developer_Settings#external_storage_dynamic_folder_path_and_file_names) tags:

  • @{consumer}: End-user first name.
  • @{agent}: Agent first name.
  • @{date}: System date.
  • @{time}: System time.
  • @{queue}: Email menu name.
  • @{company}: Company name.
  • @{next_working_date}: Next working date in HOOPS settings.
  • @{ticket_id}: CRM ticket ID.

Queue automation

The following emails are detected by CCAI Platform and automatically assigned to eligible agents in the queue in the order in which they are received. Email replies to email sessions with agents already assigned will be automatically re-assigned to the designated agent, regardless of when it was received.

  • All new incoming emails.
  • All incoming email replies to an active email session with no agent assignment.
  • All incoming email replies to a closed email session with no agent assignment.

All agents assigned to an email queue that has auto-assignment turned on are eligible for auto assignment for emails coming into that queue, though they can be ranked to prioritize the assignment order. You can also assign limits to restrict the number of emails an agent receives during their shift.

Agents are ranked by the number of active email sessions assigned to them from the specific queue. Active email sessions consider all emails assigned to the agent in Unopened, Reopened, and Active statuses. The agent with the least number of active email sessions is the top ranked agent for auto assignment and prioritized. The timestamp of the last time an email from the queue was auto-assigned is recorded. If two or more agents have the same least number of active email sessions, the agent with the earliest time of last email auto-assignment is top ranked and prioritized.