Let's say you run a busy hosting company. And let's say you have a sales force of 2 or 3 people to handle pre-sales email queries. And let's say all queries are directed to one sales email address - eg., sales@yoursite.com .

Logisitically, how do you handle splitting the queries between your sales staff? If they all have the email account set up on their own computers, how do they know who gets what, or for that matter, how do they know if an email has already been handled by another staff member?

Vito

I guess one way would be if someone answers, they bcc to the rest their reply so they are made aware that it is answered.

The other method would probably to hook the email address to a support ticketing system so they could check if it is responded to or not. With support tickets, you generally have an audit trail.

Don't the mods here bcc each other when replying to email? I thinks someone mentioned that the other day.

I can see how a ticket system would work. Are there any other ways?

Vito

The only ways I could see doing this realistically is to either have a ticket system (I use Kayako www.kayako.com) or just to use web based email if you want a simple free approach.

Yup, the mods does bcc of sorts.. there is a global mod mailing list which they bcc to.

There are a couple of free ticket systems that are actually pretty good. Try Osticket ( http://www.osticket.com ) If you use modern bill there is an integration for it. You can also set up departments for sales, support whatever you need.

There is a much better way to handle a volume of sales leads with multiple remote staff. The software is called ACT (http://www.act.com) and it is a stellar solution. The main email address can be piped in and assignments to various staff done automatically. Follow-ups, alarms, changing ownership and a multitude of other features are available, updates can be done real time and by any of the staff.

It is without doubt the finest sales tool I've ever used...

The dotcom company I managed at some time back before I got into hosting used an IVR/CS integrated system called CellIt. Incoming email was sent to a general pool based on email address. Reps were assigned to that pool and would select emails for them to answer. Later on, we configured it to where it would automatically add a tracking number to the email and it would go to a reps mailbox. If it was to the wrong department or they couldn't answer it, they would transfer the ticket to someone else.

It wasn't cheap. Several hundred thousand dollars from what I remember. However, when we were doing our talks they sent us down to Miami for the training and negotiations. It was a great company, but unfortunately they were bought out by some other firm.

That ACT sure does look slick... :smokin:

Vito

Why not just have each staff member setup the account as an Imap account in Outlook?

This way, all emails sent (by anyone) will be stored in the 'Sent Items' folder for all to see. One person can also see which emails have been replied to, flagged, etc by others.

ticketsmith, simple and free.

Anyway, setting up a shared email account maybe useful :)



-CyberUltra

Did I mention that not all employees will be in the same office? In fact these would be remote employees in different cities.

Vito

i 2nd ticketsmith.
it's amazing for a small & simple software! even though it's old, it's still works great!

There are a few features in Outlook that would allow for multiple staff to use the email account and get the emails. You can choose whether or not to actually "take" the email from the server and/or delete the email from the server went put into the deleted items folder. Though it might not be the BEST way to do support with multiple people.

Possibly alter a script (whichever you may be using) and have it send to a specified email address depending on the priority and type?

Example: (Priority: 1-5 [5-Urgent])
- Technical w/Priority 1 or 2 -> tech-dept1(@)domain.com
- Technical w/Priority 3, 4 or 5 -> tech-dept2(@)domain.com
- Sales -> send to sales(@)domain.com
- Support w/Priority 1 or 2 -> supp-dept1(@)domain.com
- Support w/Priority 3, 4 or 5 -> supp-dept2(@)domain.com

Or you could possibly make an addon that you have a script that grabs the emails for a specific department and then displays them on a page. The page will then have a field(s) where someone can fill in their name to take responsibility over the ticket and then go from there.

Hope some of this makes sense. Just random things going through my head and decided to toss em out as they came.

Good Day :)

There are quite a few ticket systems which will do this. In my experience it's the best way to go.

How many people are you talking about?
5?50?100?

There are different solutions for each size.

Originally posted by Jim_UK
Why not just have each staff member setup the account as an Imap account in Outlook?

This way, all emails sent (by anyone) will be stored in the 'Sent Items' folder for all to see. One person can also see which emails have been replied to, flagged, etc by others.

I believe it only allows 1 login at a time.

Wow, lots of choices to explore. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Vito

Helpdesk which pipes in the mail is the best solution.
Anything from Ticketsmith , perldesk etc.
Also allows you to monitor the ticket.

imap is a solution which was very popular at one time.

You could even use a bug tracking software. This way the entire life cycle of the mail is tracked. :)

Amar

you could just setup each staff member with the POP3 email address, and when an email comes through, whichever staff member recieved it gets it, and outlook deletes it automatically off the server, so other staff members will not get it. Is there any problems that can arise out of using this method (i can think of I few, easily solved by using help desk software, I use WHM AUTOPILOT)

Originally posted by vito
That ACT sure does look slick... :smokin:

Vito It really is sweet. You can run reports on the sales leads with custom parameters so you can identify the results of specific efforts and/or advertising campaigns. I think that is one of the best features but there are tons of others.

Well worth the investment...

So is that $230 per user, Watcher_TVI?

I would imagine so...

Vito

It wasn't for me but then I bought it a couple years back. I qualified for a Corporate licensing package. If I recall it was like $150 for the main license but you got something like 1-9 users. Then there were upgraded license costs for additional user tiers.

I don't remember the exact details of the initial sign-up but I do know I had to contact a sales rep to get the pricing I ended up buying...

We use Kayako, all sales emails are piped to our Kayako Ticket Systems, and Kayako has a status bar showing you who is currently viewing the tickets, since when. All correspondences to the emails also recorded to the ticket database which allows you to follow up and trace back easily.

--> www.kayako.com

Try these two (although they are not free):


http://www.deerfield.com/products/visnetic-mailflow/requirements/ (look for the demo on the right hand side)


http://portal1.legato.com/products/emailxtender/

ACT! is a very popular software. When I worked for Fleet, they used it there.

act is very nice.. we just got done installing it for a local client to sync up offices... however vito we have been looking for a similar solution recently... we found something the other day... name evades me that pulled mail from a server then served it back up in a queing system so emails could be checked out and checked back in.. will dig around and see if I can find it again.. was one of those happy 3 am finds that didnt get bookmarked