About processing incoming mail

For each system account, you can choose whether to activate the processing of incoming emails. You can activate it by selecting the required account in the System email accounts (SM204002) window, and then selecting the Activate incoming mail processing check box on the Incoming mail processing tab.

Before you activate this processing, make sure that email addresses are specified for all employees involved in customer support and CRM activities in either the Employees (EP203000) window or the Users (SM201010) window.

The system processes incoming emails by using a built-in scenario that can be divided into two major parts: the basic part, which is executed whenever processing is enabled for the account; and the optional part, which you can tailor to fit your needs.
The basic part includes forwarding incoming emails to employees based on the email history tracked by the system.

The optional part includes the following stages, which you can configure by using the Incoming mail processing tab of the System email accounts (SM204002) window:

• Initial processing: You can configure the system to confirm the receipt of incoming emails by sending replies based on specific templates.
• Main processing: You can select options corresponding to any of the following actions:
  • Create a new case for each processed email and attach the email to the case as a related activity.
  • Attach each processed email to the business account, contact, or lead related to the email exchange.
  • Create a new lead for each processed email and attach the email to the lead as a related activity.
  • Reply to unassigned emails by using a specific template.
• Final processing: You can decide whether the system should remove processed messages and whether it should add available source information to the bottom of each processed email.

 

Depending on the selected options, the system processes each email as follows (skipping the step if the corresponding option is not selected):

1. Uses the sender's name and email address and the email subject to search the database for available information.
2. Checks whether information about any related contract exists:
   • If this information exists, the system creates a new case and assigns it in accordance with the assignment map selected as the default map for cases in the Customer management preferences (CR101000) window.
   • If no such information exists, the system proceeds to the next step.
3. Checks whether the sender address exists in the database:
   • If the address exists in the database, the system attaches the email to the related business account, contact, or lead.
   • If the address is not found in the database, the system creates a new lead and assigns this lead to an employee by using the default assignment map selected for leads in the Customer management preferences (CR101000) window.
4. If the email remains unassigned, uses the email assignment map (if any) specified on the Assignment settings tab of the System email accounts (SM204002) window.
5. If the email remains unassigned, assigns the email to the default email owner (if any) specified on the Assignment settings tab of the System email accounts (SM204002) window.
6. If the email remains unassigned, generates a reply by using the template selected for such replies.

Generally, the subjects for outgoing mass emails are system-generated and contain values from particular contact records, cases, and activities that will help later with processing replies to the emails if addressees do not change the email subjects.