Email Administration

Standard Email Configurations

Symbee Connect supports servicing email in your contact center via two methods - Standard Email or CRM Routed Email. For details on CRM Routed Email see further below.

Standard Email refers to the email channel implementation where your email is forwarded into Amazon SES and your agents service each email (review, reply, and forward) using the email client embedded within the Symbee Connect end user UI. Standard Email can also be used to allow agents to send unsolicited outbound emails unrelated to inbound emails being serviced. Outgoing email (replies, forwards, and unsolicited outbound emails) can be configured to be sent/delivered back out either via your Amazon SES service, or alternatively be sent out through an external SMTP gateway (for example, Microsoft Office 365) that you provide the configuration and credentials for.

This screen lists the currently configured Standard Email configurations. Each Standard Email configuration represents an email address that is configured to either receive incoming email via Amazon SES for inbound servicing or send unsolicited outbound email from or both.

(Note: Before adding and using the Standard Email channel, you will need to run the Email Channel CloudFormation).

Options are available to Modify, Delete and Add Email Configuration.

Standard Email Configuration Settings

To add a new Standard Email Configuration, click the Add Email Configuration action button, which show the Add New Email Configuration dialog for creating a new Email configuration profile. Enter the details below. Upon completion the new Email configuration will be created and added to the list view and can then be maintained.

Email Address

The incoming email address being listened to. This is most likely not your true public-facing email address. This is the email address within AWS SES (Simple Email Service) you configure your public facing email solution to forward to.

Description

Short description for this new Email Configuration.

Maintain Standard Email Settings

This screen will appear when you select an existing configured email address and select to modify it. Configure the settings per the details below.


Inbound Email Routing

Default Skill Queue

The default Email Skill Queue arriving inbound email will be delivered through.

Inbound Routing Rule Set

Optional. The additional routing rules to apply to determine which Skill Queue inbound email is delivered through. The Default Skill Queue above will be used if no rule set is specified, or if an arriving email is not matched by any rules in the specified rule set. The rule set may also decide (a STOP action) the inbound email should not be routed to any Skill Queue, and also optionally provides an opportunity (via custom Lambda) to perform other custom actions during incoming email arrival. For further details, see Inbound Routing Rules.

Email Return To Preferred Agent

When enabled, a best-effort attempt is made to route subsequent customer responses to the agent who last responded on the conversation. For further details, see Email Preferred Agent Routing.

Automated Responses by Event

Queue Closed Automated Response enabled

Whether Automated Responses are enabled when the Queue is closed

Queue Closed Formatted Email Contents

The content to be used for the HTML version of the Automated Response email for a closed queue. Format the content using HTML where needed (HTML markup can include both images and inline CSS styling).

Queue Closed Email Plain Text Contents

The content to be used for the Plain Text version of the Automated Response email for a closed queue.

Queue Open Automated Response enabled

Whether Automated Responses are enabled when the queue is open

Queue Open Formatted Email Contents

The content to be used for the HTML version of the Automated Response email for when the queue is open. Format the content using HTML where needed (HTML markup can include both images and inline CSS styling).

Queue Open Automated Response Email Plain Text Contents

The content to be used for the Plain Text version of the Automated Response email for when the queue is open.

Outbound Email Settings

Delivery Provider

Determines how outbound emails (including replies, forwards, and unsolicited outbound emails) are delivered. Either using Amazon SES (Simple Email Service), or alternatively using your configured external SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) compliant Gateway.

Outbound Email Address

The email address to use as the From address seen by the recipient, for all outbound emails associated with this email binding (includes replies, forwards, and unsolicited outbound emails).

If Delivery Provider is set to Amazon SES, this address must be verified within Amazon SES for outbound email to be successfully sent.

If Delivery Provider is set to SMTP, this email address also represents the User part of your SMTP credentials.

Outbound SMTP Password

Only used when Delivery Provider is set to SMTP. Enter the password of the account associated with the Outbound Email Address configured/known by your SMTP gateway.

SMTP Host

Only used when Delivery Provider is set to SMTP. The host name or IP address of the SMTP gateway used when sending outbound emails.

SMTP Port

Only used when Delivery Provider is set to SMTP. The TCP port used to communicate with the SMTP gateway to send outbound email. Only secure SMTP is supported. For example, port 587.

Unsolicited Outbound Email Enabled

If enabled, unsolicited outbound email will be available from this email binding.

Email Storage Bucket Name

The name of the S3 bucket to store outgoing emails in. See the SES Email CloudFormation template parameters for this value.

Email Storage Bucket Region

The AWS Region of the S3 bucket. See the SES Email CloudFormation template parameters for this value. (e.g., us-east-1, eu-west-2)

Outbound and Reply Email Signature Part

Email Signature Part Enabled

Whether the Email Signature part below is appended for Outbound and Reply emails via this Email address.

Email Signature Part

The content to be appended (after the User Email Signature part, if present) for Outbound and Reply emails via this Email address. See Email Signatures further below for more details on how these values are used.

Content can either be plain text or HTML formatted. For HTML the signature can include basic valid HTML elements (such as: div, p, br, table, img, etc) but cannot include scripts or external references other than image elements.

The following tokens can also be used within the content:

  • {UserFriendlyName} - if present, gets replaced with the value of the User Friendly Name User setting
  • {UserExtension} - if present, gets replaced with the value of the Extension Number User setting
  • {UserDirectDial} - if present, gets replaced with the value of the Direct Dial Number User setting


Email Signatures

For Standard Email, email signature content can be configured to be automatically inserted in the footer of every agent email reply, forward, or unsolicited outbound email. Signature content is optional, and can be configured at either the individual user (agent) level or at the email address (Standard Email Configuration) level, or a combination of both.

Email signatures are dynamically constructed as follows:

  • First the Email Signature content in the User settings is checked. See the following reference for where to configure this: User Settings - Digital Channels - Email. If present, this user-level signature content is appended first.
  • Then the Email Signature settings on the respective Standard Email Configuration are checked (see above). If the Email Signature Part Enabled is checked, the content set in the Email Signature Part setting is appended immediately after any user-level signature content (if no user-level content is configured, just the Standard Email Configuration Signature Part is used).

Using HTML markup in Email Signature Content

All emails sent out using the Symbee Connect Standard Email channel are sent in HTML format.

Email signature content can be entered into the settings discussed above using either simple text and carriage returns, or it can be entered using HTML markup (if you want to include styling, links, and images). The signature content is handled differently depending on whether any HTML markup is found in the content or not:

  • Signature content is analyzed to determine if any HTML markup has been used within
  • If any HTML markup is found in the content, the signature content value in its entirety is treated as HTML
  • if no HTML markup is found in the content, the signature content is treated as plain text

Plain Text Signature Content handling:

When only simple plain text is used, the content is converted up to HTML by replacing each carriage-return with a <br> (HTML line-break), and then the entire content is enclosed in a <p>(HTML paragraph)</p> to avoid unwanted larger gaps between lines.

HTML Signature Content handling:

When any HTML markup is detected within the content, the content is instead used "as is" with absolutely no changes. This means any carriage returns are ignored - if you require new lines in your HTML content, add <br> and <p> </p> HTML tags appropriately.

Using Images in Email Signatures

To add logo's and images to your signature, configure your signature content using HTML markup (see above) and add an image using the HTML image element (<img src="URL to image" />). The image can be styled using inline CSS or enclosed in a <div> as needed for additional formatting.

Example Signature Content

<p>
<em>
Regards,<br>
{UserFriendlyName}
</em>
</p>
<p>
Customer Service Specialist<br>
<strong>ABC Company</strong><br>
525 Acme Blvd | Anytown, CO 82136<br>
W: +1.555.555.1234 | M: +1.555.555.5678<br>
<a href="mailto:customer.service@abccompany.com">customer.service@abccompany.com</a>
</p>
<img src="https://some-s3-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/email-images/ABCCompany-Logo.png" width="70" />

The above example would result in a signature that looks as follows:

Notes on above example:

  • Because the content contains HTML tags, the content is therefore used "as is" without any additional <br> or <p> tags dynamically added
  • The {UserFriendlyName} token is replaced with the user's configured friendly name - in the example, Mike Mars
  • Bold and Italics are achieved using standard HTML markup as needed (for example, <strong> and <em>). Color can also be added in the same manner using respective HTML markup (example: <span style="red">)
  • Spacing and new lines are achieved using standard HTML <br> and <p> tags


Hosting Images used in Email Signatures and AutoText Email Templates using AWS S3

As noted in the previous section, images used in Email Signatures (as well as for Symbee Connect AutoText entries being used for Email Templates) are added using HTML <img> tags which therefore requires the images you are using to be hosted and publicly accessible to your email recipients. If you already have your logo's, and images etc. publicly hosted (for example, as static resources on your website) then you can simply use appropriate URL's to those resources.

If you do not currently have the needed images you want to use publicly hosted, a simple way to do so is by configuring a small public, read only S3 bucket in AWS, uploading your images to the S3 bucket, and using the direct S3 object URL's in your email signature and auto-text <img> tags. The example in the previous section is doing this.

Steps if you want to create a public read-only S3 Bucket for your images:

  1. Log into your AWS Console, and navigate to the S3 service via the Services menu

  2. Under Buckets, select Create Bucket

  3. In the resulting Create Bucket screen, give your bucket a name, select and appropriate AWS Region, accept all the remaining defaults, and create the bucket

  4. Click into the newly created bucket, and select Permissions

  5. Click to Edit the Bucket Policy, and add a bucket policy to allow "read-only" acess ( action:s3:GetObject ) to either the bucket /* level or the subfolder in your bucket where your images will reside.

    Note: To save the bucket policy you will need to edit the Block public access (bucket settings), and temporarily unblock "Block public access to buckets and objects granted through *new* public bucket or access point policies" setting. After you have saved your Bucket Policy, then re-edit the Block public access settings and re-check the same "Block public access to buckets and objects granted through *new* public bucket or access point policies" setting. You will need to permanently leave the other "Block public and cross-account access to buckets and objects through *any* public bucket or access point policies" unchecked to allow the read-only access to occur.

    (The example policy below intentionally makes any object in the identified bucket publicly readable - but not updatable)

    { "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Sid": "Allow-Public-ReadOnly", "Effect": "Allow", "Principal": "*", "Action": "s3:GetObject", "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::replace-with-your-new-bucket-name/*" } ] }

    Don't upload anything into the bucket that you dont want publicly visible!

    An S3 bucket policy like the above intentionally makes the contents of the bucket publicly visible (read only). Therefore make sure not to upload anything into this bucket that you don't want to be publicly accessible.

  6. Upload your images to be used in Email Signature and AutoText content into the bucket

  7. For each image to be used in content, select the image file in the S3 Console, then click the Copy URL button to get the image URL in your clipboard, and then use that resulting URL in your <img scr="S3 object URL" /> image tag in your content.


Email Preferred Agent (or Return to Agent) Routing

On Standard Email configurations, you can optionally enable preferred-agent-routing - see the Email Return To Preferred Agent setting within the Inbound Email Routing section on each Standard Email Configuration.

When this is enabled, Symbee Connect will perform a best-effort attempt to route subsequent customer inbound email responses to the agent who last responded on the conversation.

When enabled, preferred-agent/best-effort routing applies to the following scenarios:

  1. Inbound queued emails - scenario:

    • An initial inbound email is sent from the customer into an email address that is being serviced through a Symbee Connect Standard Email Configuration and related Skill Queue
    • The inbound email is delivered to an agent, and the agent replies back to the customer
    • The customer then responds back to the agent reply
    • A best-effort attempt is made to deliver the customer response inbound email back to the agent that sent out the last reply

  2. Unsolicited outbound emails - scenario:

    • An agent sends an unsolicited outbound email to the customer
    • The customer then responds back to the agent's outbound email
    • A best-effort attempt is made to deliver the customer response inbound email back to the agent that sent the initial outbound email

The preferred-agent/best-effort has the following characteristics / behaviors:

  • The return routing is a "best effort", not a guarantee
  • Relies on the customer's email client preserving custom email headers (all the common major email client providers do)
  • After the preferred agent is identified, routing will wait (within operating hours) up to 30 minutes for the preferred agent to become logged in and have availability to receive a new Email
  • If the preferred agent is (or becomes) available within the 30 minute period noted above, the preferred-route email is given priority over any other emails the agent is skilled for and will be delivered first
  • If the preferred agent is not staffed in, or not available for more than 30 minutes after arrival, the inbound email falls back to routing using the associated general queue to avoid excessive SLA breach
  • A maximum of 20 emails (per skill queue) will be held in the "waiting for preferred-agent" state at any one time. If a new inbound email arrives that meets preferred-agent conditions, and there are already 20 other emails waiting for preferred agent (in the same skill queue), the latest arriving email will bypass preferred-agent routing behavior


Inbound Routing Rules

Configure and use Inbound Email Routing Rules with Standard Email to more finely control which queue inbound emails get delivered to, using flexible email address criteria and keyword matching. Inbound Email Routing Rules can only apply to Standard email address configurations, not CRM Routed emails.

Each Standard Email inbound address configuration is set with a default queue arriving emails are delivered to. If a Routing Rule Set is also configured (see Email Standard Configuration), the specified Rule Set will be considered first and the Default Queue will only be used if no match is made by the configured Rule Set first, for the arriving email. Routing rule sets can be shared across multiple Standard Email address configurations or you can create and set a separate rule set for each email address configuration.

Routing rules are grouped within Rule Sets, which control the order in which each rule within the rule set is applied. The default routing behavior for the rule set can also be overridden using your own customized Lambda if needed.

Options are Modify, Delete and Add New Rule Set.

New Rule Set Settings

Rule Set Name

The name for the Routing Rule Set displayed in pick-lists.

Alternative Routing Lambda ARN

Optional: You can override and customize the default Incoming Email routing behavior using your own custom Lambda implementation. Once the lambda is created and deployed in your AWS account, copy and paste the Lambda ARN here. This Lambda will then be invoked instead of the default one. See further customizing inbound rule-set-based email routing for further details on this.

Inbound Email Routing Rule Sets

Configure the Routing Rules applied by the rule defined.

Rules will be applied in the order they appear, which is controlled by the order value set on each rule. The first matching rule stops any subsequent rules from being considered. If a rule with a STOP action is matched, no further rules are considered, and the arriving email will not be delivered to any Queue.

Options are Modify, Delete and Add New Routing Rule.

Add New Routing Rule Settings

Rule Name

A name for the rule (for documentation only).

Rule Apply Order

If an email matches multiple rules, the first will be applied. This controls the order (lower number first) in which each rule is considered and applied.

Matching Criteria

The following fields can optionally use Regular Expression - the literal text, partial text or pattern (as a Regular Expression) used for matching this rule.

For non Regular Expressions, the matching is case-insensitive.

From Address

From email address.

To Address

To email address.

Subject Line

Subject line.

Full Content

Body of email.

Action
Match Action

The action to take if this rule finds a match. Use ROUTE to have the matching email delivered through the specified Skill Queue. STOP blocks the email from being being delivered to any Queue.

Destination Skill Queue

If Match Action is set to ROUTE, configure the Skill Queue the email should be delivered to.

Further Customizing Inbound Rule-Set based Email Routing

The default implementation for Inbound Routing Rules is provided by a Rule Processing Lambda installed in your AWS Account as part of the Symbee Connect Email Channel CloudFormation. The default Lambda receives the rule configuration (the rules you have configured within the Symbee Connect Administration Portal via the screens referenced above), inspects the email, applies the configured rules appropriately, and returns the decided routing action (and target Skill Queue if appropriate).

Alternatively, you can provide your own custom Lambda implementation that receives the same rule configuration and returns the decided routing action and Skill Queue, but uses your own custom logic to make the decision (for example, performing back-end CRM lookups, etc.).

See the Implementing Custom Email Routing reference section for further details on how to implement and configure your own custom Email Rule Processing Lambda.


Shared Parking Areas

Email Parking applies to inbound email and allows a user to defer handling an incoming email until a later time (for example, while waiting for internal business processes to be performed) before responding back to the customer.

Email Parking is configured at a User level, set in the users profile (or by the User Template applied to the user). Email Parking is disabled by default. To enable, see the Email section under Digital Channels within the User Profile (or User Template).

By default, when a user parks an email, it will be parked in their personal user parking area. Additionally, Shared Email Parking Areas can be configured here, allowing emails to instead be parked in a shared area that is visible and can be managed by a group of users.

Options are Modify, Delete and Add New Shared Parking Area.

New Shared Parking Area Settings

Parking Area Name

The name for the Shared Parking Area displayed in pick-lists.

Description

Additional description for your Parking Area for documentation purposes.

Maximum Allowed Park Time (minutes)

The maximum time an Inbound Email can be parked for (in minutes) for a single park. If this time is exceeded, the Email will be forced back into queue. When re-queued the Email will be set to prefer the agent that parked it. If that agent is not available, it will be sent to the next best available agent.

Maximum Number of Parks

The maximum number of times a specific Inbound Email can be parked in this area. Once this limit is reached, the agent will no longer have the option to re-park the Email.


Routed Email Configurations

As an alternative to using Standard Email Configurations, Symbee Connect also has support for servicing Email in your Contact Center that is routed from your CRM. Currently, CRM Routed Email can only be used by either the Salesforce CRM or alternatively by your custom in-house CRM using the Generic option and utilizing the Symbee Connect Generic Routed Email API endpoint. Further support for using CRM Routed Email with other major CRM's (for example, ServiceNow) will be added in the future as requested. Contact support for further information.

With CRM Routed Email, you continue to have your email initially routed into your CRM (or custom back-end system), but then have the CRM or system generate a Routed Email Task within Symbee Connect to allow the emails to be queued, routed and blended to your contact center agents using skills based routing configured within Symbee Connect.

When the CRM Routed Email is delivered to the agent, Symbee Connect then pops the associated Email to the agent within the CRM or custom back-end system window and the agent works the email within your CRM rather than externally though the email client embedded within Symbee Connect. This keeps your emails within your system or CRM where your agents can make full use of all the supported email functionality and knowledge base in your system or CRM, but allows the emails to be skills-based routed and "pushed" to agents to meet SLA's rather than relying on your agents manually picking up and responding to whichever emails they choose.

Your CRM (or custom back-end system) needs to be configured in Symbee Connect for it to utilize routing emails.

Options are available to Modify, Delete and Add Email Configuration.


Routed Email Configuration Settings

To add a new Routed Email Configuration, click the Add Email Configuration action button, which show the Add New Email Configuration dialog for creating a new Routed Email configuration profile. Enter the details below. Upon completion the new Routed Email configuration will be created and added to the list view and can then be maintained.

Email Configuration Name

A name to uniquely identify this Routed Email Configuration. Letters and numbers only, no spaces, - (dash) is allowed. For example, 'routed-email-support-1'.

Description

Provide a short description


Maintain Routed Email Settings

This screen will appear when you select an existing configured email address and select to modify it. Configure the settings per the details below.

General Settings
CRM owner ID

The value of this field is used to identify routed emails requests, and map them to this specific Routed Email configuration.

For Salesforce, this will need to match the value of the Owner ID set on the the Email Case that was created in Salesforce to represent the Email to be worked. This allows you to configure Email Cases to be created in Salesforce based on rules, and assign them to different Owner groups in Salesforce. This field in Symbee Connect then maps the routed email requests from Salesforce associated with that Owner ID, to the respective Symbee Connect Routed Email Configuration, and the resulting Skill Queue Emails for that Owner ID will be delivered to agents via.

For Custom systems sending in Routed Email requests via the Generic Routed Email API, this will need to match the value set in the ownerId property of the Request payload sent to the API. This allows you to create a mapping between the queues, types, or grouping mechanism of Emails in your custom system, and which Symbee Connect Routed Email Configuration is used within Symbee Connect to determine the Skill Queue the routed email requests will be delivered to agents via.

Routed email queue address

The original incoming email address associated with the routed email requests being serviced by this Routed Email Configuration. This is an informational field used to display to the agent, and to assist in administration to keep track of which Routed Email Configurations map to which CRM or custom system configurations.

CRM

Provides important configuration information to perform the integration. Select the type of Routed Email Configuration. Select Generic if you are sending in Routed Email Requests via the Generic Routed Email API.

Skill Queue

The Skill Queue to route new incoming Routed Email Tasks to, for delivery to agents.