Problem with the Inbox

One of the problems with using the standard email Inbox is the difficulty of managing ongoing customer conversations.  This becomes even more problematic as a business grows.  With just a few quick clicks a customer service agent could accidentally delete an email; a customer receives multiple, conflicting responses; agents or customers are added or removed from email chains.

Duplicate Emails - If you have three or more customer service agents handling one shared inbox, duplicate, overlapping email responses are almost guaranteed.

Consider this scenario:
A customer emails your company with a technical problem they are having with your new product.  Agent #1 begins to compose a reply to the customer with instructions on how to correct the issue. Agent #2 is just returning from a break, sees the email from the customer, and also begins to compose a reply.  Perhaps Agent #3 accidentally deletes the email or inadvertently drags it into another folder in their email client.  This could be a common occurrence and an example of two or more agents working on one problem.

The underlying problem of this scenario is the lack of communication agents have with each other.  In order for a system like this to run smoothly, agents need to constantly update each other about the opening and closing of tickets.  This kind of communication can be time-consuming and decrease productivity. Not to mention the likelihood of the customer receiving conflicting information due to multiple agents replying to the same ticket.

Delayed Responses - Recent data suggest customers' expectations for a fast response to their email continue to rise, with an expected response time of 6 hours or less. 

Delayed response times can happen for a number of reasons:
1. Customer emails are not being routed or assigned to the correct agent or group best suited to respond. The result - an unclear understanding of who is going to respond to the customer.  A perfect "I got it, you take it" or "I thought you were answering that one" scenario.

2. Lack of access to a history of correspondence with the customer. Agent #1 may recall the history of the customer but what if Agent #1 is unavailable?  Agent #2 could respond, not having all the information relevant for an informed reply.  Or Agent #2 may delay the reply until Agent #1 returns.

3. Limited access to a knowledge base of replies.  A customizable Standard Response Library allows agents to reply using tested and proven responses, enhancing accuracy and productivity.

Lack of Accountability and Measurement - There's no easy way to track how quickly agents were to respond, or how efficient they were is resolving the issue.  Are we servicing our customers within minutes, hours, or days?

Manual, constant monitoring of correspondence, and responding within the expected period of time with knowledgeable, accurate answers, has become increasingly difficult for companies of all sizes.  Small companies with a limited customer base might be able to keep up for a while, but as staff grows and customer demands scale, a company must position themselves with the tools necessary to allow their reps to efficiently, and effectively service the customer.  A shared Inbox does not have the capacity to handle customer support for growing businesses.

VisNetic MailFlow is powerful, affordable email management and tracking software that automatically assigns email to the appropriate groups or individuals, allows for efficient email workload distribution, and includes a shared contact database with email history. It gives employees the tools necessary to answer emails quickly with knowledgeable, accurate responses, and it allows management to monitor email distribution, response times and employee performance.

Learn more about VisNetic MailFlow and Sign up for a Guided Tour.

Disposable Cache

Clearing your cache is a good place to start when VisNetic MailFlow is not rendering correctly in your browser, this is especially relevant after your installation of VisNetic MailFlow has been recently upgraded.

By clearing the cache, you ensure that your browser is going back to the web server to request the latest files, rather than just serving you what it has cached.

The Temporary Internet Files (or cache) folder is used by web browsers to store webpage content on the computer hard disk for quick viewing. 

Perform the following steps on any client computers exhibiting the issue.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 / 10
1. Click Tools in the left menu bar (if opened) or click on the Gear icon in the right toolbar.
2. Click Internet Options and choose the General tab.
3. Click the Delete... button under the "Browsing History" section.
4. Make sure you uncheck "Preserve Favorites Website Data" at the top of this window.
5. Make sure you check all options below "Preserve Favorites Website Data".
6. Click the Delete button.
 - Deleting files could take awhile if you have a lot of files and history.
7. Click OK to close window.

See Internet Explorer Note below.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8
1. Click Tools in the left menu bar (if opened) or click on Tools in the lower right menu bar.
2. Click Internet Options and choose the General tab.
3. Click the Delete... button under the "Browsing History" section.
4. Make sure you uncheck "Preserve Favorites Website Data" at the top of this window.
5. Make sure you check all options below "Preserve Favorites Website Data".
6. Click the Delete button.
 - Deleting files could take awhile if you have a lot of files and history.
7. Click OK to close window.

See Internet Explorer Note below.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7
1. Click Tools in the upper toolbar or click on the Tools icon.
2. Click Internet Options to open Internet Properties.
3. Click the General tab
4. Click Delete under "Browsing History".
5. Click Delete Files under "Temporary Internet Files".
6. Click Yes on the Delete Files dialog box.
7. Click Close and then OK.

See Internet Explorer Note below. 

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6
Open Internet Explorer.
1. Click Tools in the upper toolbar.
2. Click Internet Options to open Internet Properties.
3. Click the General tab
4. Click Delete Files under "Temporary Internet Files".
5. Check Delete all offline content.
6. Click OK on the Delete Files dialog box.
7. Click Apply and then OK.

Internet Explorer Note: For whatever reason IE does not always remove the Temporary Internet Files when you clear the browser cache. If that is the case, please follow these steps:
1. Go to Tool, Internet Options.
2. Go to Browsing History, Settings.
3. Go to View files.
4. Select All and manually delete the files in Temporary Internet Files.
5. Login to MailFlow.

Google Chrome
1. Click the Chrome menu on the browser toolbar.
2. Click Tools.
3. Click Clear browsing data.
4. In the dialog that appears, select Empty the cache and any other type of information that you want to remove.
5. Use the menu at the top to select the amount of data that you want to delete. Select "beginning of time" to delete everything.
6. Click Clear browsing data.

Apple Safari 
1. Select Preferences from the Safari menu
2. Select the Advanced tab and check the Show Develop menu in menu bar box
3. You will now have a Develop menu available.  Select Empty Caches from the Develop Menu

Another option:
1. Select "Reset Safari" from the Safari menu
2. In the dialog that appears, select Empty the Cache and Remove all cookies, then click the Reset button.  Newer versions of Safari have replaced these two options with a single checkbox.  "Remove all web site data". Checking this will clear both the cache and cookies.

Apple Safari on Windows
1. Click Edit from the menu bar
2. Click Empty Cache
3. Click Empty.

Agent to Agent Messaging

VisNetic MailFlow allows your organization to respond to customer inquiries promptly, professionally, and consistently...

VisNetic MailFlow provides a strong foundation for managing organizational email correspondence, improving service
potential where it matters most --at the point of customer contact.

The core of MailFlow's marketing message is the effective management of customer related email.  VisNetic MailFlow does an excellent job of that, but what about Agent to Agent email?  VisNetic MailFlow is not necessarily intended to replace the standard email client software for inner-office communication, but it can!

Anyone familiar with MailFlow understands the relationship between a Message, Ticket, TicketBox, and Ownership of a Ticket. MailFlow employs complex Routing Rules to ensure messages are systematically delivered to the appropriate Agent and/or TicketBox, therefore it is important one specific step be taken when sending Agent to Agent emails. I'll refer to this as Agent to Agent Messaging.

Follow these steps for Agent to Agent Messaging:

1. From Agent 1's MyTickets, select New / Ticket with Message from the ticket list toolbar.  This opens the message composition window.
2. In the TO: field enter Agent 2's email address.
3. Define a Subject as appropriate.
4. Set TicketBox and Ticket Category if desired.  The default Unassigned options are acceptable.
5. If not already, set the Ticket State to Closed.
6. IMPORTANT - Select Agent 2 as the Ticket Owner. This in turn will automatically set your Route Replies to Me, to No.
7. Close Ticket After Send: Yes.
8. Compose your message.
9. Send.

Agent 2 will receive the email in their MyTickets.  Agent 2 simply replies to the email, setting Agent 1 as the Ticket Owner.  The reply will arrive in Agent 1's MyTickets.

Once the correspondence is established between the Agents, a Ticket Note can be optionally utilized to exchange messages by simply reassigning ownership of the Ticket.

Couple this with MyFolders and you have an organized, secure, trackable solution for internal communication, with all the benefits of email management software.

Additional Agent to Agent capabilities will be introduced later this year, including Instant Messaging and Agent Inbox.

Have questions or would like a demonstration of Agent to Agent Messaging? Contact Us