Piping in regular emails to support system

[xxkylexx]

Hello,

I have seen a few other companies that have such a feature like this, and I would love to see it available to use in a version of WHMCS.

The ability to pipe in emails that are regularly sent to an address. For example, someone were to send a regular email to my support email. Instead of it just being a standard email, it would automatically get piped into the ticketing system. This would allow support staff who have accress to the Admin area of WHMCS to answer questions coming directly in to that email.

Also, maybe piping in the pre-sales questions form into the admin area would be a good feature as well.

Thanks,
Kyle

[Matt]

This is fine for standard support only systems but because WHMCS works on the basis of clients, it can only accept emails from incoming customers already in the system. The next version already has support for opening support tickets in this way but if the email the ticket comes from is not in the system it will not be opened as a ticket and instead will be emailed to the system admin.

Matt

[xxkylexx]

That sounds even better! Can't wait to see it.

[MACscr]

Thats definately not good. Support tickets should be general and should only be assigned to a client if that email address matches an existing client. If it doesnt, then it should be entered into some other table. call it whatever you want, but all emails associated with the helpdesk email address should create tickets automatically. This has to be done to work as a helpdesk as many people have clients that are companies, which then of course have multiple staff members and multiple email addresses. All support requests need to be logged into the desk. Hmm, need to look more at how Kayako does it. We still use it for our server management company. They would be a good example of how a helpdesk should work. Also, they integrate with MB, so of course their is a way to link it to clients as well. Hmm. Ideas, Ideas. =P

Sure you dont want to do commercial open source like sugarcrm? Dont have a free version though, just have the source open. The license and copyright would restrict the ability to fork the script. I dont know. Its just a great way to get a lot of customers,make mucho money, but have features/bug fixes, etc provided by the customers as well.

[Adam]

Hey,

I use Kayako for all my support needs and they do it the same way Matt does it but does't matter if it's in the system or not. (You have the option of turning it on/off). Example below,

Email from vistor send to [email protected]
Kayako picks up email from [email protected] and insters into a database where the client can log in and view the message. Kayako also sends a copy back to the clients email.
Staff Members respons to email of [email protected] and a copy is sent to the database and the clients email. So that if the client does not want to log in to check his or her email he logs into the Kayako and the same message is shown in ticket area as sent in the email.
If a client wants to respond to the ticket he can keep the TICKET ID in the subject line where Kayako just adds a response or he or she can log into Kayako side and answer it from there.

This is nice. How ever I wish they had it so that new customers have to use a online form to send a message the first time so that we know it's not spam. Once the email is logged into the system the user can send email from that mail with out using the online form. Thus have no spam. Any email not in the database will get an email back saying to post via on the online form.

From,
Adam

[MACscr]

I really dont think form only option is smart for potential new clients, etc. I understand the spam issue, but thats just the cost of doing business. Encrpyting your email addresses on your website with smarty hex encryption will help reduce the amount of spam you get at these generic addresses as spyders will no longer b e able to see them, but users will be able to use and see them just fine.

I guess giving an option to turn on or off this feature might not be a bad idea though.

[Matt]

Well as I've said, the next version will support clients opening tickets by email. Emails from email addresses not recognised by the system will just be forwarded to an alternative address. We will maybe look at supporting pre-sales questions in support tickets in the future. Most major businesses handle pre-sales questions by email so I think for now at least the email only option for pre-sales is fine.

Matt

[MACscr]

I basically just look at email piping and helpdesks as a way to archive the conversations and also the ability for multiple staff members to reply and keep track of that conversation. Email is not a good communication route for that type of tracking.

[Adam]

I basically just look at email piping and helpdesks as a way to archive the conversations and also the ability for multiple staff members to reply and keep track of that conversation. Email is not a good communication route for that type of tracking.

Ya, I hear you, I mean like today a Customer asked one of my sales staff about Ruby on Rails gem installer. The sales staff did't know the answer but answered the other questions and sent a PM to a tech to answer the question. So if this was done via email, alot of FF would have been done and would be alot harder to track. Using a help desk software this was all done. I think WHMCS should have this option as well, maybe not in the up coming build but at least have it.

From,
Adam