Closed loop email threading - improvement request

[lpopejoy]

We desperately need a change to the way CommitCRM handles email.

I'm not even sure what to propose, I just know the current system isn't working well enough. The threading "conversation" is much too difficult to view at a glance, and not readily apparent without visiting the "history" tab.

Users need to see that there has been an email conversation regarding a ticket - and be able to read that conversation without clicking a bunch of "view original" windows.

The current implementation is half way there. I'm begging for it to go the rest of the way.

Every time I see those ConnectWise threaded emails... I get a little jealous. ;)

[Support Team]

Quick question - Why do you need to click the 'view original'? The email text is (or should be) embedded in the History and it should be very easy to read the entire thread.

[lpopejoy]

Because if I don't I just see:

< The textual email content cannot be displayed. No text/plain section found. Use the ‘Show Original’ option to view the message in your email client application >

[lpopejoy]

Maybe to build on this a little more... I never understood why Emails with clients didn't go under the "Msg" tab. I know that is only used for internal communication at this time, but it is rarely used (at least by us). It seems like that thought needs to be developed and just make client communications show up in that msg tab. ...and allow emails to be sent directly via the application - not rely on Outlook.

Along with that - add some indicator to each tab that has data entered. We need VISUAL indicators that stuff has happened. If there happens to be something in the "Notes" I think that should be jumping off my screen to get my attention - same with Msg's, resolution, etc. Maybe the Msg tab should say "Msg (UNREAD/READ)" - showing # of messages that are in the tab. Then you could easily see that there is data there that needs attention.

I could see really loving that. You guys get this right, and the world will come breaking down your doors. Well maybe...

[Support Team]

Thanks for the additional suggestions. Nevertheless I suspect that this is due to a missing configuration in Exchange.

Every email that is sent these days should include two parts (behind the scenes, this is how the protocol recommends) – a textual part(text/plain) and an HTML based part.
For example, usually any formatted email you send from Outlook automatically includes both of these sections automatically (same for Gmail etc.) - all without you being aware of all this.

Anyway, from what you described the emails being popped by the email connector at this time do not include the text/plain section and probably only include an HTML part. For some reason the sender application did not include it OR (more likely) Exchange stripped it out, and therefore its text is not copied to the thread in RangerMSP.
To view the content of the email messages in these cases you need to click the "Show Original" option (as you do).

However - in regards to Exchange, someone has told us the following:

"We have sorted it now, it was due to the pop connector in exchange having its retrieval setting set to Auto, and for some reason it decided to force retrieval to html only , stripping the plain text! We set it to ‘HTML and Plain text’ now."

I'm not sure whether you actually use Exchange, in case you do please try the above and see its affect for New arriving email messages. Once resolved all future emails you receive from customers will be nicely displayed in thread (something like this.)

[lpopejoy]

I don't use a POP3 Connector, but thanks anyway.

Some emails do show the body, but it looks like the ones that I send do not.

[Support Team]

So how does the email connector pops incoming emails?

[lpopejoy]

Sorry, I was thinking of something else. I had "Best Format" chosen on the POP3 Client Access. I'm testing different settings out now.

So... Regarding my comments above in the original post... is there ANY hope for improvements? ...or are you guys pretty happy with the current implementation?

[lpopejoy]

Ok, the guy's suggestion above fixed it. I'll email you a screenshot of my settings so that you have them for future reference.

[Support Team]

Great! Thanks for the update and for the screenshot. Here it is so everyone can benefit from it should they encounter the same issue:

/forum_images/exchange-settings-for-html-and-text-email.png

[lpopejoy]

So... Regarding my comments above in the original post... is there ANY hope for improvements? ...or are you guys pretty happy with the current implementation?

[raymond]

Hey lpopejoy, for our bit, we absolutely do not want the "msg" integrated any more than it is into the rest of the program. Realizing that the “msg” is not intended as an email client alternative, we have abandoned all hope for the "msg" features. This is partly because it is difficult to use and somewhat poorly implemented (no way to mark a message read/unread, no way to delete messages, etc.) but really comes down to the fact that it’s "yet another place to have to check for stuff" and we want to simplify our lives, not make it more difficult!

To your point though on the viewing of emails with clients, if the end user had their setting such that they did not embed the original conversation in the reply email (my dad does this and it drives me nuts) then tracking a conversation might be more difficult but that is rare and for the most part, things seem to work pretty well. Two possible suggestions:
1) If you set your default tab for the ticket to resolution/history then "switch to list" view, you can view certain types of history like emails and maybe follow the conversation better. CommitCRM take note: it would be much better if we also had a "[clear all types]" option in the drop down list to quickly uncheck everything!

2) Use the inbox tab on tickets -- this is very useful to keep up on communications from clients in "real time", especially or tickets that have been closed. CommitCRM take note: we REALLY need to be able to multi-select and "remove from inbox"!

Now that you are getting the full email conversations and not a truncated message, give the way it works a bit of time and see if it works for you any better... it’s not perfect but honestly, I think there are a bunch of other things that need more immediate attention... (!)

hope that helps!