Types of messages 

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Introduction

The messages you can route and track include the following:

• Forms-based email�email generated by a form on your Web site

• Free-form email (including file attachments)

• Faxes

The only requirement is that the messages you want to route and track comply with Internet messaging protocols. The following sections provide planning information for each type of message.

Customers can choose a Write to Us link on your Web site, and see a form that you have designed for generating email. The form prompts the customer to provide the information you need to process a request efficiently and effectively. For instance, you can ask customers whether they have purchased products or services from you before and which products they were. At a minimum, it is important to require an email address where you can reach the customer.

Planning your forms-based email

Planning this form is similar to planning a menu for routing voice calls. Fortunately, however, a Web form on the screen is easier for customers to follow than a voice menu is. This means that you can request more detailed information to help route their requests to the correct agent. When a customer chooses the Send button, the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) script behind the form uses the entered data to compose a message that complies with Internet messaging protocols, and sends it to the appropriate messaging mailbox. The factors determining this mailbox may be part of the information provided by the customer. The Web page where the customer chose your Write to Us link may also help. For instance, if the customer was browsing your new products page, the message might go to [email protected] .

For messages sent from a form, the return address for the message originator should be designed to be the customer, not the mail server.

Routing your forms-based email

In some cases, you may choose to route these messages first to system software on your Web server, before they ever reach a messaging mailbox. This software may be able to use the information from the form to generate a sufficient answer for the customer automatically, so that the customer receives the desired information or assistance without the need for agent interaction. Otherwise, the software can route the message to the appropriate messaging mailbox.

How the messaging software routes forms-based email

Once the message arrives in a messaging mailbox, the messaging software retrieves it and then delivers it to an appropriate agent. You need to create a form for generating email from your Web site. The best design for the email form on your own Web site depends on what information you need to handle a message effectively.

Examples of key information for a form

Key information that the form should gather includes the following:

• Information to identify the customer, such as account number or home address

• Contact information about the customer, such as the return email address or a phone number to call back

• Selection options which, taken together, identify the appropriate skill group for handling the customer's request

Support from Avaya

Only someone familiar with your business can specify exactly what information you need. However, Avaya Professional Services offers assistance in designing and constructing your Write to Us form. To contact Professional Services, call 1-877-927�6662.

Free-form email

Customers can send a free-form text message to an Internet address you publish. You probably already have at least one such address for general inquiries. You can publish additional addresses to match specific product lines, business interests, customer concerns, and marketing campaigns. The messaging software can receive all of these messages, as long as they comply with Internet messaging protocols, and deliver them according to the instructions for the mailbox where they arrive.

For example, if your contact center provided a MAILTO link on a customer Web page, then the customer would click on the email link and a message composition window for composing and sending the message (with the recipient's address automatically filled in) would appear. The customer would then compose a message and click on a Send button. The email is then sent to the destination address (mailbox) monitored by the messaging software and delivered to an agent for processing.

Processing free-form email

Normally, free-form messages to a general address require more processing time. Before anyone can actually handle the request in the message, someone must analyze the message, determine what the request is, decide who is best qualified to handle it, and send it to that person.

Fortunately, you can automate this process by routing email through a sorting utility. Several commercially available mail-sorting utilities are capable of using rules and filters you specify to analyze a message and, when appropriate, put it into one of the mailboxes monitored by the messaging software.

File attachments

Attachments can include any type of file. Generally, browsers are pre-configured to open popular types of attachments. However, it is up to you to administer any new file types with the helper applications. File types may include plain text, graphics, voice or other sound files, and files created in various spreadsheets, word processors, databases, and other applications. For further information, refer to your browser's help section.

Important!

Install a virus checker on the agent's desktop to perform virus checking when opening file attachments received in email.

How the messaging software handles file attachments

The messaging software will store 20 attachments with each inbound message. If an inbound message contains more than 20 attachments, the messaging software truncates the message (that is, attachment 21 and beyond will be discarded).

Faxes

From the point of view of the messaging software, a fax is actually just one more type of file attachment to the messages it receives.

Customers send their faxes to a number you publish. Most email servers support a fax server interface which enables the mail server to accept fax image files and store them electronically, as a file attachment to a message. An excellent example of such a server is the Intuity AUDIX server with Internet Messaging.

How the messaging software works with faxes

The messaging software works with the mail server to accept messages that include fax images and delivers them according to the VDN for the mailbox where they arrive. This VDN should stipulate that such messages go only to agents able to view fax files.

NOTE: The messaging software itself does not include functionality for viewing fax images. To work with fax images, an agent must have a helper application for handling faxes through the browser.

Important!

Faxes normally have a callback number but not an email return address. Without such a return address, the messaging software cannot send an auto-acknowledgment to the customer. Thus you should plan your mailboxes to keep fax messages separate from any messages where you want to send the customer an auto-acknowledgment.