Workflow and Email Response from OST

alexfwalker

Hi,I'm running a customer service team who up until now have had no way of organising the incoming work, other than assigning colours in an Outlook mailbox.We're now running OST but are just using it to log and action postal queries whilst we get used to it.I'd like to start pushing email queries through the system, but I'm concerned that if there is no email response to a 3rd party (external customer), we'll be duplicating work by logging the query in OST, resolving it internally and then going back to Outlook to manage all comms with the 3rd party.So, 2 questions. 1) Am I missing something obvious whereby OST can handle the emails to the 3rd party, and 2) assuming I'm not, can anyone share any workflows/tips that they use in a similar scenario so I can keep it as efficient as possible?

JRogers

I'm not sure what you're asking, but let me try an example and you can tell us if that's it:External (3rd party) user sends an email, and it gets routed to osTicket.Your team responds (or closes the ticket) in osTicket, and you're asking if it will generate an email back to the external (3rd party) user (assuming it's configured to send alerts.If that's what you mean, osTicket doesn't distinguish between internal vs. external users that I'm aware of.Jack

alexfwalker

Yes, exactly. My reservation is that the approach above would necessitate setting every external customer up as a user - I think?

JRogers

Not necessarily.In our scenario, we allow ticket submission by email. In fact, that's our users' ONLY interface to the system. I've edited all the alert and notification templates so that they have no links to the web interface. They get a ticket number, and I used a variable that will include our response to the ticket.I believe osTicket can automatically add them as users when they submit an email--but it's just not necessary to allow them web access if you don't need that.Jack

alexfwalker

Ok, great - that gives me plenty to experiment with. If you don't mind, I may PM you with any specific questions! Many thanks.

JRogers

Actually, I think it would be best to keep the conversation public, in this topic. It might benefit someone else down the road, and it gives others a chance to weigh in. I'm a relative newb to this, so the public discussion provides one more check-point.Jack

ntozier

I'm a fan of keeping threads like this open so that people can chime in, discuss, and toss out their ideas. :)