Custom outgoing email addresses?

[CianTech]

Hi,

I can't seem to find a way to configure a different "from:" email address depending on which email the ticket was sent to. For example, say we have two companies, xyz and abc. If a customer sends a ticket to support@abc.com, the email from address should say ABC, Inc. Support Services. But if the email was sent to support@xyz.com, it should say XYZ, LLC. It seems there's only one way to configure Outgoing messages in Cerb 4.0, so am I missing something?

Also, it seems that there is no way to _merge_ tickets, delete certain replies (for example, if a customer sent 5 messages with same text, only one is necessary) or set custom statuses (e.g. Answered, Pending, Customer-Reply, etc.). Can you tell me where to find these?

To be honest, I'm coming from Deskpro, and this interface seems much more simpler than what I was expecting. Of course, I like the new features and all, but hopefully it will get better.

Thanks!

[jstanden]

Hey there!


I can't seem to find a way to configure a different "from:" email address depending on which email the ticket was sent to. For example, say we have

Basically, you'd have your two example addresses route into particular groups (Configuration->Mail->Routing). Each of those groups can have a custom 'From' address.

The helpdesk as a whole also has a default 'From' address, but the group level takes precedence.

Also, it seems that there is no way to _merge_ tickets

It's a bit hidden at first, but click 'More>' under a list of tickets.

delete certain replies (for example, if a customer sent 5 messages with same text, only one is necessary)

It might be hard to believe, but Cerberus has never had the ability to delete e-mail messages on a ticket. In 6 years it's just never been a huge request, and many people usually err on the side of keeping all information for legal reasons.

I went ahead and filed the feature request for you:
http://www.wgmdev.com/jira/browse/CHD-287

or set custom statuses (e.g. Answered, Pending, Customer-Reply, etc.). Can you tell me where to find these?

Custom statuses are a confused feature. ;) And I know a lot of other systems still use them, and we did in the past.

The main problem is when you define a global set of statuses they don't always have the same context or purpose between different groups (e.g., Sales, Support, Billing). So then you start talking about custom statuses per group, and it all gets very confusing.

And when they do have a shared purpose, such as your examples of Answered/Reply/etc, then that's really so central to the workflow of the helpdesk that it should be automatic and implied.

If you look at Cerb4, we have a column called 'Last Action'. This column automatically adapts to 'New', 'Incoming reply', 'Outgoing reply'. You can sort on the column, you can search on the column and you can create custom worklists using the column for specific states. You never have to use a dropdown, because the status is implied by the actual activity on a ticket.

To be honest, I'm coming from Deskpro, and this interface seems much more simpler than what I was expecting. Of course, I like the new features and all, but hopefully it will get better.

I don't really think it's a question of getting better in these cases, although it absolutely has room to do that ;), I think you just need to approach Cerb4 with a clean slate and consider how it solves the same problems you're out to solve. It's not going to map 1-to-1 with Deskpro, Kayako, Outlook, etc.

Our philosophy is not to do things just because everyone else is, or because they're habitual. We like to consider the point of every feature and how it fits naturally into the process.

Replying to e-mail all day is already repetitive enough, the less redundant properties you need to juggle on a ticket the better, right? :)

[CianTech]

Thanks for the clear answers, Jeff!

I see what you mean about the messages being routed when a user _submits_ a ticket, but how about customizing what the actual From name (e.g XYZ Support <support@xyz.com>, XYZ Sales <sales@xyz.com>)displays when _replying_ to a ticket? I'm using the online demo, and can't seem to find how to do this unless I set the global option. Also, what about custom outgoing templates for each email address? For example, a general introductory message thanking the user for creating ticket and informing that they can view status online. I'm pretty sure v2 or v3 had this? We basically want to use ONE helpdesk to manage all our different brands and companies, yet provide the appearance of individualized company support when replying, viewing the ticket online, etc. So please let me know if this is possible

Also, is there a way to request custom information from a client when he/she starts a ticket from the online interface? I see the question builder for the contact form module, but what about obtaining specific ticket info depending on the department the user submits to. For example, say we want to know the customer's Account username, server name, etc. where would I find this? I think community tool section has this and it was there in v3.x, but I'm having trouble finding it in v4 [[EDIT: Seems like you mentioned in another thread you are working on 'custom fields'... if it's the same, no need to reply to this q :)]]

Thirdly, is it possible to auto-close a ticket after X number of days unanswered? For instance, say we're awaiting a customer reply, but he/she doesn't reply within 10 days, we can assume it's solved and mark it as Closed/Resolved.

The idea of tags in v3 sounded cool, at least to complement your idea of removing actual statuses. Will they make a return here? For example, adding a tag of 'Resolved' and 'Waiting on Tech' would be sufficient for sorting purposes, instead of just having Outgoing or Incoming or Closed?

One more thing, I can't seem to find out how to make RSS work for searching (Fetch & Retrieve) from an IPB (Invision Power Board) forum. I thought I can take a look at the way you do it for vB, as it should be similar, but the wiki appears blank for the vB section on this. IPB's Export RSS feature only basically has the ability export individual forum categories, but not search results per se I think.

I appreciate your time taken to answer these... just makes it easier for me to decide sooner!

[Hildy]

In the top right corner, under your login name, you'll see the "my groups" link. Click on that to configure your groups, including the from address to use when replying and the new ticket auto-response. Your incoming mail routing will then just need to deliver sales@xyz.com to the "XYZ Group" and sales@abc.com to the "ABC Group". Replies automatically use the reply-as address of the group the ticket is in.

Yeah, the custom fields are coming. You could also get this information through any custom form, or an application of the current form builder, but custom fields are definitely coming.

Re: auto-closing tickets: it's not in the core, but it would be fairly simple to implement as a plugin. Since tickets will auto-reopen when the customer replies, is there a reason (other than the slight logical disconnect ;-) ) to not mark them closed any time you're waiting for a customer response? That way they'll dissapear until the customer responds, and you don't have to worry about closing them if the customer never does respond.

With your "Waiting on Tech" thing, I think the buckets in the groups should do what you're looking for, in terms of organizing work into different piles.

No idea on the IPB RSS, but I'll take a look. Edit: Their documentation indicates that they only have RSS export on forum posts. It might be possible to write a search rss feed for it, though.

[jstanden]

Added a prototype for vBulletin F&R searches:
http://www.cerb4.com/forums/showthread.php?t=222