Overview

SAP Hybris Cloud for Service – Email Channels: For scenarios where a contact centre needs to process inbound emails and convert some or all of them to tickets, the steps below should cover the config required to do so

A contact centre should have an email address that customers can use to send service requests/complaints/compliments to. If there is a team monitoring this inbox and creating the necessary tickets in the system manually, it means there is information in two different systems – one being the email inbox and the other being Cloud for Customer (or any other CRM system).

The advantage of setting up inbound email on C4C is that all emails will lie on the mail server, but will be processed from a single place – Cloud for Customer. This means the contact centre agents do not need to work in two different systems and no information will be lost when converting the email into a ticket, for e.g. the agent might not copy all the relevant content over into the ticket or might miss an attachment sent with the email when working between Outlook and C4C manually.

All of this will remain in tact if the ticket is received in C4C and processed in the same system the ticket is created in, either by automation or by conversion.

It also allows for direct responses to the customer from C4C, again keeping all the interactions in one system

Configuration

Where detail is missing, it is available in the admin guide. This document does not serve to replace the steps in the admin guide, but to compliment those steps or config with detail that might not be clear or included in the admin guide

Step 1: Enabling Email Integration in Scoping

• Under Scoping go to Service > Employee Support > Communication Channel – Email > Select the Checkbox

• Go to Questions and set as In Scope the following under Service Request Management:

Step 2: Adding Allowed Domains for Outbound Email

• Go to Business Config > Open Activity List > Fine Tune > Email and Fax Settings
• Select Email and Fax Settings
• Add the allowed Sender Email Domain for e.g. test.gov.za
• Add the default sender address for e.g. [email protected]

Step 3: Add the Outbound Email Channel

If it will be required to send emails from various email channels that will be org dependent, maintain this as per Step 3 in the admin guide on the relevant org units.

Make sure the email address corresponds with the domains maintained in Step 2

Step 4: Setting Up Inbound Email Channels

You need to add the inbound e-mail addresses that you use in the system for customer interaction and for use in routing service tickets. Once an e-mail is received by the system, the original inbound address is identified (from these channels) and a ticket is created for the corresponding e-mail channel. If you implement routing rules, then the routing rules relevant for the selected channel will be distributed.

• Go to Administration > Service and Social > Under Communication Channels select Email Addresses
• Select NEW
• Enter and ID and the Email address that customers will send emails to

 

• Select Inbound or Outbound or In- and Outbound (which is the default). See the admin guide for details around this choice
• A default account can be assigned to all emails that come in with an unknown email address. This will enable the system to create the ticket anyway.

 

• If the business wants to make sure that new accounts are created for these tickets, then leave this blank. The emails received from customers that do not match an individual customer, a new Individual Customer will be created and the ticket assigned to this customer. For a contact person of a corporate account, if the email address is not recognised it will go to the Unassociated Emails list. Here the email can be analysed, a new BP can be created and the unassociated email can be converted to a new ticket where the BP can be entered as the customer. Thus ensuring all tickets are associated with customers. The unassociated email can also be assigned to an existing ticket, for e.g. if it is a follow-up email

A B2B and a B2C channel have been set up

 

Step 5: Setting Up Forwarding

Emails that come into the mail server need to be forwarded to the technical address of C4C

Log onto the mail server and set up forwarding to the technical address of C4C

 

Step 6: Test

Once the config has been done on C4C and the mail forwarding has been set up on the mail server, a test can be performed

For testing purposes, the following setup was done

• Outlook mail configured to receive the inbound email and forward it to C4C. This is the email address that customers will send support requests to
• iMail will be used as the Individual Customer’s email address (B2C). The customer is Sally Williams

 

• Test email with description “TEST INBOUND B2C” will be sent that will become a ticket in the system for Sally Williams
• Another test email with description “TEST INBOUND B2C 2” will be sent to simulate an email address that does not exist in the system that will become a new customer in C4C

From iMail

 

Received in Outlook in customer care inbox

 

Received by C4C and converted to ticket

 

Ticket Opened. Can now populate necessary fields and reply to customer

 

Email from other email address that the system will not recognize

Email Received in customer care mailbox and forwarded to C4C

 

Email Received and Converted to a new Customer and with a ticket

 

Customer record – Created by Technical User in C4C

 

If the same setup is done for a B2B environment and an email is received from an unknown email address, the email will go to Unassociated Emails

Send email from email address that does not exist in C4C for any of the Contacts

Email received in C4C and pushed to Unassociated Emails

 

Can now be converted to new ticket, associated with an existing ticket or deleted

 

B2B and B2C Combined Business Environment

Although many businesses are either a B2B or a B2C environment, some businesses deal in a B2B and B2C environment.

If this is the case, one cannot use the same channel for both B2B customers and B2C customers. Below is an example of what will happen

Set up forwarding to both the B2B and B2C channel

 

Set up the inbound config in C4C for the B2B and B2C channels, both with the same address that is forwarding the mails

 

When an email is sent to [email protected] it will forward one to the B2B technical address of C4C and one to the B2C technical address in C4C. Then C4C will processes the email coming in for each channel separately.

If the email came from an individual, Sally Williams (B2C), the following will happen –

One ticket will be created from the B2C channel because it recognizes the email address from the individual

One unassociated email will be created from the B2B channel because no Contact person exists with that email address under Accounts

Sent Email – iMail / Outlook etc.

 

 

Received in C4C – Ticket Created for Sally Williams

 

 

 

Received in C4C – Unassociated email for the B2B channel

 

 

In summary, the same channel cannot be used for B2C and B2B.

The incoming email will be duplicated in the system and a ticket and an unassociated email will be created by C4C

The solution is to have a support email address for B2C and a separate one for B2B

Always refer to the latest admin guide for guidance. As explained before, this document is complimentary and is based on the experience of the users that have implemented this kind of solution, but it does not serve to replace the Admin Guide published by SAP.