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Service and Communications > Communications > Managing Oracle Contact On Demand > Handling Emails

Handling Emails

Emails are routed to agents based on skill, availability, or keyword. When an email has been routed to you, the Incoming Email alert flashes in the Communication Tools section of the Action bar. The record also appears at the top of your Inbox on the Communications Homepage, within the Email subtab.

You can determine the period during which the Communication Homepage Inbox displays the current and completed emails in your personal profile. For more information, see Updating Your Personal Details.

Generally, you want to respond to all emails. However, when you receive email, such as junk mail, which does not warrant a reply, you can discard it. Discarding wraps up the email without a response and no completed Email Activity is created. However, you can choose to create an email activity for discarded emails if you want. You can save incomplete email replies by clicking Save As Draft. These emails are saved to the Drafts folder. You cannot edit discarded and sent emails.

Your administrator also configures the settings for the maximum number of emails you can receive. You can see that information by looking at the Offline Messages line in the Statistics window, shown as x/y. x is the number of messages currently assigned to you. y is your allowed limit.

NOTE: When an agent receives an email, the agent's status remains at Available.

To read a new email

To access your new email, you can do either of the following:

• Click the Incoming Email alert in the Communication Tools section in the Action bar.

  This automatically opens the Email subtab in the Communications Homepage.

• Navigate to the Email subtab on the Communications tab.

  This displays a list of new email assigned to you.

1. Click the Subject Link of the email you want to review.

   The email content is displayed in the New Email Details window.

2. On the Email Details window you can do the following:
   • Reassign. Resends the email to the same workgroup so that it can be reassigned to another agent or group.

     Enter information in the Note field if you want to provide background information for the next agent or group.

   • Discard. Removes the email from the Inbox.

     Use this feature for unwanted emails. If you want to keep track of certain discarded emails, select the Log an Activity checkbox in the Discard Email dialog.

   • Save as Draft. Saves the email in the draft email list within my Email section.
   • Reply. On replying to an email, a wrap-up screen appears. Enter the appropriate wrap up details and click Save.

     The activity is now recorded in the Recently Completed Emails section of your Communication home page. Also, if the email was related to any records you can access the email from the record's interaction history. Both the original email and the response are captured within the interaction history.

To read draft, sent and discarded emails

1. Click the Email subtab in the Communications Homepage.
2. In the My Emails section, locate the email you want to review from the drop-down menu:
   • Draft Messages
   • Sent Messages
   • Discarded Messages

     This displays a list of emails for the selected folder.

3. Click the Subject link for the email you want to review.

   The email content is displayed in the Email Details section.

   NOTE: The Outbound Email activity is saved as a separate activity record. If the Outbound Email activity is linked to a contact, account, and so on, the activity record also appears in the contact or account's related information section. Oracle CRM On Demand creates only completed Email Activities in Sent Messages.

To reassign the email

1. On the Email page, click Reassign.
2. Click Agent or Group in the window that appears.
3. In the Transfer window, select a group or agent.

   If you click Agent, a dialog box opens with a list of all the agents and their respective statuses. The following list describes the statuses of the agents:

   • Available. The agent has the status of Available in the Communication Tools bar.
   • On Break. The agent has the status of Unavailable in the Communication Tools bar.
   • Busy. The agent is working on another interaction and is unavailable.
   • Logout. The agent is not logged in to the Communication Server. This information does not relate to the agent's status in Oracle CRM On Demand.
   • ACD Email. The agent is currently processing an email.
   • Wrap Up. The agent is currently processing a Wrap Up form.
4. Click Transfer.