Communication Channel Configuration - Email
To ensure smooth and efficient communication throughout the service process, it’s essential to have omnichannel engagement, where customers can interact with your service organization across a number of channels interchangeably. For instance, a customer may begin an interaction via phone and conclude it through email or start with a chat that transitions to a phone call.
SAP Service Cloud Version 2 enables omnichannel engagement which supports:
- Email Channel.
- Phone with CTI.*
- Chat*.
- SMS*.
- Web self-service portal.
Note
* Additional license required (maybe SAP or Partner Solution).In this lesson, we will focus on email communication and by the end of this lesson you will be able to create an email channel and email template in SAP Service Cloud Version 2.
Email Communication Channel
| Email Channel Examples | |
| Business to Client (B2C) |
|
| Business to Business (B2B) |
|
As with the other supported channels, the email channel is a two-way communication between your customers and your service organization. The first step for email channel configuration to begin is to decide what emails and channels are needed to best support how the service organization is structured into service teams and differentiates between its customers.
An example set up could be to have customers divided into business to client (B2C) and business to business (B2B) on the one hand and separate service and support teams on the other. This could then be two channels (one for B2C, the other for B2B), each channel with two associated email addresses (one for service, the other for support). Possibly an escalation team could be in the mix too.
The SAP Service Cloud Version 2 tenant can host up to 20 email channels (this might change with future releases). For each channel, the system can be configured to:
- Identify the customer from their email address,
- Automatically create a Case and,
- Assign it to a team and team member using routing rules.
At the same time, Team members can readily email their customers and include email attachments, for example by reference to a Knowledge Base.
Email Channel Configuration
To configure the email settings, we first need to define the email communication channel. This includes specifying the channel email, which serves as the service email address that customers use to reach the service company. The tenant email, a technical address required for automatic forwarding, is also mandatory. When an object case is selected, an inbound email can be linked to it, allowing for automatic case creation. By choosing the case type, we determine which specific case type will be applied for case creation within that communication channel.
Once the support emails addresses and channels that the service organization needs are decided, the actual email channel configuration and setup can begin. Email channel configuration and setup involves:
Configuration:
Follow these steps to configure a new email channel in SAP Service Cloud Version 2.
- Configure the settings in SAP Service Cloud Version 2 for a new email channel, ensuring the system can recognize the account and contact based on the email address and automatically generate a Case. This can be configured in the following path: Settings → Emails → Channels.
- Verify the new channel and activate it for incoming emails to be forwarded from the company's email server to the channel's technical address on the SAP Service Cloud Version 2 tenant.
- Maintain the channel rules incoming emails:
Channel rules allow us to set up routing rules for cases. Using the email channel as a condition attribute, along with additional attributes, we can manage team and/or employee assignment for inbound emails associated with a specific email channel.
