When to use Requests

Manage, track and respond to client requests sent to your shared company addresses from a central inbox in your Accelo account, such as emails sent to your support@, info@ or sales@yourcompany.com.

Give your team a place to work together in resolving all client support and sales requests, whether requesting more information, to start new work, or for help on a support issue. The Requests Module helps you prevent any trip-ups, forgotten emails or doubling up on your work.

The Request Inbox is a triage center for your support team, allowing them to quickly respond to small issues your clients may be having. If a request turns into a larger problem, such as a bug in their website, quickly convert their request into a Ticket to start working on resolving it. Keep your Tickets list clean by dealing with small problems as Requests, before you convert to a Ticket.

Within Requests you can quickly see a new client request, respond to the request if you need more information or to let them know that you’re working on it, and keep track of the time required to respond to the request. Once you’re done with that work, you can then take that request and convert it into a ticket to track the actual work involved so that you can keep on top of the time and properly bill for it once that work is done.

For your Sales Team, keep track of any potential new opportunities. For brand new clients you can add them to your system as a Lead and easily convert to a sales opportunity once you have gathered all their qualifying information and you’re ready to move forward with a Proposal.

Click Next to see how to setup your Requests Inbox.

Setup Support Inbox & Sales Inbox

Create different Request Inboxes for all of the emails that go to your shared company addresses, such as support@, info@ or sales@company.com. Maximize the team's response time and availability by moving all of these incoming emails into one place so that everyone can access the requests and respond to them when they have time.

Capture email messages from your shared company addresses, by setting up your Request Types, such as a Support Inbox or Sales Inbox. Each of your shared email address can be configured to its own Request Inbox by setting up a corresponding Request Type.

To create a Request Type:

1. Navigate to the Requests Configuration page, by clicking the Modules button () and selecting Configuration.

2. Under Requests select Types.

3. Click the Add Type buttonat the top left.
   
   
   

Your account has been setup to include some Request Types to help get you started.

Edit these existing Request Types by clicking on the Request Type Titles or the Edit button on the same line. 


Choose the way you want incoming emails to appear in your account from unknown email addresses. Accelo recommends that if an unknown contact emails you, you choose to treat it as a new lead so you can choose whether or not to add them as a client, allowing you to keep you sales Database clean and free from spam.

Allow your staff to respond from your shared email addresses such as “support@yourcompany.com” by defining your Dedicated activity from address (optional).  Responding from a dedicated activity email address allows you to keep your Request responses and client correspondence all within the request queue.

Never miss out on a Request by setting up User Notifications.  Add a specific User or Group to be notified every time a request comes into your queue, allowing your team to stay on top of client interactions in your shared inboxes.

Setup an automated response letting your clients know that you have received their question and are working on getting them an answer. Configure an Autoreply to send at the time that the email is sent, and cut down on clients emailing multiple times to see if you’ve received their initial email.

Click Next to learn how to forward emails into your Request Inboxes.

Forwarding emails into your Request Inbox

Use your shared email addresses like you do now (your info@, support@, sales@yourcompany.com), and forward it into your Accelo account using a customizeable capture email address.

Take the shared email addresses you’ve set up, and forward them into your Accelo account so everyone on your team can access them. Ensure your client’s requests are sent to Accelo. This requires some configurations on your own email provider.

Find and edit your Incoming Capture Address by navigating to Configuration and selecting Types under Requests. Each Request Type will have its own capture address, which you can edit if necessary. For example, the capture address for Support could be support@yourdomain.accelo.com.

You will then need to set up a forwarding rule in your external email platform. Follow the relevant guide below to configure email capture:

• Google Apps

• Microsoft Exchange

• Microsoft Office365

• Outlook (stand alone)

• Other (POP3/SMTP)
  
  

Click Next to learn how to reply to your clients within the Request Inbox.

Replying in your Request Inbox

Your Request Inbox is designed to help everyone on your team respond to your client’s ongoing requests or new potential leads from one accessible inbox. Filter your requests to scan quickly through your list, allow your whole team to access and respond to questions, and close out your requests to focus only on unresolved issues.

On the left side of the screen you will find all a full list of all of your client's requests. On the right you will be able to preview the email, the email history, and reply back to your clients.

Click the Claim Request link to put the Request in your name, letting the rest of the team know that you are currently working on a response. Once claimed, you can always un-claim it by clicking Defer Request. Note that only one Request can be claimed by one user at a time to ensure that the client isn’t replied to twice.

Click the Reply button ()  to open up a reply box at the bottom of the screen, allowing you to reply to the Request directly as you would any email.  There’s nothing worse then starting to reply to an email and find out someone else is working on it. In your Request Inbox, when you start to reply to a client email you will automatically Claim this request, allowing your team to see that the request is in your hands.

Close the Request once it has been resolved or responded to by clicking the Close button (). This will remove the Request from the active queue. If you are waiting for more information or clarification on an issue, ask for more information and Close the response. Once the client responds, the request will Re-open and reappear within your queue, ensuring that you will never lose track of your responses.  Your goal will be to Close Out everything in your queue.

Any user on your team can reply to requests in the inbox, so the whole team can work together to clear out the inbox. And if more work needs to be completed, retain all the time and emails you shared with you client and Convert your request to a new Sale, Ticket, or Project.

Click Next to learn how to Convert your Requests.

Converting Requests into Tickets

Turn requests from your Request Inbox into Tickets, Projects, or Sales with the click of a button. When you convert your requests, Accelo automatically moves the details from the request to the new Ticket, Project, or Sale so you don't have to re-enter any data.

Choose which conversions you want to make available in each of your Request Inboxes. For example, you may wish to set up your Support Inbox so that any request in that inbox can be converted into a Ticket. Within your Sales Inbox you can choose to convert a request into either a Sale or a Project.

Navigate to Request Configuration to choose your conversion options. Click on Types under Requests and select which request type you want to configure. Select the Conversions tab and check the box next to the desired conversion type.

To convert a request, simply click on the Convert button () on the request email, and choose whether you want to convert it to a Ticket, Project, or Sale.

Click Next to learn create and manage Tickets.