Question

How do I stop new emails attaching to archived threads?

  • 10 January 2024
  • 1 reply
  • 65 views
gareth

Hi

Our team of 5 receive email requests into the shared inbox from a defined pool of around 50 service users. Sometimes it might be two or three months between an email from the same person.

Currently, we’re finding that a new email request will often attach to an old thread from that same service user, even if that thread was previously archived (sometimes months, even years ago!) The new email will also be assigned to the same person who dealt with the original thread.

Similarly, if the same service user sends over multiple requests in a short period, they all end up attaching to each other and being assigned to the person who dealt with the original request.

This can make it harder to spot the new requests, as it looks they are already assigned and being dealt with by another team member.

I suppose what I’m asking is, is there an easy way to prevent new emails attaching to old archived threads? 

Thanks for any ideas!

Gareth

PS We are on a legacy plan, not the Growth plan or above.

1 reply

andersen
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

Hi @gareth here are some thoughts (trying to take into account what you have access to on a legacy plan)


New Email Requests Attaching to Old Threads

  • This generally happens when a customer sends an email on the existing thread, which is out of your control.
  • Can you check if you have access to the ‘Move message to new conversation’ rule action? There’s definitely a workflow you could build here so new messages after X time will automatically split off into it’s own conversation.

Conversations Staying Forever Assigned to the Original Assignee

  • Consider updating your inbox setting and set the ‘Unassign conversation if inactive for 5 days.’ This will automatically unassign those conversations so in the case where a customer replies to the same thread 2 months later the conversation will appear in the Unassigned inbox view.

     

Multiple Requests Threading Together in a Short Period

  • This one I don’t have a great recommendation. IMO it’s more important that all those messages are threaded together but if you’re interested in making sure every message is it’s own conversation, you could consider changing the threading mode for a channel. That said, it’s extremely noisy to change the threading mode to ‘no threading’ so I would exercise caution when making that decision. You could also potentially explore using the ‘move message to new conversation’ rule action as well, but the ‘how’ is more opaque to me without more context. 
Andersen Yu - Head of Solutions Engineering & Architecture @ Front

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