In this guide we will cover:
– Creating an Email User Action
– Using the Email User Action
– Standalone Emails
– Replying to a Specific Action
Admin Guides:
Related Guides:
Creating an Email User Action
It is likely your instance will have a pre-configured "Email User" action. However, if you wish to create your own or create another, go to Configuration > Tickets > Actions > "New" and create an action that has "Send an Email" set to "Yes" in the "Defaults" tab.
You will also want to add the "Note" field to the "Field List" tab, the "Response Behaviour" to "Respond Automatically" in the "Details" tab, and "Status After Action" to "With User" in the "Details" tab.
Fig 1. Send an Email set to Yes on an action.
If you set an email template against the action in the "Defaults" tab > "Email Template", you can also enable "Is a Quick Action" in the "Details" tab. This will automatically send a preconfigured email from the template used. These can also be added to a workflow to send these emails at a certain step using workflow automations.
Using the Email User Action
Once the action has been added to the ticket type and any corresponding workflows, it is ready to use.
Upon clicking the "Email User" button at the top of the page, the below action configuration will show. I have also added the "Status", "Time Taken" and "Charge Type (Actions)" fields to the field list of my action, all of which show underneath the note field here.
You can type into the note field here to send an email to the end-user of the ticket.
The summary of the ticket will form the subject of the email. By default, email subjects can be 255 characters long, but this number can be reduced as of v2.184.1+ in Configuration > Email > "Email Subject Character Limit".
Note: If using an email template on this action, the variable "$-richactionnote" will need to be added to the template for the text typed here to be populated into the email.
Fig 2. Using the Email User action.
You can embed images by copying and pasting them into the note field or by selecting the "Insert Image" (photo) button, or drag and drop attachments into the note field or attach by using the "Add Attachment" (paperclip) button.
Hovering over the "…" will show additional options, such as showing the Cc field.
Fig 3. Three dot menu on an email action.
As of v2.180.1, emails can be marked as high importance by clicking the "!" button to the right of the three dots.
Hovering over the "…" in the corner of the ticket will also show an option to "Edit Email Recipients".
Fig 4. Edit Email Recipients system use.
This will show a popup to edit which emails are in the "To" and "Cc" fields by default when emailing out of the ticket. If the end-user has an email associated with their account, it will auto-populate in the "To" field. Adding or editing emails when using the action will only change the email list for that action, but this will change it for the whole ticket.
Fig 5. Edit email recipients popup.
Once the email is typed out, click "Send". If it is enabled, you will be presented with the email preview screen. This is where you can double check that the email you are sending is complete. The email preview screen can be enabled in Configuration > Email > Outgoing Email.
Fig 6. Show Email preview after an Email Action checkbox.
If everything is correct in the email preview, you can hit "Send" again. If anything requires changing, hit "Cancel" and repeat the previous steps.
If the email preview is disabled, the email will send straight away upon clicking "Send".
Once submitted, you will see the email shown as an action on the ticket.
Fig 7. Completed email action on a ticket.
Standalone Emails
Emailing customers in Halo is done through ticket actions in almost all instances, as it is the recommended approach to contacting your customers. However, there is a possibility to send standalone emails out of Halo if you wish.
Note: Any emails sent via this method will not be connected to a ticket, and thus replies to them will not be associated with the previous email in the same way ticket replies are. If you wish to keep track of all emails in a connected way, we do not recommend using this method.
Enable "Show the "Send an Email" option on the Tickets screen to send standalone emails" in Configuration > Email > Outgoing Email.
Fig 8. Enabling standalone emails.
When in a ticket area, hovering over the "New" button will now show an option to "Send an Email".
Fig 9. Send an Email system action.
Upon clicking, this screen will then show. This will allow agents to send a one-off email to someone from the Halo-associated mailboxes. The email will not have a ticket ID in the summary, and will simply be a regular email. The only way of viewing these emails after they have been sent is in Backend Service Monitoring > Outgoing Log.
Fig 10. Sending a standalone email.
Replying to a Specific Action
In a ticket with multiple actions from users, you can choose to reply to a certain one instead of only the most recent action.
In Configuration > Tickets > General Settings > Ticket details, select the "Action to use when replying directly to a User action". This is likely to be an email action, so that you can respond to a certain action the user has left on the ticket.
Upon selection, as of v2.178.1+ you can choose to enable "Include a table of the details of the Action being replied to in the new Action note". This will auto-populate a table of the ticket actions before and including the one you are replying to.
Fig 11. Selecting an action to use the Reply system action with.
On the ticket, hover over the "…" and select "Reply".
Fig 12. Selecting the Reply system action.
The normal configuration for the selected action will show, with the addition of two extras.
As of v2.178.1+, the action will have an additional description to indicate you are replying to a certain action and not the entire thread.
Also if the previously mentioned checkbox is enabled, the table will show as below with details of the previous actions on that ticket, including the one you are directly replying to.
Fig 13. Replying to specific User Action.
The action can then be sent as normal, and will appear like below.
If the table is not added, you may wish to add "$-REPLYINGTONOTE" to your email or even to the email template if you have a specific action for these kinds of replies. This variable will show the text of the action you are directly replying to, instead of the history like the table does.
Fig 14. Email User action when replying to a specific ticket action.
