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darkknight
Expert ⭐️
Jul 19, 2016 7:51 PM UTC

Cockpit: Send an email to a group (powerlist) of users from Cockpit

On today's Product Roadmap session Karl mentioned that the ability to send email from cockpit will be expected in the August release (yay!) but only for individual contacts.  Whomp whomp....

As part of our scalable engagement model, we send emails out to groups of contacts on an account.  Since these are signed by the CSM, our CSMs want a bit more visibility and control in what is getting sent out in their name.

We need to be able to predefine such emails that are slated to go to all or a subset of contacts on a particular account - in some cases the CSM may want to delay or cancel the sending of the email (depending on their knowledge of the account) or may want to alter the phrasing of the email before it goes out.

This will be especially critical for localization.  We can have standard templates in multiple languages but giving the CSMs the ability to tweak the language to make it more conversational and appropriate to the local area from their point of view will be important. 

This will help us to be more thoughtful in how we communicate with customers, as well as our ability to scale.

    16 replies

    elizabeth_adams_c593ee
    Helper ⭐️⭐️⭐️
    Jul 19, 2016 9:33 PM UTC
    Hi Jeff - We are also trying to balance the mass send with the need for CSM intervention. I had an idea around this that sounds like it might also fit your use case. I posted as a reply to this CoPilot post: https://community.gainsight.com/gainsight/topics/copilot-emails-for-csms-to-send

    Check it out and add your vote if you think it might help you.

    Elizabeth

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    Elizabeth Panska
    karl_rumelhart
    Expert ⭐️
    Jul 21, 2016 2:06 AM UTC
    Hi Jeff --  First let me clarify that the feature operates in the following way: when building a playbook there is an option to create a special kind of task to which you can attach an email template.  That playbook is assigned via a CTA in the usual way.  In other words, although the template comes form Copilot, the automation is via Rules Engine at this time.  Regarding how many people you can send the email to: the CSM can add as many as they want to in the cc line but only one in the TO line -- this is the one for which the tokens are replaced (e.g. first name).  One thing that I may have answered slightly wrong in the webinar: in this first release of this feature, while the Rule can tell the CSM about certain contacts through the CTA, the actual TO contact is selected by the CSM.  
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    darkknight
    Expert ⭐️
    Jul 21, 2016 3:21 AM UTC
    Thanks for the clarification Karl. 🙂 We still have a need for CSMs to control certain email comms that will go out to a large group of contacts. Having them manually select those contacts isn't an optimal experience.
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    Jeff Kirkpatrick
    karl_rumelhart
    Expert ⭐️
    Jul 21, 2016 4:04 AM UTC
    Makes sense.  Does the check need to be made on a per language basis or on a per Customer basis?
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    darkknight
    Expert ⭐️
    Jul 26, 2016 11:59 AM UTC
    Honestly both.  It would be at the customer (or relationship) level, but may need to be language specific depending on language settings at customer/relationship level (we use a "localization" field on Customer Info and/or Relationship to set the core language for the account).

    I'd like to take this opportunity to re-raise this idea which is related:  https://community.gainsight.com/gainsight/topics/customer360-add-email-shortcut-to-pre-defined-co-pi...

    It would be incredibly valuable to have the ability to pre-define Power List template that would apply to all accounts, grouping all contacts at the customer/relationship level that share a similar characteristic (i.e. all contacts that have "Is Org Admin" flag checked).  Have a space on the Customer360 from where the CSM could Send Email, and select the appropriate pre-defined powerlist template.  When selected, the PL would be dynamically created for that particular account, then the CSM can send the email to a broad number of contacts.  Bonus would be to have a flag that states "Create CTA?"  
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    Jeff Kirkpatrick
    lauren_mintz
    Helper ⭐️⭐️
    Jul 26, 2016 12:43 PM UTC
    Hi Karl - 

    This capability is critical to our localization efforts and to the successful expansion of our automated engagements.

    In its current state, Copilot requires us to create separate power lists and templates for each language. This is rapidly becoming an administrative mess due to multiple variations of each language. For example, a CSM in the UK or in Australia would not send a customer in those markets an email that is written in U.S. English. Rather than creating separate templates and power lists for each variation of English, a more sustainable solution might be to trigger a CTA to review the email for those CSMs not located in the U.S. and with "English" localization. Ideally, the CSM could make the appropriate changes and then continue with sending the email to their power list of contacts. 
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    darkknight
    Expert ⭐️
    Sep 14, 2016 1:42 PM UTC
    Has this made it onto the roadmap yet?
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    Jeff Kirkpatrick
    Gainsight Employee ⭐️
    Jul 12, 2017 10:05 PM UTC
    Hi All,

    As part of the Summer Release which will be available in August, for the mails that can be sent via CTA task, we will have ability of add up to 10 Email Id's in To's and User can chose whether to Send same email to all or to Send separate emails to all.

    Hope this would help.

    Regards,
    Hitesh
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    darkknight
    Expert ⭐️
    Nov 7, 2017 2:29 PM UTC
    Has any additional effort been made in creating a way to send an email to a group of contacts via Email Task without having to hand select each of them? If CSMs want to send an email to ALL contacts on an account OR Contacts that meet a specific criteria, i.e. send an email to all contacts who are flagged as an Administrator.  

    Ideally, we would create a powerlist that targets use cases like the above, with the ability to restrict it to the current account for which the CTA has been triggered, and the CSM can select a PowerList group of ALL contacts or Admin contacts.  
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    Jeff Kirkpatrick
    dan_ahrens
    Expert ⭐️⭐️⭐️
    Nov 7, 2017 4:27 PM UTC
    VP of Customer Success at Forcepoint