Functionality questions for potential switch to FluentSupport
Hi,
We currently use FreeScout (freebie Help Scout alternative) for our support tickets. We currently have 13 mailboxes (buckets for tickets which I think are called Business Inboxes in FluentSupport) setup and each has its own dedicated real IMAP mailbox in Microsoft 365 (FreeScout pulls new emails periodically instead of using forwarding like FluentSupport).
We're looking at switching to FluentSupport for two primary reasons. One is to switch to using email piping to avoid paying for those 13 Microsoft 365 mailboxes every month. The second primary reason is to be better able to manage and use the data since FluentSupport runs in WordPress. FreeScout is its own app with its own database and we've had a couple issues that took a while to fix.
Given the above, I have the following questions. I'd welcome any feedback. Thanks in advance!
- How well does the email piping feature work? Since the emails presumably flow through FluentSupport servers, are the servers processing these reliable and efficient?
- Will email piping work if we create Microsoft 365 distribution lists to send to the piping email address instead of forwarding from a real mailbox? This would allow us to get rid of the 13 paid mailboxes.
- When emails are sent out, is the from address one of our domain email addresses or is it a FluentSupport domain email address?
- How is the search functionality in FluentSupport? Does it work well and fast?
Thanks for any info. I really appreciate it.
Thanks for looking into the FluentSupport:
- Email Piping: Our email piping was built with Amazon Serverless Architecture (Lamda) + Amazon SES Incoming mail parser. So it's a rock solid and it's quit impossible for any downtime unless amazon AWS data-center got down! So It's highly reliable and 100% uptime so far.
- For each email box, You have to give a Real Email address from where you want to forward the emails and based the forwarding from email it maps and create the tickets. You will also get a masked email like something@fluent.support. You can also use that email address to receive tickets.
- When you reply to a ticket, it will use your own email address as the sender. But it must need to be connected in your SMTP settings (FluentSMTP). Otherwise, it will use the default email. The reply to email will be used of the mailbox primary email address so it can recieve the email.
- We have a super advanced search feature and you can target and search anything.
Please let me know if you have any other queries.
Shahjahan Jewel Thanks for the info! I'm glad to hear the email piping feature uses Amazon SES.
One additional question...I see that FluentSupport can integrate with Dropbox. I read the online documentation that shows how to set it up but I'm curious about the features. Does this integration automatically store attachments on incoming tickets in Dropbox instead of on the WordPress server? Or does the integration just allow you to attach files stores in Dropbox to ticket replies? Or both? Or something completely different? Thanks!!
Shahjahan Jewel Actually, another additional question....for the incoming emails, can you confirm if it will work using distribution lists instead of forwarding from a real mailbox? This is key as I want to get away from paying for 13+ real mailboxes in Microsoft 365. Ideally, I would create a distribution list for each mailbox (something like itsupport@mydomain.com). That distribution list would contain a contact record for the masked @fluent.support email address.
Using this method, would FluentSupport properly assign the incoming email to the right business inbox?
Thanks.
Thomas Oates Dropbox: The integration will store the attachments (from agents and customers) in the Dropbox, so it will not save the attachments locally.
Distribution List: Most probably, it will work. I never use a distribution list, but it should work. Give it a try.
Shahjahan Jewel Thanks!