No request lost

How do you make sure no customer request goes unanswered?

To leave no customer request unanswered, give every email received a fate. With sorting on a connected inbox, Muzau files each email for an agent, for you or for no one, up to 150 a day per inbox. A request that no agent takes comes back to you instead of being set aside. When an agent's reply is waiting for your approval, you get an email right away, then a reminder if it is still waiting after four hours.

Why a customer request ends up with no one to answer it

An address like contact@ receives everything: notifications, supplier invoices, newsletters, replies to your own emails, and somewhere in the middle, a customer's question. No one is assigned to read it. Everyone assumes a colleague has replied, the email is opened on a phone, marked as read, then sinks below the next day's messages.

The customer does not always chase: they write somewhere else. A request is rarely lost through ill will, it is lost because no one owned it. So the fix is less about speed than about a simple rule: every email received gets a fate, and whoever asks for something has someone on the other end.

How the agent goes about it

Input

Every email received in your connected inbox

It does

Gives each email a fate: an agent, you, or no one

It delivers

Requests with no owner put in front of you, and an email when a reply is waiting for you

Every email received is sorted: an agent, you or no one

Sorting is switched on for an inbox connected to Muzau: Gmail, Outlook and Microsoft 365, or an IMAP inbox such as those from OVH or Ionos. Every email received there is filed for an agent, for you or for no one. "For no one" means anything that asks for nothing: out-of-office replies, newsletters, bounce messages, "no-reply" addresses. A form notification that names a visitor, though, is not set aside. An email that sorting hands to an agent gets its reply, which goes out on its own or waits for you depending on what you have set. As soon as an agent answers the emails of an inbox, it is read every minute.

A request with no owner comes back to you

A request that no agent takes is not set aside: it comes back to you. Two readings of the email must agree; if they hesitate on the agent, its reply waits for you before going out. Beyond 150 emails judged per day on an inbox, the rest are marked "to sort". When a sender has been filed wrongly, you say "always this way" for them or for their whole domain, except for a consumer domain.

An alert email when a customer is waiting for your reply

When an agent's reply is waiting for your approval, or an agent hands you a request it cannot decide, you receive an email. It goes out right away for a new request, then a reminder follows if it is still waiting after four hours. Requests are grouped: at most one email every quarter of an hour, and one reminder a day. The email gives the number of requests and the link, never the content of the replies.

A request beyond the agent is handed to you

When an agent has taken a request that is beyond it (calling back, deciding, checking information it does not have), it hands it to you on a card attached to the exchange: who wrote, what needs doing and why. The customer does not wait without news: the agent still replies, and if its reply only says that someone will get back to them, it goes out. On the "Management" page, whatever is blocking a customer comes first. For the reply itself, see how an AI answers your customers' emails.

A method so no customer email goes unanswered

With or without a tool, a request does not go unanswered when three things are clear: who reads, within what time, and what counts as handled.

• One name per address. Every shared address, contact@, quotes@ or info@, has a person who answers it, and a stand-in for when they are away.
• A deadline the team sets itself. For example, a first reply on the same working day, even if that means sending an acknowledgement of receipt saying when the full reply will come.
• A "to reply" state, not "read". Apply a "to reply" label or folder as soon as you open an email, and remove it only once the reply has gone out.
• Automatic messages kept apart. A mail rule files newsletters, notifications and supplier invoices in a folder: the inbox keeps only what is waiting for someone.
• A round of the "to reply" folder at a fixed time. At the end of the day, the named person goes through it: every email there has a reply sent, a promised date or a new owner.
• One request, one owner. When several colleagues are copied, whoever takes the request tells the others in a line. When it changes hands, they tell the customer who will reply.

For requests already overdue in your inbox, start by finding the ones left unanswered, then keep the rule for the next ones.

What it does not do

• Without sorting, only your rules decide: an email that no rule hands to an agent gets no reply from it.
• It does not judge more than 150 emails a day per inbox: beyond that, the rest are marked "to sort".
• It handles no email received before the inbox was connected.

Frequently asked questions

How do you sort prospect emails automatically?

Switch on sorting for an inbox connected to Muzau: every email received goes to an agent, to you or to no one. Automatic messages, such as out-of-office replies, newsletters or "no-reply" addresses, are set aside, and a request that no agent takes comes back to you. Beyond 150 emails judged per day on an inbox, the rest are marked "to sort".

Who answers the emails sent to the company's contact address?

The safest way is to name one person per shared address, with a stand-in for their absences. With Muzau connected to the inbox, an agent answers the emails that sorting or one of your rules hands to it, you choose what goes out without you, and a request that no agent takes comes back to you.

Can automatic email sorting get it wrong?

Yes, it is a judgment call. Two readings of the email must agree, and if they hesitate on the agent, its reply waits for you before going out. To correct it, you say "always this way" for a sender or for their whole domain, except a consumer domain.

Does an automatic sorting tool read every email in the inbox?

With sorting on, Muzau reads the text of incoming emails to sort them, and keeps it only for those it hands to an agent; without sorting, the text of an email that no agent handles is not read. Of attachments, it reads only the name. It marks no email as read on your side and does not pick up any email received before the inbox was connected.

How do you get notified when a customer is waiting for an email reply?

With Muzau, when an agent's reply is waiting for your approval or a request is waiting for your decision, you receive an email right away, then a reminder if it is still waiting after four hours. That email gives the number of requests and the link, never the content of the replies: at most one every quarter of an hour and one reminder a day, and you can turn it off in your notification settings.