Create and Manage Communication Templates

This article contains the following topics:

The Self-Service users of Serviceaide Intelligent Service Management do not have a continuous interaction with the application. The analyst users are focused on specific tickets or tasks. To draw the user attention, the application sends an email notification to the users whenever an event of importance or interest takes place within the application. As the emails are accessible through mobile phones, the user can read the notifications without signing in to the application.

The application generates various notifications in response to different user or system actions on the ticket. As an administrator, you can configure the application to send automatic notifications that are related to tickets, service feedback surveys, and the SLA targets. The communication templates are required to manage all the outgoing communication from the application. The communication templates are related to application forms and the administrator can manage the permissions for their usage. For example, a standard communication template is used to notify the user about the applied workflow action to the ticket.

The application replaces the field variables that are used in the communication templates with their values from the ticket, before sending the notifications. For example, use the Created By, Modified By, and Closed By fields to replace the contact who created, modified, or closed the ticket. You can use a communication template with the following options:

• Auto routes
• Workflow actions
• Service feedback forms
• Service feedback schedules

• Ticket Details in Customer Service Feedback

  • Ticket Number
  • Description
  • Details
  • Date Created
  • Date Closed
• SLA Targets
• Outbound emails

The application consists of some system defined communication templates that are related to specific actions. For example, when a workflow uses the function Check for Open Tasks. On executing this feature, The application sends notification to the owners of all the open task tickets. The application SM uses a system defined communication template for such notifications. System defined communication templates are also available for approval reminders, service feedback reminders, password reset notifications, and so on. You can customize a system defined communication template as required, and also make it inactive. You cannot apply an inactive template on the notifications and communications.

The analysts can use communication templates to send manual notifications from the ticket. When the analyst clicks the Send Mail option in a ticket, the application displays the communication templates that are related to the ticket form. Analysts can modify the communication template before they send out the email manually. The template that you can edit is meant only as a format for the agents to follow.

During the execution of an action option or auto-route, you cannot modify the communication templates that are applied automatically. These notifications go out without any manual intervention.

Considerations

• A communication template can be attached to multiple forms. When a communication template is related to multiple forms, only the fields common to all forms are used.
• You can use standard fields from the forms and the custom fields as placeholders in the communication template. The actual values from the forms replace the field values when the template is used. For example, you can select Affected_User to send the notification to the user who has submitted the ticket.
• You can set the locale for a communication template to send communications in the language that the intended recipient prefers.
• You can have only one active copy of a communication template in a locale.
• Deleting a communication template makes it inactive. An inactive template cannot be applied to any communications. If the template is associated with an auto-route or action-option, the corresponding communication would not be triggered.
• You can deactivate any translated copy of a communication template. By deactivating the communication template with the default locale also deactivates all the translations.
• You can make inactive copies of a communication template without affecting the templates of other locales.
• When you modify a communication template, the changes are applied to the records that you create after the modification. The change does not affect existing records.
• When a communication recipient is created from an inactive communication template, the communication fails and you receive a notification. For group communications, the communication is delivered only to the active members of the group. The communication to the inactive group members fails and you receive a notification regarding the failure.

Prerequisites

Verify the following prerequisites:

• The roles, support groups, and contacts are created to configure To, CC, and BCC fields for the communication template.
• The Reply To address is configured, to get replies for the outgoing communication.
• The custom fields are configured if you want to use the custom fields in the communication template.

Create or Modify Communication Templates

Follow these steps:

1. Create or Edit Communication Template: Navigate to MANAGE> ADMINISTRATION>  Tools> Communication Templates, and click Create New or click a template.
   You can modify details on an existing communication template; or configure a new Communication Template using the Communication Template form. Some of the fields on the Communication Template form are required fields.
   The following are the fields on a Communication Template form:

   Field	Description
   Related to Form	A Template can be related to Service Feedback, Service Level Management, Incident, Problem , Change, Task or Service Request Ticket Forms.
   Template Name	The Template Name is used to provide a short name to identify the Template.
   Template Description	The Template Description provides field to give more information about the template.
   Status	This field displays the current Status of the Communication Template. When you Delete a template; the Status is set to inactive.
   Send To, CC and BCC	These fields are used to populate details of recipients of a communication from a communication template. You can select recipients from the Name Search Lookup or choose ‘Add a Field From the Form’ option.
   Subject	This field can contain a text string with place holders for variable text. The place holders can be added using the Add a Field from the Form option.
   Message	This field contains the message details and can have a combination of text string with place holders for variable text added using the Add a Field from the Form option.
   Notification Method	You can choose whether notification using the communication template is to be sent via Email, System or Phone. If a template is marked as Notification method Phone, it becomes available for Phone Notification. If a template is flagged as Email or System, it becomes available.
   Reply to Address	This determines the mail address displayed in the From field when the communication is delivered.
   Reply to Display Name	This sets the name that will get displayed in the From field when the communication is delivered.

   A communication Template can be related to multiple forms and will be available for being associated with actions related to that form type. For example, if a communication template is related to Service Request and Incident Tickets the template will be available for relating to Workflow Actions on Service Request and Incident Tickets. However, it will not be available on Change Tickets or on any other form.
   Recipients of a communication template can be Contacts, Support Groups or Roles. The Name Search Lookup associated with the Send To, CC and BCC fields allows you to choose recipients. You can also add place holders to draw recipients contextually from the form.
   If a communication is set to be delivered to a Support Group, the application will look for contact details for the Support Group. If the Support Group contact is found, the notification gets delivered to the Support Group contact ID. However, if Support Group contact details are not found, the application will find the contact details of individual contacts associated with the Support Group, and the notification is delivered to each
   individual members contact ID.
   You can add fields from the form that the template is relate to as place holders in the recipient details (Send To, CC and BCC) fields, Subject field and in the message body. This enables you to create place holders for variable text, which gets replaced with the actual value from the form in the context in which the communication template is used. You can also include a short URL for ISM in the message body by clicking the Add a field from the form button, using which the user can open a ticket in ISM through the website or mobile app directly from the email. The URL opens according to the logged in user's permissions. For more information, see Configure Support for a Direct URL

2. Specify the Notification Method: Select the platform through which the notifications that are generated using your communication template are delivered to a contact.
   1. Email: When you select this option, the system uses the contact information specified in the Email Address field of the contact's user profile.
   2. Phone: When you select this option, the system uses the contact information entered in the Phone field of a user profile. The phone notification option is applicable only for SLA Target Breach notifications. Additionally, to use this option, ensure that you have configured the External Notifications tab on the Slice Configuration page. If you select Phone, the application uses the message body in the communication template to convey the notification through a phone call. Currently, Intelligent Service Management only supports the MIR3 Mass Notification System.
3. Click Apply  Changes.
4. Configure Permissions: Click the Permissions tab and manage permissions for the communication template.
   Note: Permissions control the access to communication templates. All communication templates are not automatically available to all analysts.
5. Add Translation: To translate the communication template, click Add Translation and select the locale.
6. Click Apply Changes.

Tokens for Notifications in a Template

The following additional tokens can be added manually to fields on Communication Template form or by selecting the Add a field from the form button.