Import your customers replies automatically

Forward your customers’ replies to Upflow with specific filters so they’re centralized on their dedicated Timeline, along with the reminders they follow up on. You can manually forward them individually or automate the process to gain time and not miss a single message!

 

Why import your customer replies in Upflow?

• Get all the information you need before sending a reminder from Upflow, your team, and your customer.

• Don't spend your time looking for a potential reply to your last email reminder, and avoid context-switching.
  
  

Technically speaking

An Upflow email address is automatically generated with each of your organizations.

You can find it in the Replies section of your Settings.

Emails sent to this address are cross-referenced with your completed actions. When there’s a match, they are imported to the right customer’s timeline.

• If the reply is in reply to a collection reminder, then it is automatically matched.
• If it does not follow a reminder, we will attempt to match it using the Sender (From) email address and try to match it to a contact.
• If the contact doesn't exist in your organization, or if there are 2 customers with the same contact, we will discard this email.
  
  

Replies attachments

• Formats: PDF, DOCX, XLSX, ODT, ODS

• Size per file: 26214400 bytes / 25 MB per file.

• Number of files: 500

Limitations

Today, images can be visible in imported replies, only if:

• In the email body when the email is sent from Outlook (not as attachment).
• As attachment if the email is sent from Gmail (not if in the email body).

 

Setting up the import

To import your customers' replies, we invite you to create filers + forwards in your Gmail settings and Rules in your Outlook settings. You can create as many as needed.

We recommend configuring the filter with words you use in your email templates' subjects. If the wording differs from one template to the other, create multiple filters.

The filters must be created for each user sending email reminders from Upflow, including your alias if you use any.

If replies are sent to an email group, add your Upflow forwarding email address to the group members.

 

Create filters in Gmail

From your Gmail Settings, head to your Filters and blocked addresses:

 

Click on "Create a new Filter":

 

Here, we want to fill the following fields:

• To: your email address (or the one you're configuring, a generic address or alias address).
• Contains the words: add the most recurring word you use in your email reminders subjects, such as "invoice" for example. You can also add your company's name if it's mentioned in your template subject under the tag "Company name".
  
  

Here's how it looks like:

It works with or without a comma between your key words.

Now, the following steps will be to:

1. Click Create filter
   
2. Configure the right behaviour

• Check the Forward it to option and select the dedicated forwarding address, which you'll find in your Upflow Settings > Replies. Click Add forwarding address if it's not yet known by your Gmail settings.
  
  
• Update the filter!

 

Create rules in Outlook

Head to your Outlook settings, and click Rules > Add new rule.

Name it, then add the two following essential conditions:

1. To: your email address (or the one you're configuring)

2. Subject includes: add the wording used in each of your templates (or the one you're configuring - if more, create a filter per wording).

 

Then add the following action:

→ Redirect to: Add your organization forwarding rule.

You can add more actions, such as "Mark as read" or "Categorize" to find these emails quickly in Outlook.

Don't forget to click Save at the bottom!

 

 

Google Groups

For Google Group addresses, add your Upflow dedicated forwarding address as a member. Follow these steps from Google: Add people to your group directly.

From your Google Account, access your Groups:

Then click "Members" at the left, and "Add members" from this page.

 

Finally, add your Upflow forwarding address as a member:

 

Edge case: customer's group address

If your customer's contact is a group address, let say billing@acme.co. When you send email reminders to this contact, other people from this group might reply to it, let's say john@acme.co. 

But John isn't a known contact in Upflow. His reply might not be imported to the customer's timeline, if he doesn't add billing@ to the loop.

To prevent this issue, you have two solutions:

• Ensure all known contacts for a customer exist in Upflow (you can add them to your source system or directly to Upflow - Your Upflow contacts).
• Enable the Import all replies feature. This option will ensure the reply is imported even if our system can't link it directly to the dedicated customer. It will generate a temporary customer, that can then be merged with the original one. (Learn more in Manage your customers replies in Upflow).

 

Multiple organizations

Each organization has its forwarding email address.

If you manage several organizations and want to import replies to all of them, follow the same steps as above. But make sure to have:

• One filter per organization (at least)
• To refer to your "Company name" in your email subjects and to add the exact same name in your filter.
• And to ensure the forwarding address you use is for the right organization. Each Upflow organization has its own.
  
  

Combining the import with the Reply-to feature

When configuring a workflow, you indicate who receives your actions’ replies: their sender or a custom address.

Make sure all senders or the custom address selected have the filters/rules set up properly.

 

 

Questions

How long does it take for the import to be in my history?

The import is done within a few seconds to a few minutes.

 

Can I create a group list that includes the Upflow reply email?

Yes, you can! If you CC this group email (rather than the specific Upflow reply email), the response will also be imported into the customer timeline.