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We process incoming file attachments that can be delivered into our service in a variety of ways.

One common way is that external clients will send email attachments which we then need to process. We have a dedicated inbound email address intended for them to send theses attachments to, and it works great when they do that.

However, its also common they will send the attachment by email to our customer service address.

It should be simple for the agent to then forward the message with attachment to our dedicated inbound email processing address.

But I can’t for the life of me figure out how to do this in Intercom? Surely its possible to forward an email that we receive into the Intercom in-box?? 

Is there any other ways to get the file attachment to a separate email address so it can be processed?

@Richard Foxworthy I'd recommend setting up a forwarding rule at your main inbox with your email provider to handle this situation if there's a way to detect the unique file type of attachments automatically or some text in the email or subject that's being sent that could be used as a filter. 

 

There is a forwarding feature in the Intercom inbox but I'm not sure if it also includes any attachments you may need to test this out.

 

https://www.intercom.com/help/en/articles/7229352-forwarding-email-conversations-externally

 

Otherwise maybe the best option is to have a Macro ready to send users when this happens to alert them to the correct address to send to and allow them to resend because if they continue to send to support it will skew your support metrics as well.

 

That being said of course it's preferred to redirect it for the customer if you can while letting them know to update the address because that will be a much better experience for the customer.

 

Hope this helps

 

Thanks Nathan,

I have tried to use the ‘Forward’ capability in Intercom, which does support manually forwarding to an external email address, but the attachments are presented as links, not as attachments. we need attachments for you process to function.

In theory we could rework our ingest processes to accomodate Intercom links, and we might consider that if no other solution can be found.

Instructing the sender to resend to different address is a poor customer service experience - in their mind,. they are thinking ‘I’ve sent the attachment, so what’s the problem?’.

Unfortunately it’s not realistic to detect the attachments at our upstream mailhost - we need to process only specific attachments, which can come in a variety of formats, with or without extraneous attachments present in the email.

 

@Richard Foxworthy  thanks for sharing more, you just gave me another idea and I think you might be able to try using the attachment settings and see if that makes the attachments accessible to ingest.

 

Here's more info:

https://app.intercom.com/a/apps/cbn4hyck/settings/attachment-settings

 

Let me know if this is helpful

 

 

Thanks Nathan - this looks like it will work! An inbound email actually can be forwarded with attachments preserved!

@Richard Foxworthy  great news!  Happy we found something that works for you 🙌

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