I'm wondering if anyone has a suggestion for software that can be used for incoming customer service emails that has some sort of organization to it. In other words, let's say I get an email from Susie Que. It would be nice (without doing a search) to see some kind of sidebar of all our communications with Susie. Does such an animal exist for under $1000?

ARG!!! Now you've gone & done it! You planted John Fogerty in my head for the rest of the day.

Oh Suzie Q
Baby I love you
Suzie Q

I'm not aware of anything (over/under 1K) that does this. Hoping someone will have a solution...cuz (trying the switch to Beach Boys)...Wouldn't It Be Nice?

Challenged: How are you doing with your search? The more I think about this the more I like the idea...Intelligent email right? Any one got any ideas?

Karen: Hope you're having Fun, Fun, Fun!

G.

we use a system called Kana - it enable us to customize list and can sort e-mails by subject line

Mindy,

Thank you! I like what I see on their site. (Especially like how they built their site).

Don't know that this would fall into the $$ range...looks spendy...but also looks pretty cool.

ksb

Kana offers a great product, but is expensive and is meant for heavy volume. (100+ agents, 1,000 or more communications/day) Most robust CRM's offer additions that would probably meet your needs (SalesForce, SAP's CRM, Microsoft's CRM, etc.)

For a smaller, less expensive option try Emailtopia, Talisma, InstantService, etc.

Hope that helps!

Just a little self promotion...check out my new blog on Customer Service Management at www.directingcustomerservice.com

Outlook may be of assistance if you use it to it's full extent, but not quite as automatic as it seems you would like it to be.
If you enter your contact into Outlook, and add the email address, selecting the "Activities" tab for the contact will bring up all emails with that address in the to/from boxes. To include tasks/notes/Journal entries/appointments relating to that customer, the easiest way to link all these things to your contact, is to select each action from the "Actions" tab on the contact. This way they will all be linked to the contact, and can be called up.
Hope this helps.

Did you ever find/select a solution?

Our Company is using Salesforce and there is a tool within Outlook that allows us to create a case in salesforce and export the email from Outlook with only a few clicks.