How to use email signatures as canned responses

Learn how to use CodeTwo Email Signatures 365 to provide your users with a set of ready-made response emails that they can immediately send to their clients.

When the program works in Outlook (client-side) mode, users automatically get their signature in Outlook (desktop, mobile & web) as they compose emails. They can also manually select a different signature from a set of available signatures (this works with Outlook for Windows, Mac and OWA) and have extensive control over the contents of these Outlook (client-side) signatures.

However, this feature can also be used to provide your users with more than just signatures. You can give them access to complete emails that can be used to quickly respond to standard customers’ questions and requests, as shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. A list of available canned responses, accessed directly from the CodeTwo Signatures pane.

By using email signatures as canned responses, you can make sure that all such responses meet the company’s standards, and that no important information is omitted by employees. This also saves users a lot of time, as they no longer need to create a different response to every message from scratch. And since users can edit these canned responses before sending, a certain level of personalization is still possible.

There are a few ways to set up canned responses with CodeTwo. Choose the option that best fits your needs:

• Set up full canned responses as email signatures
• Use CodeTwo custom attributes to create a single template for canned responses

Set up full canned responses as email signatures

First, you need to prepare templates for emails sent as canned responses. For example, these templates can include answers to the most frequently asked questions from your customers, or other recurring messages.

While preparing the templates, consider the changes your users will need to make before sending them. Here are a few good practices to follow:

• Clearly highlight all places in the text where additional information, such as the recipient’s or company’s name, should be provided.
• Provide space for the recipient’s preferred title (e.g., Ms. or Mr.).
• Mark places in the text where the recipient’s gender should be reflected (this will be especially important in languages like German or French).
• In product-related messages, clearly indicate where the product’s name or price should be entered.

As a result, the final email will not read like an automatic response. A sample template might look like the one shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2. Canned response example.

When this is done, go to app.codetwo.com and create the first Outlook (client-side) signature rule (Fig. 3.) containing a signature template that will become a canned response email. Name it accordingly, e.g., Opening email, so your users know what to expect when selecting this signature in Outlook or OWA.

Fig. 3. Creating an Outlook (client-side) signature rule.

Go to the Senders step and define rule conditions as you need. This way, you can make sure that this canned email will only be available to selected users (e.g., a group of employees responsible for communication with customers). Learn more about how to configure rule conditions and exceptions

In the Logic step, deselect Set this signature as default for new messages and Set this signature as default for replies and forwards, as shown in Fig. 4. This way, when a user is typing a new message in Outlook or OWA, a canned response will be used only if it is selected.

Fig. 4. Be sure to clear these checkboxes if you don’t want your canned responses to be added to all messages by default.

Next, go to the Design step and create a signature template. Enter the text you want to use as a canned response (as shown in Fig. 2.). When designing your template, do not forget that you also can include the standard elements of an email signature, such as the sender’s name and job position, your company’s contact details, a marketing banner, a legal disclaimer, etc.

Fig. 5. shows an example of a complete signature template to be used as a canned response.

Fig. 5. A preview of a canned response containing the full email text with places to fill in and a complete signature.

When the signature template is ready, submit it by clicking Save.

Repeat the steps above to create as many canned emails (signature templates) as you need.

If you want to make all canned responses available for the same users (i.e., use the same conditions and exceptions in all signature rules), you can use the Clone button in the main window of the Signatures app to create an exact copy of the selected signature rule. All you need to do then is adjust the signature design so it contains the information you need.

When you are done, select all prepared signature templates and click Publish selected (Fig. 6.). This will make them available to your Outlook and OWA users.

Fig. 6. Publishing the prepared Outlook (client-side) signatures.

Now, when all your Outlook (client-side) signature rules containing canned responses are ready, the specified senders will be able to select them from the CodeTwo add-in pane when composing a new email, replying to a message, or forwarding one (as shown earlier in Fig. 1.).

Use CodeTwo custom attributes to create a single template for canned responses

When you manage CodeTwo Email Signatures 365 for your organization, you can access the Attributes manager app – our free user attribute management tool. After you sign in at attributes.codetwo.com, you can create as many CodeTwo custom attributes as you want to keep virtually any information that comes to your mind, including information used in canned responses.

For instance, you can use CodeTwo custom attributes to store:

• links to different documents you want to include in your canned responses,
• additional information (e.g., about office working hours) that is added to your communications during specific periods of year only,
• entire portions of canned response texts that differ from department to department.

As an example, let’s see how to use a CodeTwo custom attribute for the last scenario. On your website, customers can find email addresses of both your Customer Support and Marketing teams. Considering product inquiries, the Support Team will be more likely asked about setup instructions or solutions to issues, while questions to the Marketing Team will be mostly focused on features. That’s why these two teams might use a similar canned response for product inquiries, with only slight adjustments.

Let’s assume you’ve prepared a canned response called Product inquiry for these two teams. The content of the response is identical but for one paragraph. Here’s where a custom attribute can come into play, allowing you to store a different value (paragraph) for different team members. Thanks to that, you do not need to design two separate responses/rules (which you would normally do), but a single one only.

To learn how to set up a canned response using a CodeTwo custom attribute, follow these general steps:

1. Create a custom attribute as described here, naming it, for example, Product inquiry - different paragraph.
2. Follow these instructions to enter appropriate attribute values for your users with a CSV file. Use a different value (paragraph) for each team, as in the following examples:
   • for users from Marketing Team: Thank you for the interest in our products. You can find a complete feature list at company.com/features and pricing at company.com/pricing. If you have any question about a specific feature or need a demo, let me know.
   • for users from Customer Support Team: Thank you for contacting us, I’ll be happy to help. Please send me the following info: device serial number and date of purchase. In the meantime, watch our short troubleshooting video which discusses the most common problems: support.company.com/device

A sample CSV file with entered attribute values is shown in Fig. 7. below:

Fig. 7. The CodeTwo custom attribute value for Marketing users (A) and Customer Support users (B).

3. Prepare your canned response template as discussed earlier (see Fig. 2.).
4. Continue the configuration at app.codetwo.com (as described in this section). This time, you do not need to create two separate canned responses for Marketing and Customer Support teams – by using a placeholder that refers to the custom attribute in your signature template (as shown in Fig. 8.), you can handle both teams with a single rule. To add the attribute placeholder whenever needed in your template, go to Placeholder > Message Sender > Additional attributes on the template editor’s ribbon and select it from the list.

Fig. 8. Canned response template with the CodeTwo custom attribute that will be replaced with a team-specific paragraph.

Now, when a user from your Marketing Team replies to a customer inquiry and chooses the signature you’ve created from the CodeTwo add-in pane, the custom attribute will be propagated with the Marketing version of the first paragraph (Fig. 9.).

Fig. 9. The Marketing version of the first paragraph is automatically inserted when a user selects the signature.

Similarly, when a Customer Support Team member replies to a customer, the message will include the other version of the first paragraph (Fig. 10.).

Fig. 10. The Customer Support version of the first paragraph is automatically inserted when a user selects the signature.