Incoming Emails Accessable By Several Customer Service Agent Compu

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Big Daddy! - 21 Feb 2006 21:26 GMT

I have one primary email address where incoming orders and questions from my
customers come in to. The same address also serves as the place where orders
from my website are sent to.

Is there a way for my customer service staff to all have access to these
incoming emails at the same time and to know which ones have already been
accessed in real time? All of my staff members use Outlook or Outlook Express.

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Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook] - 21 Feb 2006 21:33 GMT

The email program they use is a lot less important than the type of mail server, specifically whether you access accoutns as POP, IMAP or Exchange.

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Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
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and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
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>I have one primary email address where incoming orders and questions from my
> customers come in to. The same address also serves as the place where orders
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> incoming emails at the same time and to know which ones have already been
> accessed in real time? All of my staff members use Outlook or Outlook Express.

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Big Daddy! - 21 Feb 2006 21:50 GMT

Thank you for replying. I'm not sure if you have answered my question. Is it
possible to creat the situation I described and how would I do it?

> The email program they use is a lot less important than the type of mail server, specifically whether you access accoutns as POP, IMAP or Exchange.
>
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> > incoming emails at the same time and to know which ones have already been
> > accessed in real time? All of my staff members use Outlook or Outlook Express.

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Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook] - 21 Feb 2006 22:59 GMT

It's impossible to provide an answer without knowing what kind of mail server you're using.

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> Thank you for replying. I'm not sure if you have answered my question. Is it
> possible to creat the situation I described and how would I do it?
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>> > incoming emails at the same time and to know which ones have already been
>> > accessed in real time? All of my staff members use Outlook or Outlook Express.

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Brian Tillman - 22 Feb 2006 00:33 GMT

> I have one primary email address where incoming orders and questions
> from my customers come in to. The same address also serves as the
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> already been accessed in real time? All of my staff members use
> Outlook or Outlook Express.

In general, yes to your first question and no to your second, but you may be
able to come close with an IMAP server hosting the mailbox. Both Outlook
and Outlook Express can access POP accounts and IMAP accounts. For the
former, you'd each be able to download all the messages, but there would be
no way for each of you to know that another has processed. With an IMAP
account, messages stay on the server. Each person could move an incoming
message to a folder associated with him or herself so all accessing the
account could see who's processing what. The best type of account for
Outlook is an Exchange account, but your Outlook Express users would need to
use POP or IMAP to access the mailbox and POP would setill have the problems
for them I mentioned. They'd be able to take the same approach as described
with an IMAP account.

Or so it sees to me.

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Brian Tillman

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