Body
Intended Audience
This article is intended for faculty and staff who have active Salesforce licenses and who use the Gmail Integration to log email communications with UM-Flint students. If you or your department is interested in working with the CRM, please refer to the Obtaining CRM Access section below.
How Email Logs Appear in the CRM
On each student/contact record, there is an Activity Timeline shown on the right side of each staff member's layout (see example below). The Activity Timeline includes engagement items such as Print Letters that have been mailed to the student, work tasks for admissions counselors to perform outreach with the student, and email messages logged via the Gmail Integration.
Any email messages logged to the the student's contact record will be listed within the timeline, where items are shown with the most recent entries at the top. An email message will be listed with an envelope icon ✉️ and the title will be the subject of the email in question. Clicking on the title/subject will take you to the record page which has more details about the individual email message.
The Message tab will list the full email thread and the Details tab will show information such as the Message Date, Sender/Recipients, and the message content again in both HTML/Rich Text and the plain text body.
Logged Emails in Gmail / Editing Email Logs
Once an email has been logged in Gmail, the Inbox Label, Related to Salesforce, will be applied which will let you easily filter to and verify the emails you have logged. If you open the Gmail extension while on one of your logged emails, you have the option to edit your logged email.
To edit a logged email, click the Edit Logged Email button within the extension. From there, you can add, remove, or update the related records that the message is logged to.
Best Practices for Using the Gmail Integration with Salesforce
The following are some best practices for working with the Gmail extension for Salesforce. This guide will help to ensure proper use and to avoid potentially logging sensitive information or information that is not related to a student in the CRM.
Log Emails to Student Contact Records and Avoid User Records
In most cases, the Gmail Integration can detect the related student/contact records via the email address(es) included in the recipient list for a given email thread. However, this can also produce more results than intended where manual intervention may be needed before the log is added.
Additional listings for a student is most often due to a student having a User account related to accessing the Online Application or Admitted Student Portal community sites. Additionally, you, as a staff member and user of the CRM, will be automatically selected as related member for the log.
We recommend that you only log a message to the student's contact record. Email Messages logged to User records are not viewable by traditional means and can appear "lost". If your or a student's User record is selected automatically for the log, you can uncheck or use Unselect All to remove any User records or other people outside of the student themselves.
If you don't see the student's contact record listed, you can easily search for the student by name or email using the Search bar in the extension and by selecting the Contacts object.
Log an Email at the End of a Conversation
As stated and shown in the example above, an email message log will contain the message's entire history/thread. Due to this, we recommend that you only log an email once the conversation has concluded so that way the entire history is contained in one record.
This practice will not only reduce the amount of work you need to do in logging emails but also keeps the student's Activity Timeline free of clutter and makes it easier for any other staff members using the CRM to review the conversation/interaction.
Only Log Emails As Needed
Due to the nature of email message logs including the entire history as well as any images or attachments, the records are highly consumptive of data storage in the CRM. Please consider only logging interactions that are critical conversations related to the student's success at UM-Flint.
This integration is not a means to track work and engagement on an individual staff member basis but a way to include communications that contribute to the comprehensive lens of interactions with the student via the CRM and connected applications throughout their journey at UM-Flint.
Obtaining CRM Access
To obtain a Salesforce license, your supervisor can submit an access request to ITS. If approved, relevant training will be assigned and will be required to be completed prior to receiving your license.
Troubleshooting
If you have any questions or experience any issues with this article, please visit or contact the ITS Helpdesk for assistance and request a support ticket with the ITS CRM team.
Location: 206 Murchie Science Building
Hours: go.umflint.edu/hours
Phone: (810) 762-3123
Email: flint.its.support@umich.edu