Multi-Email Channel Ticket Processing

Puzzel Case Management now supports Multi-Email Channel Ticket Creation, allowing a single email to generate or update multiple tickets when sent to multiple configured email channels. This feature provides greater flexibility and clarity for teams that handle shared or overlapping responsibilities across departments.

🔧 Configuration

• Setting Name: Multi Channel Email Processing

• Location: Settings > General > Account Settings > Feature Enhancements (beta)

• Purpose: Enables the system to create or update separate tickets per email channel when an email is sent to multiple addresses.

• Default Value: Disabled

🧠 Email Threading Strategies

Two strategies determine how emails are threaded and assigned:

1. UniqueEmailStrategy (Default Behaviour)

• Used when the feature is disabled

• Creates or updates one ticket per email

• Maintains a single conversation thread

2. MultiEmailStrategy (Enabled Behaviour)

• Activated when Multi-Email Channel Ticket Creation is enabled

• Supports multiple tickets per email (one per matching channel)

• Maintains separate threads for each channel

The rest of this document focuses on the MultiEmailStrategy.

📬 How Threading Works (MultiEmailStrategy)

1. Email Processing Overview

When an email is received, the system performs:

• Check if multi-channel ticket creation is enabled

• Attempt to match the email to existing tickets using a hierarchy of methods

• If no matching tickets are found, new ticket(s) are created — one per matching channel

2. Ticket Matching Order

The system applies the following logic in strict order:

1. In-Reply-To Header

   • Primary method; matches directly to original message

2. References Header

   • Fallback if In-Reply-To is missing

3. Ticket ID in Subject

   • Looks for TID-###### pattern

4. Delivery Status Notification (DSN)

   • Extracts original message ID from delivery receipts

5. Channel Consolidation Logic

   • If the email comes from a known source and matches an unassigned, active ticket, it updates that instead of creating a new one

6. Tenant-Specific Matching Logic

   • Custom behaviour tailored to specific tenants (not documented here)

⚠️ Important: If any match is found using the above steps, only matched ticket(s) will be updated. New tickets will only be created when there are no matches at all.

🔄 Common Scenarios

Scenario 1: New Email Sent to Multiple Channels

Email sent to: support@example.com, billing@example.com

• Multi-Channel Enabled:
  ➤ Creates 2 tickets, one for each channel
  ➤ Maintains separate threads per team

• Multi-Channel Disabled:
  ➤ Creates 1 ticket (on first matching channel)
  ➤ Single thread used for all follow-up

Scenario 2: Customer Replies Before Any Agent Response

Reply sent to: support@example.com, billing@example.com

• Multi-Channel Enabled:
  ➤ Both tickets are updated

• Multi-Channel Disabled:
  ➤ Only one ticket is updated

Scenario 3: Customer Replies to a Single Channel

Reply sent only to: support@example.com

• Multi-Channel Enabled:
  ➤ Updates only the ticket originally created for support@example.com

• Multi-Channel Disabled:
  ➤ Updates the single existing ticket

Scenario 4: Customer Replies After Agent Response

Reply sent to same or other addresses

• System uses headers to identify the active thread

• Updates only the ticket where the agent's reply was sent

• Ensures consistent and correct threading

Scenario 5: Late Reply to Original Message

Reply to the first outbound message

• Multi-Channel Enabled:
  ➤ May update multiple tickets if headers match more than one

• Multi-Channel Disabled:
  ➤ Only one ticket is updated

⚙️ Technical Considerations

Limitations

• Relies heavily on email headers (In-Reply-To, References, etc.)

• Once a ticket is matched, no further tickets will be created from future replies in that thread

• Matching via References can lead to incorrect threading due to its broad nature

• Some email clients may omit critical headers, causing threading issues

• Only one match will ever be used – if one is found, other eligible matches are ignored

• Multi-ticket creation only occurs when the original message has no match at all

✅ Summary

The Multi-Email Channel Ticket Creation feature is ideal for teams who:

• Share mailboxes across departments

• Require distinct tickets for better workflow separation

• Want to ensure replies go back to the correct team handling the case

To enable the feature, go to:
Settings → General → Account Settings → Feature Enhancements (beta)