Categories are labels that users can apply to incoming messages. These labels identify predetermined responses to incoming messages, enabling users to quickly answer messages of a certain type. For example, for messages classified as requests for recall information, you might have pre-approved text and an attached document defined. Rather than asking users to type in the information each time or search through lists of standard templates, you can have them use a hotkey to reply to the message.
Users can assign up to 100 categories to a single message.
You can create up to 5000 categories per partition.
A hotkey is an abbreviation for the category name. When a category definition includes a hotkey, users can assign the category to messages more quickly, typing the hotkey rather than using buttons and dialogs.
NOTE the following guidelines for hotkeys:
When a category identifies content that does not require a response, you only need to specify a description and a hotkey when you create that category.
If you use a category in a rule, that category must have a hotkey, because the hotkey is the value that uniquely identifies the category.
You can use categories with rules to organize incoming messages, make sure they go to the right organizations, and help ensure that they receive a correct response. When a user answers a message that has been categorized by a rule, the response already contains the pre-approved text, attachments, and recipients for that category.
Links can also be assigned to categories. When a category consisting of a link is assigned to an outgoing message, a Suggested Links portal is added to the client. This portal tab lists the links which are assigned to the category selected for the outgoing message.
You can organize categories into hierarchies. These hierarchies help users find the information they need. In addition, you can use the hierarchies and the departments that own them to define which categories a user can see.
Important! As an Administrator using Content Administration, you can see categories that are hidden to agents.
Users can see the categories owned or borrowed by any departments to which the users belong. Users can also see categories owned or borrowed by the parents or children of departments to which the users belong.
If you prefer, you can keep all top-level categories in the root department, rather than assigning different categories to different departments. The result is a category hierarchy that all users can access.