Though support conversations are mostly initiated by customers, in some cases your support agents may proactively want to reach out to customers themselves. For example, agents may send outbound emails to:

• inform customers about scheduled maintenance and downtime
• announce unexpected incidents and provide recovery instructions
• simply check in with users with whom they share a customer success relationship

With Freshdesk, you can send outbound emails from your helpdesk to customers, convert them into tickets, and track their progress.

Admin settings for outbound emails

An admin must enable a setting to allow agents to create emails.

1. As an admin, go to Admin > Channels > Email and click Advanced Settings.
2. Toggle on the option called "Allow agents to initiate conversation with customers".
   

Admins can also use the Customize From Email Address app to set default support addresses for outbound emails.

1. Go to Admin > Support operations > Apps.
   • If you don't have the app installed,  install it from the gallery. You will need your API Key.
2. If you have the app installed, click Manage Apps.
3. Next to the app, click Settings > Edit settings.
4. Select Source from the dropdown.
5. Select Outbound Email and the relevant support address and click Save.
   

Limits on outbound emails

To limit spam attacks and encourage fair usage, we have implemented restrictions on the number of outgoing emails that can be sent hourly.

• You can send up to 30 outbound emails per day if you are on the Free plan.
• If you are on Growth, Pro, or Enterprise plans, there are no limits to the number of outbound emails you can send in a given day. 
• If your account is in a trial state under any plan, then you can send up to 5 outbound emails per day.

 Please get in touch with us at support@freshdesk.com if:

1. You see a banner with the error message: "Your account has crossed the maximum hourly limit for outgoing emails."
2. The 'Send' button for "ticket replies" and "new outbound email" is disabled.

Compose an outbound email

To compose a new outbound email:

1. Click New in the top-right corner of the agent portal and select New email.
   
2. On the Send an email page, fill out the following fields:
   1. From: Choose the relevant option from your configured support emails.
   2. To: Choose the primary recipient of the email. If the recipient is not in your Contacts, they'll be added once the email is sent.
   3. (Optional) Click Add CC or Add BCC to add multiple secondary recipients.
   4. Subject: Craft your email subject. This doubles as the title for the ticket that is created to track this email conversation.
   5. Description: Create your email body. Use the formatting options to create rich text and media and modify your email signature.
3. Optionally, configure any properties for the subsequent ticket. Mandatory fields are already displayed. Click Show more fields to configure other ticket fields.
4. Optionally, mark the Send another checkbox to create another email after sending this one.
5. Review your email and click Send.

Note: If you have configured Multiple products (Pro plan onwards), the Product field will not be displayed on this page. Instead, the field will be automatically filled after the ticket is created using the product associated with the From address.

Ticket workflow for outbound emails

When you send the outbound email, it is automatically converted into a ticket. By default, a ticket created this way has the following properties:

• Agent—you. Since you sent the outbound email, you'll likely be the one to continue responding to it.
• Requester—your email recipient. This way, outbound email tickets are included when you use the Contact or Company filters in ticket list views and analytics.
• Status—Closed. This is so that your SLA timers don't start automatically.

Note: Your default ticket list views do not include closed tickets. To track tickets created by outbound emails, set the Sources filter to "Outbound Email" and save it as a custom view. See Understand the Ticket List View.

Once the customer responds to the outbound email, their reply is appended to the ticket body. The ticket status is changed to Open and the SLA timers start running.

FAQ and troubleshooting

Can I send emails in bulk and create separate tickets for each customer?

You can only email one recipient with the New Email method, though you can add multiple CC or BCC recipients. To send outbound emails in bulk and create individual tickets for each customer, use the Proactive Outreach feature.

Can I monitor the number of outbound emails that agents send?

Yes. On the Tickets page, set the Sources filter to "Outbound Email". This gives you the list of tickets as well as a total count. You can use the same filter in your Analytics reports and group by agents to get agent counts. If you use the Agent Reply metric, you can also understand the number of emails an agent sends per ticket.

Why is my support email address not listed in the From field?

If you've configured a support address in Admin > Channels > Email but it's not listed in the From field of a new email, try the following:

• Only verified addresses can send outbound emails from Freshdesk. Go to Admin > Channels > Email and confirm that the Status column of your support address shows "Verified".
• If you use marketplace apps like the Customize From Email Address app, check the app's configuration. Go to Admin > Support operations > Apps and click Manage Apps. Click Settings > Edit settings for the relevant app and verify your configuration.
• If you just set up a new support email, it might not show up if your page cache hasn't been refreshed. Wait a few minutes or hard reset your page (Chrome and Firefox: Ctrl+F5 for Windows or Cmd+Shift+R for Mac).