An email ticketing system that works from a shared inbox
Sektra gives a support address the working parts of an email ticketing system. Every conversation has an owner and a status, rules route new mail, and service level targets are counted in business hours and reported. The customer sees ordinary email throughout, because replies leave from your own address with no ticket number and no portal to sign in to.
An email ticketing system turns each message sent to a support address into a ticket, which is a record with an owner, a status and a deadline. Its purpose is that no request is answered twice or left unanswered, and that a manager can see how long customers waited. Help desk products do this by moving the conversation into their own system, where the customer receives a numbered ticket and sometimes a portal login.
Sektra applies the same controls to the conversation where it already is. The mailbox stays on Gmail, Outlook or your own mail server and syncs both ways. The ticket is the email thread itself, with an owner, a status and a service level clock attached. Replies leave from your address and arrive as normal email, which suits named clients as well as a support queue.
An owner and a status on every conversation
Each conversation has one owner, assigned in rotation, by load, by a rule or by hand, and conversations without one are listed under Unassigned. Its status is open, snoozed until a date or archived once the request is resolved. When a teammate starts a reply, the thread shows who is typing, which keeps a second answer from being written.
Rules that route, tag and answer incoming email
A rule is a When, an If and a Then written in plain words, and it sorts new mail without a person. The checks can be exact, such as the sender's domain or business hours, or they can be AI checks, such as whether the message is a refund request. Before a rule is switched on, it can be previewed against the last 30 days of mail and tested on one real conversation.
Service level targets counted in business hours
A service level policy sets targets for first reply, next reply and resolution, counted in business hours or around the clock, with holidays set per inbox. The clock pauses while the team is waiting on the customer, and the assignee is warned before a target is missed. A target at risk or missed can also start a rule, which is how escalation to a manager or a Slack channel is set up.
Reports on response times and service level results
Analytics report first response, response and resolution time as the median and the slowest 10 percent, for each inbox and teammate. Service level results are reported as a hit rate by policy, teammate and tag, alongside reply coverage, the share of conversations that received an answer. Every figure carries a plain definition with a worked example.
What your team gets
A named owner on every request
Each conversation is assigned in rotation, by load, by rule or by hand.
Sorting done by rules
Rules assign, tag and prioritize new mail as it arrives, using exact checks and AI checks in the same rule.
Deadlines the team can see
Service level clocks run in business hours, warn the assignee before a miss and let the list sort by what is due soonest.
Replies that read as email
The customer writes to your address and gets an ordinary reply from it, with no ticket number and no portal.
Email ticketing setup in four steps
The steps follow the order a new workspace takes them in, and they use the names of the screens as they appear in the app.
- 1
Connect the support address
Connect the Gmail, Outlook or IMAP mailbox behind your support address as a shared inbox and invite the team.
- 2
Turn on assignment
On the inbox's Auto-assignment card, choose round robin and the teammates who take part in the rotation.
- 3
Write the first rules
Write rules for the mail you sort by hand, and preview each one against the last 30 days.
- 4
Add a service level policy
Set targets for first reply, next reply and resolution, add business hours and holidays, and choose when the assignee is warned.
Common questions
These are the questions teams ask before they set this up. If yours is not covered here, send it to us.
What is an email ticketing system?
An email ticketing system is software that turns each email sent to a support address into a tracked request with an owner, a status and a deadline. It exists so that every request has an owner and is answered once. Sektra provides those controls inside a shared inbox, so the request stays an ordinary email thread.
Can Gmail or Outlook be used as a ticketing system?
On their own, Gmail and Outlook give a shared address no owner, status or deadline for each conversation. Connected to Sektra, the same mailbox gains assignment, rules, service level targets and reports. The mail stays in Gmail or Outlook and syncs both ways.
Do customers get a ticket number?
No. A reply from Sektra is a normal email from your own address in the thread the customer started, with no ticket number in the subject and no portal to sign in to. The owner, status and service level clock are visible to your team only.
Can an email ticketing system track SLAs in business hours?
Yes. In Sektra a service level policy sets targets for first reply, next reply and resolution, counted in business hours with holidays per inbox. The clock pauses while you wait on the customer, the assignee is warned before a miss, and hit rates are reported by policy, teammate and tag.
Other parts of the same inbox
Sektra compared with the tool you use now
Each page states what the other tool is built for, what it costs and what changes when a team moves to Sektra.
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Read the articleTry it on your own inbox
Connect a Gmail, Outlook or IMAP mailbox and the trial runs on your own mail, with nothing to migrate and no card required.