--- original_url: "https://jace.pro/blog/5-rules-for-emails/" format: markdown ai_optimized: true --- 5 rules for emails- # 5 rules for emails March 24, 2016 [servicenow ](/tags/servicenow/)[email](/tags/email/) Enable AI Animation## [Do not use the ServiceNow provided email address](#do-not-use-the-servicenow-provided-email-address) [Always set up your own mailbox](https://docs.servicenow.com/csh?version=latest&topicname=c_AlternateEmailConfigurations) - Once someone knows about the email address, they never, ever, forget it, at least now you can get rid of it or change it accordingly. - Changing the “From” on notifications is not possible without setting this up. - This puts all the content submitted on your own servers where you can control it. Otherwise they are all on ServiceNow’s servers where you don’t have the same control. ## [Events or Workflow Activities? Always Events and here’s a list of reasons why](#events-or-workflow-activities-always-events-and-heres-a-list-of-reasons-why) - Ability to trigger the notification from any server side script. - Faster prototyping of the notification. Why? Because you can trigger the notification on `sysevent`. - Events can also trigger Script Actions which allow you to run server scripts. - Workflow notifications are limited compared to notification events. - Workflow notifications need you to checkout the workflow to update the notification. ## [Send email that require action](#send-email-that-require-action) - Ideally, emails require action and can be handled from the email. If they cannot, consider summarizing that information for a email sent on a recurring frequency. Examples of actionable subjects with commentary - RITM1234 Laptop Approval for Bart Simpson Can be handled on your phone, searchable by record number, who and what is clear. - Reminder to Please take this survey related to Request INC1370 Should be as concise as possible, so I’d start at “Take this …” or “Survey for INC1370” - ServiceNow Customer Satisfaction Survey for INT3389 From HI as of August 2017 - Informing users is sometimes useful, but may also be unnecessary. Examples of informational subjects with commentary - INC1370 Opened on your behalf - INC1370 Resolved - TASK1234 Provision User Access Assigned to you (cannot be handled on your phone, so essentially, you’re informing someone they have work.) - TASK1235 Revoke Location Access Assign to your group (cannot be handled on your phone, so essentially, you’re informing someone they have work.) - One way to sending more useful content less often is to send out a summary notification daily or weekly. Don’t send a summary if there is nothing to tell them about. ServiceNow Weekly Summary for 2017-09-08 - ServiceNow Daily Summary for 2017-09-04 ## [Allow users to unsubscribe to actionable, or informational emails or not](#allow-users-to-unsubscribe-to-actionable-or-informational-emails-or-not) Actively discourage the use of Inbound Email as a mechanism for ticket creation. It should be used when the sending party is a robot. Over time, the conditions desired by your stakeholders, and the propensity for user input error will make inbound email a horrific mess. Its also like Pandora’s Box. Once you tell users they can email into ServiceNow, they’ll never stop. I force stakeholders to sign off to knowing about a 30% failure rate if they want inbound email processing. – [Robert Fedoruk](https://community.servicenow.com/message/990963#991021) ## [Memorize this diagram](#memorize-this-diagram) ![A diagram showing the logic of when an incoming email is processed in ServiceNow](/img/P2R_2ihmaG-650.jpeg)ServiceNow Email Processing Diagram --- [View this page on GitHub](https://github.com/jacebenson/jace.pro/tree/main/./src/posts/2016/2016-03-24-5-rules-for-email.md). [5 rules for emails](https://jace.pro/blog/5-rules-for-emails/) [Jace Benson](https://jace.pro) ![Jace Benson](https://jace.pro/icon-512x512.png) --- *This content is from Jace Benson's ServiceNow and tech blog at jace.pro* *Original post: https://jace.pro/blog/5-rules-for-emails/*