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Contact Center Email Flow Behavior Overview

Updated
  • Updated on Sep 10, 2026
  • Published on May 21, 2026
  • 2 minute(s) read
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Question

What are the basic behaviors of Contact Center email flows?

Applies To

  • Contact Center

  • Configuration Manager for Contact Center

  • Agent Workspace

  • Email

  • Email Script

  • Email Channel

Answer

Inbound Email Behavior

The behavior resembles a standard ticketing system.

  1. Email is pulled into 8x8.

  2. A case is automatically created.

  3. When the agent accepts the email, the case is automatically assigned to the agent.

  4. The case stays assigned to that agent.

    • The agent can reassign the case to an agent group or another agent.

    • When the agent is assigned a case, there is not an automated notification of this. The agent needs to search for cases assigned to that agent.

CRM Properties for Emails

Our recommendation is to enable the option to re-open a CRM case if your customer responds to the same email. Otherwise, you will have multiple cases for the same email.

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Scenario: An email has not been offered to an agent yet. During this time, Agent A assigns the unassigned CRM case to him/herself and works on the case.

The default behavior is that that original case will stay assigned to Agent A when the email is later offered to Agent B.

If you want Agent B to be automatically assigned to the case, then enable the check box below within the Properties Tab.

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For the Email Channels

All supported protocols (POP3, IMAP, and Microsoft Exchange) delete the email from the mailbox once a case is created. There is no setting on any protocol that leaves a copy of the message on the mail server. The mailbox is opened for both reading and writing regardless of protocol.

On POP3, the deletion is applied when the connection session closes rather than the instant the message is read, but the outcome is the same: the message is removed from the server.

IMPORTANT: 8x8 Contact Center deletes the email from the mailbox regardless of the authentication protocol used. POP, IMAP, and Microsoft Exchange do not save a copy of the email on the server. Connect an email channel only to a dedicated mailbox created for this purpose. We recommend not to connect an email channel to:

  • A personal mailbox

  • A colleague's mailbox

  • A shared mailbox that people also read directly

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