Method Community

Hello! I'm very new to Method and have spent the last 2 weeks pouring over all the information available on it. I'm running into a problem with the contact portal. Specifically, if I email a customer a link to their portal and they submit a quesiton (start a case), I'm finding that my reply to the customer is not being shown in their portal.

I created a test customer, made a fake estimate, and emailed it to myself. There, I asked a question and opened a case. I can see the case in Method (and I receive  an email about the case being created with a link to it since I set up that notificaiton). The test customer also received an email letting them know about the case they created and showing the quesiton they asked. I can see the activity for the case in Method, in which it tells me where the quesiton came from ("Case Updated Through Portal: 'Question'"). But, when I reply to the case using the Case Dialog & New/Edit Activity, my test customer account cannot see the reply in their portal. This is true whether I check the box for "Email Case Notificaiton to Contact" is checked. The test customer will receive an email but it doesn't show my reply (only the original question) and going to the contact portal shows no update either (again, only the original question).

Furthermore, in the Cases screen, if I click on the "Existing Activities for this Case" tab rather than the "Case Dialog & New/Edit Activity" tab, and click on the activity number, then type my response in to the comment box (which contains the original question) and save that, I still cannot see the reply in the contact portal. If I also check the "Send an Email" box at the bottom of the Edit Activity screen for the case, the email screen pops up on the right where I can choose an email template. However, my CRM_Caseupdatefor_Customer is not listed in the dropdown list. Clicking the ellipses brings up the edit template screen where I can select and edit that template but after saving it, it still cannot be selected from the dropdown list for the case update email. So, there doesn't seem to be any way for my customer to see my reply to their question via cases. I'd have to just email them.   

I feel like I'm missing something here because this seems like a basic function that should work. Anyone have any ideas? Any help is greatly appreciated!!

Hi Ryan,

I did a quick test this morning in my own Method account, mimicing what you are trying to do with your cases and Contacts Portal.  I logged into my Contacts Portal as a test Customer, went to the Customer Service tab, then clicked the "Question" button.  I filled out all the necessary fields, after submitting my question, my new Case then showed up in Method.  I logged into Method, went to my Cases tab and pulled this case up.  I added a new Activity to this existing case, saved it then switched tabs back to my Contacts Portal.  I logged out/in just to be safe, I then went back to the Customer Service tab, my new Activity was saved, and showing up in my case notes in the Portal.

I believe what I mentioned above is along the lines of what you are attempting to do.  Can you please confirm you didn't miss any details, like making sure when updating the Case in Method, you made sure to click save for Activity AND Case?  You confirmed you can see this new Activity in Method after adding it, do you see it in the Case notes, or will you see your activity comments from a grid/or within the new Activity?

In regards to your Custom Email Template not showing in your dropdown, please make sure you haven't selected the "hidden" checkbox for this email.  To confirm, go to Home->EmailTemplates, then load your CRM_Caseupdatefor_Customer Template.  On the right-hand side, directly above the "Category" label, you will see two checkboxs, "Is Active" and "Is Hidden", make sure it is set to active, and that it is NOT hidden (you can hover over the is hidden label for a definition).

Please verify these details, if you are still having this issue, could you please send me an email with your account info, and we can take a closer look?  Please send me your email, contact info, and Company Account name you use to login to Method with.  You can email me at b.citren@method.me or privately through these forums.  

-Ben

 Hey Ben,

Your suggestions fixed all those problems, but now I have a couple different issues related to it. I've sent you an email with the info you need to look into this further.

Thanks!