Upcoming changes to our automated notifications - live today 17th April 2020

Susan Peck · 04/22/20

Here is another thread on the same topic (with the same opinion):

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/247252#Comment_247252

Susan Peck · 04/22/20

Another thread on this topic (not positive):

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/67649/change-from-name-with-automation-emails

Leslie Sutula (US - IFS) · 04/22/20

Andree - Dose it makes sense to submit an enhancement request when it already was 'enhanced' before they changed it? It was working perfectly fine for many people's needs. At this point, I am going to have to change my name to Smartsheet Automation in my profile in order to not be the "face" of every single notification that has been created for a system of sheets.

Andrée Starå · 04/22/20

@Leslie Sutula (US - IFS)

Yes, absolutely! The more people that are requesting a change, the bigger the possibility of a change happening.

I would like to see that everything goes back to how it was, and then there would be an added option to select that we want the new behavior or something similar.

Genevieve P. · 04/22/20

Hi all,

I want to say thank you for your feedback, and for filling out the Product Enhancement Request form with your concerns. I have also been sending your feedback from this thread to our Product team, so they're aware of the ways that this change is currently impacting your companies.

This change was influenced directly by customer feedback about low read and response rates to their alerts and requests. We dug into the issue and found that the impersonal nature of the generic “Smartsheet Automation” name was a key contributor to that problem.

Up until this release, the generic “Smartsheet Automation” name in the From field has made it more likely that recipients will not respond to or simply ignore alerts, reminders, and requests when they’re sent via email. This is particularly true for people who don’t use Smartsheet (or only do so infrequently).

In regards to now suddenly receiving a number of replies to these alerts, please keep in mind that the reply-to address for automated update and approval requests until this change was “automation@smartsheet.com”. That meant that replies to request emails were sent to an unmonitored account, and were not seen by anyone in your company. This change ensures that questions or comments about a request are now seen and can be responded to.

Please do continue to fill out the Enhancement Request form or discuss different alternatives to your current automations here. If any of you have questions about specific functionality (for example, who's name will show with this type of alert or if these types of changes were made) then please feel free to post here and tag me, with a pictured example of your type of workflow. I will be happy to help identify if that specific workflow has been updated with this change and clarify if there is a new way it will appear in an inbox.

Thank you,

Genevieve

Susan Peck · 04/22/20

Done.

I also sent an email to Scott at Smartsheet who sent out an email under the productinfo@smartsheet.com email a couple of weeks ago about this change. You might try that, as well as emailing your SS account rep.

Susan Peck · 04/22/20

Probably good if all of us with this problem submit a Product Enhancement request to give us the option to use the new feature or not:

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/247263#Comment_247263

Susan Peck · 04/22/20

oops, wrong link:

Please submit an Enhancement Request when you have a moment

Susan Peck · 04/22/20

@Genevieve P thanks for the additional detail. It seems some people want the functionality and for others it is a problem. Perhaps the solution is to come up with a completely different way to ensure people respond to Smartsheet requests. To my thinking, a request for an update is completely different from a notification that something changed on a sheet.

You mention "specific functionality (for example, who's name will show with this type of alert or if these types of changes were made)" -- can you elaborate?

We are Smartsheet users since 2011, so our users are expecting emails from Smartsheet Automation. We did receive the advance warning and I was concerned enough to alert department heads that have sheets owned by me (I was the original licensed user in the company and have created many of our sheets) that they might have questions. In reality, though, I haven't had people asking me about notices they are receiving, so the personalization may not be having any effect on their responsiveness.

Thanks much.

Susan

P.S. there are some other threads also on this topic:

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/67649/change-from-name-with-automation-emails

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/67632/workflow-notification-emails-coming-from-my-name

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/247252#Comment_247252

Genevieve P. · 04/22/20

Hi @Susan B Peck

I'm happy to elaborate: what I mean is if you would like clarity on how a specific alert will send - for example, a date-based automation that runs every Monday, and you want to know what email and name will be associated - I can help explain that this type of alert will have the sheet owner's email in the reply-to address field.

Thank you for linking to the other threads. I'll bring these over to this main post so it's easier to continue the conversation in one spot.

Susan Peck · 04/22/20

@Genevieve P Can you identify what kinds of automations are not using the sheet owner's email? I'm pretty sure all the ones we use are date based, if that includes all daily alerts. I'm a bit confused.

Genevieve P. · 04/22/20

@Susan B Peck

No problem!

If you have a change-based alert (for example, where the trigger is when a Status column changes to "In Progress"), and only one shared user made the change, then the email will have that user's name in the alert instead of the sheet owner's.

If this same change-based alert has multiple people making the changes before the alert sends then it will have the sheet owner's name.

Susan Peck · 04/22/20

Okay, I understand that.

Wanda Benson · 04/22/20

I actually stumbled upon this thread because I was looking for a way to change the sender from "Name via Smartsheet."

Is it possible to have the Sender Name tied to the name of the sheet? That way it is familiar to the receiver because they submitted something in the tool, but not linked to one person?

Jose Figueroa · 04/23/20

@Wanda Benson - That is a fantastic idea. But no, for the most part anything automated will inherit the owner's name [via Smartsheet], and confuses everyone.

Upcoming changes to our automated notifications - live today 17th April 2020

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