email-automation

Why create a new tool for sending emails? Copying and pasting templates is too slow. Gainsight's built in email functionality is too limited and also too slow. This tool automates and speeds up much of the process without (hopefully) being too complicated to install.

How it works

This tool consists of 2 separate pieces of software:

Web Browser Extension: Inserts buttons into the SalesForce page that the user can click on. The button onClick event scrapes the webpage for pertinent information, which is then formatted and POSTed to an API endpoint on a locally running server.

Python Server: Using Flask to expose several API endpoints. Each endpoint runs a function that utilizes the pywin32 library to connect to Outlook for the purpose of sending auto-generated emails.

TL;DR This tool takes specific customer information from SalesForce and inputs into one of several email templates and sends it off with minimal user input, saving time.

Available Email Templates

Type	Mass Email	Direct Email
Intro	✓	✓
Checkin	✓	✓
Admin Workshop	✓	✓
Arch. & Strategy	✓	✓
Readiness Review	✓	✓
Renewal	✓	✓
Custom	✓	✓

+ Notifying account owner upon creation of a lead (Bookmarklet only, for use on newly created lead page)

Current Compatibility

Windows ✓
OSX ✗

Extension	SFDC Classic	SFDC Lightning
Chrome	✓	✗
Firefox	✗	✗
Safari	✗	✗
Edge	✗	✗

Note: Where the browser extension is not compatible, bookmarklets can be used as a fallback. Unless I am specifically asked to implement this, it will be put on standby.

Pre-Requisites

1. Python 3.6+

2. Python pip

3. pywin32 and flask Python packages

    $ python3 -m pip install pywin32
    $ python3 -m pip install Flask
   

Installation

Downloading Files

1. Via terminal or command prompt

    $ git clone https://github.com/kaugm/email-automation
   

2. Via manual download by clicking on Code > Download ZIP
   2.a Extract ZIP archive and move folder to desired directory

Installing Browser Extension (Chrome)

1. In the browser, navigate to chrome://extensions
2. Ensure developer mode is turned on (toggle in top right corner)
3. Click on 'Load Unpacked' button in top left corner
4. Navigate to the folder that contains the browser extension: ../email-automation/chrome_extension/ and 'Select Folder'

Configuration

1. Modify the file called settings.py in the root folder: ../email-automation/ with 5 variables, personalized to you:

    gainsightInboundAddress = 'exampleemailaddress@example.com;'
    myEmail = 'new.user@citrix.com'
    csm_full_name = 'Karl Martin'
    title = 'Customer Success Manager'
    address = '100 S West Street Raleigh, NC'
   

** For the signature variable you do not need to do anything. It should pull in whatever you set as name, title, and address to create a personalized signature. If you want to change the style of your signature, you'll need to custom code it using HTML.

Personalization of Templates

Modifying Text

You can modify the email templates that you send to customers by editing the blast_templates.py and direct_templates.py files in the ../generate/ folder. Each template uses the following structure:

def TEMPLATE_NAME( INPUT_VARIABLES ):
        return( EMAIL_SUBJECT , EMAIL_BODY )

The formatting for the email subject and email body might look confusing, but everything inside the f string syntax (shown below) is what is included in the template to be sent:

f'''       TEXT HERE WILL BE USED AS TEXT IN THE EMAIL         '''

Dynamic variables included in these templates are wrapped in curly braces like {variable}. Note that only specific variables can be used, those that you include as arguments to the template function. When modifying a template, be sure to remember which specific variables are allowed. Below is an example:

def renewal_template(name, product):
        return (f'''Your Citrix Renewal''', 
        f'''Hello {name}! Your renewal for Citrix {product} is up for renewal..''')

Returns something like: "Hello Acme Co.! Your renewal of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops is up for renewal.."

Modifying formatting

The email templates are formatted using HTML, and as such you need to use this to change/add/remove formatting. The body portion of the email must always start off with <html> <body>. No need to close off these HTML elements within the template, as they closed off at the end of the signature, which should be included at the end of every email template. The only elements that you would need are:

    <strong> bold text </strong>
    <em> italicized text </em>
    <br>  → (line break)
    <br><br>  → (double line break)
    <a href=' link_to_somewhere '> link text </a>
    <ul>
      <li>bullet point</li>
      <li>bullet point</li>
    </ul>

Initial Usage

1. Open up an instance of Command Prompt or Terminal
2. Navigate to the root directory ../email-automation/ (the one that contains the file app.py)
3. Run the command python3 app.py
4. Ensure browser extension is loaded

Optional: Navigate to http://localhost:5000/index to verify that the script is running and to see a dashboard with statistics and logs.

Errors

In the case that there is any issue or error, check the Command Prompt, Terminal window, or the dashboard for any error descriptions or instructions.

*There is a small bug with the pywin32 module that requires a directory to be deleted. If this happens, run the following commands in Powershell:

    $ Remove-Item -path $env:LOCALAPPDATA\Temp\gen_py -recurse
    $ exit

Other Issues

Browser extension not compatible

Prelude. Bookmarklets can replace the browser extension functionality. They are JS code stored inside a bookmark, which runs when you click on the bookmark. Instead of having buttons inserted into the webpage, you can simply store all the necessary funtions in a folder on your bookmarks bar, and call the functions by clicking on a bookmarklet.\

1. For each JS file in the ../email-automation/static/bookmarklets/ folder [ TODO ]

2. Open up the JS file and copy everything

3. Use bookmarklet creator website or similar to prep the code

4. Copy the prepared code and create a new bookmark

    Name: Human readable name (Just copy the name of the JS file, they are named by what they do)
    URL: Pasted code
   

5. Save the bookmarklet