Reply to an email with a Webex meeting- The Meeting info falls all the way to the bottom. Can we fix that?

[AlexGarten6214]

When replying to an email with a meeting request in Outlook the meeting details falls to the way bottom of the email thread. We have see that customers tend to not see the meeting details. Is there anyway to populate the meeting details to the beginning of the email? 

[a_doyle]

Sorry to bring up an old topic, but this is a point of frustration for me too.

I try to jump into email chains that seem to be going nowhere but need a resolution and set up a meeting. To save time, I use Outlook's "Reply with meeting" option, which adds the email as the content and you can set the meeting details, etc.

When I add the Webex meeting, as mentioned in other replies here, the link for the meeting is added to the very bottom of a usually very long email, and not in the section where a reply would normally go.

To counter the "its a meeting, so the user has the details when they click accept" response, this is not accurate. 

When I get an invite, and I accept, I get a reminder for the meeting, and I can open the meeting invite when the time comes, but I still have to go looking for the meeting link. It is not added to the "location" section automatically because Outlook makes you put something there before sending, and I don't yet know the meeting link, so I can't add it there.

If I am emailing someone that uses Webex, they will get a notification in Webex that they can follow, but not everyone uses Webex. This applies to people who are not used to Webex invite details being at the bottom of the chain too.

My workaround, which has not been great, is to use my personal room invite, and then copy paste that info to the top of the email. But this does not work if meetings line up together, as you can have the attendees run into each other by just joining early, or staying late.

My suggestion as a solution:

At the moment when a Webex meeting is added, the following is added to the bottom of the email:

-- Do not delete or change any of the following text. --

A Webex meeting has been added. Meeting details will replace this section after you save or send this invitation.

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If you change this to be "Do not delete or change any of the text between these lines" and have the software just look for that pattern, and replace it with the details, this will allow the user to put the invite details where ever they wish. In the middle of the email, after their introduction, before it, at the end of the email, etc., etc.

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[SiliconRichard]

It sounds like you are using the "Create meeting request from this message" icon in outlook. What I usually do is click that, then I DELETE the content in the meeting invite, then I go back to the original email and drag it into the invite as an attachment, then I create the Webex Meeting invite. I will then state the Agenda and to reference the attached email thread. This works for two reasons: users can easily identify the webex meeting and the meeting invite will preserve the thread in the state it was at the time. It's really helpful if historical context is needed on past meeting invites that are being reviewed months/years later.

I like clean meeting agendas.

[Matt_W]

This is what I am doing as well. It would be great if this could be automated. I would recommend submitting this as a feature request to update the way this works using the following link: https://ciscocollabcustomer.ideas.aha.io/

[Chaitanyagade21431]

Thats exactly what I am doing as well, to get around the issue.

With SKype meeting, it just adds the meeting in the immediate reply and the rest of the email history will appear after the meeting invite.

from a end user standpoint, it is a simple change that makes a huge difference.

[SiliconRichard]

It's probably best practice to have a short agenda in meeting invites anyways. It keeps the focus succinct and end users can review the longer document (email/etc) separately.

[Chaitanyagade21431]

Agreed. However like I said, I am referring to common special cases where there is back and forth communication even lets say couple of emails with lengthy analysis/notes/content/MoM etc. In such cases ( at least to me ), it is NOT intuitive to scroll all the way down ( where there may be links from previous webex meetings on the same topic ) to find the latest webex link.

Here is the crux of what we are saying as an analogy..

I am saying  - The noise cancelling button on your company made headphones is not easy to reach.

Cisco employees' response - You should probably move to a quieter place.

Unless Cisco is willing to give a serious thought on looking into/fixing this use-case, there is no point discussing this any further.

Don't get me wrong , I like the features and all the bells and whistles in the webex tool itself. Its just little things like this what I am talking about will make a big difference.

For what it's worth take this as a customer feedback.

Thank you.

[mark333]

Well quite frankly I have the same complaint with Webex and when a customer voices a complaint to characterize them as rude is incredibly unprofessional. Everyone has their own work style. I would suggest Cisco to take a look into the complaint especially considering how many other meeting alternatives there are. @ciscosupport @ciscoCommunity 

[SiliconRichard]

Hi Mark,

This forum is open to any and all who wish to participate as part of the community and has a blend of participants. Something new since this post was made is the ability to submit feature requests here: https://ciscocollabcustomer.ideas.aha.io/

This will enable others with similar issues to vote and comment so they can be notified of any updates.

Regards,

Richard

[Wayne DeNardi]

That's just the way that email works... any replies or information added in a forward, always get added to the top, and the previous content drops down lower.

There is no automatic way to make a certain part of an email stay at the top.

[Chaitanyagade21431]

The response suggested that this would happen by default, which is non-sense.

Just look at MS skype meeting. It adds the meeting link in the latest reply.. not at the end of a 2 month old email chain.

FIX IT CISCO!

[Fritz_H]

Instead of being rude you might perhaps better post a screenshot.

Possibly there is a misunderstanding since its simply a fact,
that email-communication puts the newer part on top of the older part.

Perhaps the sender of your Skype-example did put the meeting-info into his/her eMail-Signature?

Since you refer to a 2 month old eMail-history, this meeting-link will hardly refer
to a singular scheduled meeting (one specific date and time..) 
but more likely be a generic link to the virtual meeting-room of that person.

...or do you really schedule a meeting and afterwards have long, long, long,
long.. (2 month later) ...long, long, long eMail-dialog about the very same topic?
always using the Reply-Button? 

Besides of that:
the meeting-links are sent as meeting-invitations =  as soon as you accept the invitation,
the whole meeting-Info is copied into your calendar... no need to search for meeting-links in some old eMails.

[Chaitanyagade21431]

You obviously have no clue of what I am talking about. Read on...

Its not being rude.. its being realistic. 

Meeting invite in email signature... I havent met such "creative" people yet.. The concept itself is new to me. :)

Havent you ever faced an email thread where there is a lot of back and forth and after enough time spent on emails, some one would rather schedule a meeting as a reply to that email. In such cases, Skype meeting puts the meeting invite right in your reply where as webex puts the meeting invite link completely at the end of that long email chain. Its such a common use case.

One might say this is such  a first problem... and only the meeting hosts ( especially meetings with large number of participants ) will understand the pain, when everybody is pinging/calling you asking... " is there a meeting invite link?" 

Hope this helps.

[Fritz_H]

@Chaitanyagade21431 
regarding "Meeting invite in email signature... I havent met such "creative" people yet.. The concept itself is new to me. :)"

there are at least two types of meetings:

scheduled meetings, where all participants receive a message that is shown as an "invitation" by the eMail-Application allowing you to accept, deny etc..
As soon as you accept, all the invitation-contents is copied into a new appointment-entry in your Calendar.
= no need to search for the meeting-Link sometime later: its in your Calendar.
AND: These links should be meeting-specific = only valid for this one specific meeting.

But since software like Webex also provides you with your own "virtual meeting room", you may also 
send out the generic link to your meeting-room. This type of link is not meeting-specific and valid all times.
THIS kind of link may be easily put into an eMail-Signature, beside your name, phone-number etc.

see: I did not suggest to put the "invite" into the signature but the static link to a virtual meeting room.

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regarding "Havent you ever faced an email thread where ..."
I know exactly what you mean: eMails with a subject like "Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re....."
My experience is: I do receive a webex-invitation, I click on accept, done.
no more eMail-Dialog - esp. not as Reply to this invitation. 

And even IF I did reply - to find the meetings-Link etc. I would just check my Calendar since all this info
was copied there as I did click on "accept invitation"....

In case we still do not find common ground, we may stop this thread here.