Outlook new email notification can be annoying if it appears each time a email is received.
Most people either turn this feature off or simply get into the habit of ignoring it.
BUT… I’m sure you wouldn’t want to ignore (even mistakenly) a important email from your Boss or important client.
In this post, we will show you how we have setup a Rule in Outlook that displays a Alert for important emails only!!!.
Here’s what led to the implementation of this Rule:
Earlier this week, The CEO sent an an important email to a Support staff but did not receive a response. When he checked, the staff had not seen the email and was unaware that it was received. The reason for this was:
- The Support Staff was mostly working on our Online Support system through which they send and receive emails and
- The staff had turned off the email notification as it was annoying and distracting.
To ensure that important emails were not overlooked in future, we setup a rule in Outlook on all staff’s machine to display Alert when important emails are received from the CEO (or from others within the company).
Here’s the step-by-step instructions:
- Go to your Inbox.
- In Outlook 2007/2003, Click Tools > Rules and Alerts to display the Rules dialog box.
In Outlook 2013/2010, go to the Home tab and click Rules > Manage Rules and Alerts
- Click the New Rule button to display the Rules Wizard screen.
- Click “Display mail from someone in the New Item Alert Window”. (A on the picture above)
- Click on “people or distribution list” (B on the picture above) to display the Rule Address screen. In Outlook 2010/2013, it would say “people or public group“)
- Select someone from the list or type in the person’s email address in the From field.
- Click OK to go back to the Rules Wizard screen.
- Click “a specific message” (C on the picture above)
- Type in what you want the alert message to say and click OK e.g. Email from Boss!
- Click Finish
The next time you receive an email from that person (like your Boss), Outlook will display a message over everything else that you are working on.
This simple trick has helped our support team stay focused on supporting our clients but also made them efficient in deciding which emails need their attention first and which ones can wait.
I hope it works well for you too.
If you find this tip useful or have your own tips for better email notifications, please leave a comment on the blog.
