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Automatically forward emails to Gorgias from an external addressUpdated 2 days ago

Connect your support email address(es) to Gorgias using automatic email forwarding to read and respond to messages received at an external email address as tickets from your Gorgias helpdesk.

You can connect any email address that is owned and maintained by you, for example, [email protected] in three steps:

  1. Add your external email address to Gorgias.
  2. Set up forwarding in your email provider’s settings so that incoming messages are forwarded to your Gorgias inbox.
  3. Verify your email domain so that Gorgias can send outbound messages on your behalf.

Requirements

  • All Helpdesk plans (Basic, Pro, Advanced or Enterprise) can use automatic email forwarding to connect their email address to Gorgias
  • Only Admins can set up email forwarding
  • Admin access to your email provider is required to set up automatic forwarding and verify your domain. Invite your email administrator or IT to Gorgias.
Tip: If you have a Basic or Pro helpdesk plan and send fewer than 500 emails a day, you might prefer to connect your email with the direct email integration for either Gmail or Outlook.

Who should use email forwarding?

For accounts with Advanced or Enterprise Helpdesk subscriptions, automatic forwarding is required to connect your email to Gorgias. With higher volumes of email, automatic forwarding ensures reliable delivery of your messages and a better experience for you and your customers.

If you’re on a Basic or Pro plan, you might consider automatic forwarding if:

  • You are a brand with a high volume of email (more than 500 emails/day)
  • You have a support email address with a custom domain (@mycompany.com). Emails with common domains like @gmail.com and @outlook.com are not recommended.
  • You have an email provider other than Gmail or Outlook, or use non-standard types of email addresses like aliases or Google groups


How email forwarding works

Email forwarding automatically directs incoming messages sent to one email address to another email address. It’s like having a package delivered to your home and then forwarded to a different address, like your office. Most email providers — like Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, and others — allow you to set up email forwarding.

You can forward emails from any external email address that you use to receive support requests to your Gorgias helpdesk, where you can reply to them as tickets. This way, you can keep support requests from different email addresses in one place.

For example, your customers may send support requests to 3 different email addresses:

To bring messages from each of these addresses into Gorgias, you can forward incoming mail to the base email address ([email protected]) that’s been automatically generated for your helpdesk.

When you receive emails in Gorgias, you can “reply from” any of 3 external email addresses (if you have a verified domain). To your customers, your emails appear as though you’re replying from your original support address, and you get to manage requests in a single helpdesk, rather than monitoring three separate inboxes.

Add your external support email to Gorgias

You can add multiple email addresses to forward messages to your Gorgias inbox. After setting up the first address, repeat the process for any additional addresses.

Setting up email forwarding requires you to first add your support email address to Gorgias. Then, you will need to follow steps to set up forwarding in your email provider’ settings (whether that’s Gmail, Outlook or another provider).

  1. From your helpdesk, click the Settings icon in the bottom-left corner.
  2. In the sidebar, locate Channels, then select Email.
  3. Click Add New Email in the top-right corner.
  4. Enter the email address you want to use with Gorgias and an Email display name
    • Make sure to enter a business email address (@mycompany.com). Personal email addresses with common domains (@gmail or @outlook) cannot be accepted.
    • Your customers will see your display name when you reply to an email from your Gorgias inbox — for example “Acme Support” or “Acme Store”
  5. Select Next to continue
  6. Follow the steps to set up email forwarding for your email provider.
    • Your email provider will ask for your Gorgias forwarding address to set up email forwarding. You’ll want to Copy the forwarding address to your clipboard.
  7. When done, return to Gorgias and select I confirm that I have set up email forwarding, then click Next.

Set up forwarding in your email provider

Once you’ve added an external email address to Gorgias, switch to your email provider settings to set up email forwarding. The steps differ depending on the email provider you are using.

In most cases, setting up email forwarding follows 3 main steps:

  1. Enable automatic forwarding in your email provider’s settings
  2. Enter your Gorgias forwarding address ([email protected]) to tell your email provider where to forward emails to
  3. Verify the forwarding address
    • Your email provider will send a verification email to your forwarding address to complete the setup
    • Search for the email in your Gorgias inbox and click the verification link

Refer to the instructions below for the most common email providers. If your provider is not listed, please check their documentation for how to set up automatic forwarding.

If you’re using a custom email domain ([email protected]), we recommend that you verify your domain when using automatic forwarding, to allow Gorgias to send and deliver mail using your custom address.

A verified email domain is considered trustworthy, and reduces bounce rates, prevents emails from landing in your recipient’s spam folder, and ensures customers recognize your email address by sending and delivering mail from your custom address rather than with the base email ([email protected]).

If you choose not to verify your domain, you can only use your helpdesk’s base email ([email protected]) to respond to messages.

Learn more about how to verify your email domain.

Import historical email data

You can import the last two years of your email history into Gorgias to bring past conversations into your helpdesk as closed tickets. Spam emails won’t be imported, and imported emails don't count under your total billable ticket amount unless you reply to them. Learn more about importing emails into Gorgias.

  1. From your helpdesk, click the Settings icon in the bottom-left corner.
  2. In the sidebar, locate Account, then select Email import.
  3. Click Import in the top-right corner.
  4. Under Email, click the dropdown menu, then search for and select the email address.
  5. Under Import timeframe, click the dropdown menu to open the calendar picker, then select from the predefined timeframes, or enter a custom date range.
  6. Click Authenticate And Import, then sign in to the email account you’ve specified.

FAQ and troubleshooting

Can I use an alias, distribution list, or Google Group as a support address?

When using automatic forwarding, we recommend that you use a standard email address with a verified domain to ensure reliable delivery. Should you use a non-standard email address, Gorgias may not be able to help troubleshoot or offer support if problems arise.

While Gorgias does not officially support the use of aliases, groups, shared inboxes or other types of non-standard email addresses, we recognize that many companies successfully set up forwarding for these kinds of email addresses and so we do not block their use.

My email forwarding suddenly stopped working

If your email forwarding stops working completely, there are some common causes that you can check in your email provider’s settings.

  • Confirm the forwarding address is correct in your email provider’s settings
    • Sign in to your email provider and make sure Gorgias’s forwarding email address has been added to your automatic forwarding settings. Ensure the forwarding address is correct and has no typos.
    • To locate your forwarding address in Gorgias, go to Settings > Email, then select your support email address from the list. The forwarding address looks like “[email protected]”
  • Confirm forwarding is enabled in your email provider
    • You may have correctly added your forwarding address, but forwarding has not yet explicitly been enabled
  • Check for filters and restrictions that have been created in your email provider’s forwarding settings that may block emails from being forwarded to Gorgias
    • For example, a filter might say “only forward emails with a specific Subject line or keyword”.

Gorgias could not verify forwarding was set up correctly

When you add your email address to Gorigas, you are asked to confirm that you have set up automatic forwarding in your email provider. Once you confirm, Gorgias sends a test email to verify that the forwarding loop has been set up correctly.

If the verification fails, please review the forwarding settings in your email provider. Check for the following problems, then return to Gorgias and select Send Test Email Again:

  • Make sure that forwarding has been successfully turned on in your email provider
  • Make sure you have entered the correct forwarding address
    • You can find your Gorgias forwarding address on the “Add New Email” set up screen (it looks like [email protected])

I’ve set up forwarding but haven’t received the verification email from my email provider (Microsoft 365)

After setting up forwarding, if you haven’t received the verification email from your email provider, you or your email administrator may need to check that external forwarding has not been blocked or disabled for your organization.

Specifically if you use Microsoft 365, you may receive an error message in your email inbox that says “Access denied, Your organization does not allow external forwarding. Please contact your administrator for further assistance. AS(7555)”.

You or email administrator should update your outbound policies in the Microsoft Defender portal to allow automatic forwarding.

Can I forward emails to Gorgias using Outlook inbox rules?

We do not recommend using inbox rules in Outlook as a method to forward emails. Rules are not a reliable way to forward messages and do not always behave as expected.

Please use Outlook’s automatic forwarding settings when setting up email forwarding with Gorgias.

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