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

Automatic email forwarding is one of the main ways you can connect your support email addresses to Gorgias.

Email forwarding allows you to receive emails at an external email address and forward the incoming messages to Gorgias. You can then send and reply to email messages as tickets from your Gorgias helpdesk.

An external email address is owned and maintained by you, outside of Gorgias (for example, [email protected]).

There are 3 steps to set up email forwarding with Gorgias:

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

Before you begin

• Any account with a Helpdesk subscription can use automatic email forwarding to connect their email address to Gorgias (Basic, Pro, Advanced or Enterprise)
• You must have Admin permissions in Gorgias to set up Email
• 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.

Who should use email forwarding?

For accounts with an 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.

Anyone else who uses Gorgias should also consider automatic forwarding if:

• You are a brand with a high volume of email (> 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

If you use Gmail or Outlook (Microsoft 365) to receive support requests and expect low email volume (< 500 emails/day), you can choose to directly connect Gorgias to your Gmail or Outlook inbox. This option is only available for accounts with Basic or Pro Helpdesk subscriptions.

How email forwarding works

Most email providers like Gmail, Outlook, Apple iCloud and others allow you to set up email forwarding.

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.

For any external email address that you use to receive support requests, you can forward emails from those addresses to your Gorgias inbox where you can reply to messages as tickets. Every Gorgias account has a base email address ([email protected]) that you can use as your forwarding address.

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

• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]

Each external email address can forward messages to your forwarding address in Gorgias ([email protected]).

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 — there’s no “Gorgias” branding in the Sent To or Reply From address fields.

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. Go to Settings > Email from the main menu
2. Select Add New Email
3. 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”
4. Select Next to continue
5. 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.
6. When done, return to Gorgias and select I confirm that I have set up email forwarding, then select Next
   • Gorgias will send a test email to verify that the forwarding loop is set up correctly. Learn what to do if verification fails.

Email provider instructions for automatic forwarding

When you add an external email address to Gorgias, we ask you to complete steps in your email provider’s settings to set up automatic 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
   • You should have copied your forwarding address when adding your external email address to Gorgias
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.

• Microsoft 365 (make sure automatic forwarding is enabled in your anti-spam outbound policy)
• Outlook
• Gmail
• iCloud
• GoDaddy
• Zoho

Verify your email domain (recommended)

If you’re using a custom email domain ([email protected]), we highly recommend that you verify your domain when using automatic forwarding.

When you verify your domain, your emails are seen as trustworthy and it allows Gorgias to deliver outbound messages on your behalf. A verified email domain:

• Reduces bounce rates
• Prevents emails from landing in your recipient’s spam folder
• Ensures customers recognize your email address

Without domain verification, you will not be able to send or reply to emails using your support email address from Gorgias. You will have to use another verified support address or your account’s base email ([email protected]) to respond to messages, reducing your brand recognition (your customers will see “Gorgias” in the Sent To and Reply From addresses of the email).

Learn more about how to verify your email domain.

FAQ and troubleshooting