Outlook (Microsoft 365)Updated 2 months ago

This guide will help you integrate all types of Outlook integrations with Gorgias. There are two different integration methods that you can use to integrate Outlook:

Direct

• Microsoft 365 (standalone)

Forwarding

• Outlook (standalone)
• Outlook (alias)
• Microsoft Exchange (standalone)

Microsoft 365 (standalone)

Before you get started you will need:

• A Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) Business account
• Your password for Microsoft 365
• Admin or Lead agent user permission in Gorgias

Steps

1. In Gorgias open the main menu
2. Click Settings → Channels → Email.
3. Click 'Connect Microsoft 365 email account'. You will be redirected to a Microsoft 365 authentication page.
4. Sign into your Office 365 account (if your haven't already).
5. Tick the box marked 'Consent on behalf of your organization'.
6. Click 'Accept'.
7. Enable the toggle for your chosen email address.
8. Click 'Save'.

Your email in now connected.

You can further customize your email channel by importing email history, setting your address name and setting up your signature.

Outlook (standalone)

Forwarding

Forwarding through Outlook can be done in 2 ways:

1. Automatic forwarding

2. Inbox rules

Allow external forwarding through Outlook

When setting up an Outlook integration via forwarding, you may need take some additional steps. Some accounts tend to block automatic email forwarding due to spam protection. If you have external forwarding disabled, you will see a specific error message in your mailbox after attempting to set up forwarding to Gorgias. The message says something like: 

'550 5.7.520 Access denied, Your organization does not allow external forwarding. Please contact your administrator for further assistance. AS(7555)'

To change your outbound spam protection settings, please contact your Microsoft 365 Administrator and ask them to allow automatic external forwarding for any email address that you want to integrate with Gorgias. Microsoft's documentation on this setting can be found here: Configuring external email forwarding in Microsoft 365

Forwarding via inbox rules

Before you get started you will need:

• The password for your Outlook account
• Admin or Lead agent user permission in Gorgias

Steps

1. In Gorgias open the main menu.
2. Click Settings → Channels → Email.
3. Click 'Connect other email address'.
4. Enter your Address name and Email address.
5. Click 'Connect this email account'.
6. Copy your default Gorgias email.
7. Click here to open your Outlook inbox.
8. Sign into your Outlook account (if your haven't already).
9. Click Settings → View all Outlook settings.
10. Click 'Forwarding'.
11. Tick 'Enable forwarding'.
12. Paste your default Gorgias email into the email address field.
13. Tick 'Keep a copy of forwarded messages'.
14. Click 'Save'.
15. Navigate back to your Gorgias account and wait 30 seconds for the verification process to complete.
    1. If the page doesn't change, try refreshing your page.
    2. If needed click 'Re-send verification'. Once verification is complete the screen will now show email preferences.
16. Set up your email signature (optional).
17. Click 'Save changes'.

Your email in now connected

Forwarding via Automatic External Forwarding

Log in to your Office 365 Security & Compliance portal for Microsoft 365 and choose Threat management -> Policy -> Anti-spam.Note that the policies you see in your own admin may differ from those shown here, as these are only the default policies:

1. Click on 'Anti-spam outbound policy (Default)' and then click the 'Edit protection settings'link at the bottom of the sidebar as shown below:

   

2. Find the section called Forwarding Rules and the dropdown called Automatic Forwarding Rules. On the list choose On - Forwarding is enabled. Click 'Save'at the bottom:

   

To enable Automatic External Forwarding for Individual Mailboxes:

1. Log in to your Office 365 Security & Compliance portal for Microsoft 365 and choose Threat management -> Policy -> Anti-spam just like before.
2. Click 'Create policy' and choose 'Outbound'as shown below:

   

3. Give your new outbound spam filter policy a name and a description. Then click 'Next' and search to find the user account you want to allow to forward which will display under the Users field after you select it.
4. Click 'Next' again, scroll to the Forwarding rules section, and click the dropdown under Automatic forwarding rules. Choose 'On - Forwarding is enabled', then click 'Next'.
5. Review the settings on the last screen and click 'Create'. All set!

   

Outlook.com

Steps

1. Log in to outlook.com using your support email address
2. Click on the gear icon in the top right corner
3. Click 'Options'in the drop-down menu

   

4. On the left side of the screen, click 'Mail', then 'Accounts', then 'Forwarding'
5. Click on the 'Start forwarding' option and paste that {random long id}@emails.gorgias.com email address from Gorgias. You will see the exact email with the number id when you set up the integration in Gorgias and click on the 'Connect this email account' button

1. Click 'Save' and you're all done!

Outlook (alias)

An alias is an alternative email address that feeds into a primary inbox.

If you have one inbox with one address, and can only send/receive messages from that address it's most likely a standalone email. For this you can use email forwarding for Outlook.

If you have one inbox but can send and receive emails from multiple addresses, one or more of these are most likely to be an alias.

If you are using an alias and wish to integrate all emails to gorgias we recommend using the forwarding setting in Outlook. You will also need to setup 1 x integration in Gorgias for each address.

If you are using an alias and wish to only integrate one of these addresses, we recommend using the rules setting in Outlook. You will only need to create an integration for the email you wish to connect to Gorgias.

Before you get started you will need:

• The password for your Outlook account.
• Admin or Lead agent user permission in Gorgias.

Steps

1. In Gorgias open the main menu.
2. Click Settings → Channels → Email.
3. Click 'Connect other email address'.
4. Enter your Address name and Email address.
5. Click 'Connect this email account'.
6. Copy your default Gorgias email.
7. Click here to open your Outlook inbox.
8. Sign into your Outlook account (if your haven't already).
9. Click Settings → View all Outlook settings.
10. Click Rules → Add new rule.
11. Setup your rules parameters:
    1. Add a rule name.
    2. Add condition → 'To' → enter the email address you wish to integrate.
    3. Add action → 'Redirect to' → enter your Gorgias default email.
12. Click 'Save'.
13. Navigate back to your Gorgias account and wait 30 seconds for the verification process to complete.
    1. If the page doesn't change, try refreshing your page.
    2. If need be click 'Re-send verification'. Once verification is complete the screen will now show email preferences.
       
14. Setup your email signature (optional).
15. Click 'Save changes'.

Your email in now connected

Outlook (shared)

Before you start

If you are trying to integrate your Outlook email that is also a shared inbox, you would need to do some necessary steps prior to the integration.

Our integrations need to be secured with a password for them to be able to be integrated into Gorgias and Shared inboxes, when created, by default don't have a password. What you would need to do is set up a password to your shared inbox and once that is completed, the integration process should be good to go.

For you to set up a password, you would need to go to:

admin.microsoft.com → Users → Active Users → select the Shared Mailbox → Reset password.

After this, you can log in with the username/password. Of course, if you access it via portal.office.com you won't see Outlook but if you go directly to outlook.office365.com you will get access to the mailbox.

Once this has been done, you can go ahead and integrate your Outlook email address as per the standalone instructions above.

Exchange

If you are using Outlook through Microsoft Exchange there are 3 steps to integrating:

1. Set up the email integration in Gorgias.
2. Setup forwarding in Exchange.
3. Verify the forwarding loop.

Before you get started you will need:

• Access to your email provider settings
• Admin or Lead agent user permission in Gorgias

Steps

1. Setting up the integration in Gorgias.
   1. In Gorgias open the main menu.
   2. Click Settings → Channels → Email.
   3. Click 'Connect other email address'.
   4. Enter your Address name and Email address.
   5. Click 'Connect this email account'.
   6. Copy your default Gorgias email.
2. Setting up server-side forwarding with Exchange:
   1. Use the default Gorgias email from Step 1 as the forwarding recipient.
3. Verifying the forwarding loop:
   1. Open the main and go to Settings → Channels → Email.
4. Click to open the email integration you're working on.
5. Click 'Verify email forwarding'. Once verification is complete you will see the email integration settings page. Please note can take up to 30 seconds. Refresh the page if needed.
6. Set up your email signature (optional).
7. Click 'Save changes'.

Your email is now connected

Limitations

• When creating a new ticket from Gorgias using an Outlook email address, if you send multiple emails from Gorgias before the first response from the customer, those emails will not be grouped together in the same conversation in your Outlook inbox.
• When sending an email with more than 4MB of attachments, the email will be sent using our third-party provider for email service (Mailgun) instead of Outlook.
• Outlook Email addresses that have been integrated into Gorgias via forwarding, will not be able to import Spam emails into Gorgias as tickets.

For more information about Gmail and other email integrations please see our the FAQS section of our email integrations article.

Troubleshooting

Please refer to this guide for advice on how to troubleshoot your Outlook integration.

FAQs

What is the difference between Microsoft 365, Office 365, Exchange and Outlook?

Microsoft is the overarching company that owns and distributes all Microsoft products/services.

Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) is a suite of cloud products sold as a package. This encompasses email and calendar hosting, email client, etc..

Microsoft Exchange is a suite of on premise products sold as a package. This encompasses email and calendar hosting, email client, etc...

Outlook (provider) is a mail service sold as part of Microsoft 365, Microsoft Exchange or other package. All email provided by Microsoft will used the Outlook server.

Outlook (app) is also the name of a browser or desktop mail client used to access email

Outlook.com is a service Microsoft provides direct to consumers, which gives free email hosting (addresses will end in @outlook.com or @hotmail.com)

How does Microsoft provide email?

Microsoft distributes their email service in two ways:

1. as part of a package like Microsoft 365 (customizable domain eg. @gorgias.com)

2. as a standalone product direct to consumers (domain will always be @outlook.com or @hotmail.com)

This is accessed through either a browser-based mail client (Outlook) or desktop mail client (Outlook, Airmail, Apple Mail, etc...). Please note that all Microsoft email services will use the Outlook server.

I have a shared Outlook inbox. What should I do?

If you are trying to integrate your Outlook email that is also a shared inbox, you would need to do some necessary steps prior to the integration.

Our integrations need to be secured with a password for them to be able to be integrated into Gorgias and Shared inboxes, when created, by default don't have a password. What you would need to do is set up a password to your shared inbox and once that is completed, the integration process should be good to go.

For you to set up a password, you would need to go to:

admin.microsoft.com > Users > Active Users > select the Shared Mailbox > Reset password.

After this, you can log in with the username/password. Of course, if you access it via portal.office.com you won't see Outlook but if you go directly to outlook.office365.com you will get access to the mailbox.

Once this has been done, you can go ahead and integrate your Outlook email address via these instructions.

Why are the different integrations for Microsoft emails?

Here are the use cases for the direct integration vs email forwarding:

• Standalone address through Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) -> direct integration
• Shared address through Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) -> direct integration*

• Alias address through Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) -> email forwarding
• Standalone/alias/group address through any other Microsoft service (Outlook.com, Microsoft Family 365, etc...) -> email forwarding

Will email sent from Gorgias show in my sent items?

Every email sent and received in Gorgias will be synchronized with your Outlook inbox. So, you will always have a full backup of everything that was done in Gorgias with your email address.

Sometimes (very rarely) we will use our third-party provider for email service Mailgun to send some emails instead of Outlook. This can happen if, for example, there is an ongoing issue with Outlook and the email sending service there is not available / not working correctly. Those emails will not be synchronized in your Outlook inbox.

I'm getting a "Permission missing" error, what should I do?

Please make sure that you have Microsoft Admin permissions or please ask your Admin to follow these instructions. On Microsoft Azure, please make sure that you allow users of your organization to consent for apps from verified publishers:

1. Go to page Enterprise applications → Consent and permissions → Permission classifications
2. Click on "Add permissions"
3. Click on "Microsoft Graph"
4. Click on "Delegated permissions"
5. Under Open permissions select "offline_access"
6. Under User select "User.Read"
7. Under Mail select "Mail.ReadWrite" and "Mail.Send"
8. Click on "Add permissions" to save the changes
9. Go to page Enterprise applications → Consent and permissions → User consent settings
10. Under User consent for applications select option "Allow user consent for apps from verified publishers, for selected permissions (Recommended)"
11. Click on "Save"

Feel free to follow this video tutorial for more details as well:

Here is how the settings should look like when you are done:

If you still have some questions left unanswered, please feel free to message our Support Team anytime via email at [email protected] or via our live chat. We're here to talk!