Email Integration Setup

Connect your email to Support Station so customers can reach you via email and all conversations appear in your unified inbox.

How Email Integration Works

Support Station provides you with a forwarding email address
You configure your email provider to forward support emails to this address
Incoming emails create tickets in Support Station
You reply from Support Station and customers receive your response via email
Conversation threads are maintained automatically

Plan Requirements

Email integration is available on Starter plans and above. Custom support email domains require Pro or Enterprise.

Plan	Email Integration	Custom Support Email Domain
Free	✗	✗
Starter	✓	✗
Standard	✓	✗
Pro	✓	✓
Enterprise	✓	✓

Setting Up Email Integration

Step 1: Get Your Forwarding Address

Go to Integrations > Email
Find your unique forwarding address
Format: support+{your-org-id}@inbound.supportstation.io

This is the address you'll forward emails to.

Step 2: Configure Email Forwarding

Set up forwarding in your email provider. Here are common providers:

Gmail

Go to Gmail Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP
Click Add a forwarding address
Enter your Support Station forwarding address
Confirm the forwarding address
Choose to forward all mail or create a filter

Creating a filter:

Settings > Filters and Blocked Addresses
Create a new filter
Set condition (e.g., "To: support@yourcompany.com")
Choose Forward it to your Support Station address

Google Workspace (G Suite)

Go to admin.google.com
Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Routing
Add a routing rule to forward to your Support Station address
Apply to specific recipients (your support address)

Microsoft 365 / Outlook

Go to admin.microsoft.com
Exchange > Mail flow > Rules
Create a new rule
Forward messages sent to support@yourcompany.com
Forward to your Support Station address

Other Providers

Most email providers support forwarding. Look for:

"Forwarding" in email settings
"Mail forwarding" rules
"Email routing" configuration

Step 3: Configure Email Settings

In Support Station:

Go to Integrations > Email
Configure options:
- Auto-create customers - Automatically add new customer records for incoming emails
- Default tag - Optionally apply a tag to all email-sourced tickets
- AI Auto-Response - Enable to have AI automatically respond to incoming emails (requires AI credits)
- Parse forwarded emails - When a team member forwards a customer email to your inbound address, create the ticket for the customer instead of the member. On by default.
Save your settings

Use Your Own Support Email Domain

Custom support email domains are available only on Pro and Enterprise. An organization admin on either plan can set one subdomain for outgoing ticket emails and incoming replies. For example, enter support.yourcompany.com under Integrations > Support email domain.

Address	Purpose
`team@support.yourcompany.com`	The From address on ticket emails. Customers can also send new requests here.
`ticket+<ticket-id>@support.yourcompany.com`	The Reply-To address for one ticket. Customer replies return to that ticket.

Set Up the Subdomain

Use a dedicated subdomain that does not host your current mailboxes.
Enter the subdomain and select Save subdomain.
Add the TXT record shown in Support Station at your DNS host. This confirms that your organization controls the subdomain.
Select Check verification. Support Station will show the sending and receiving DNS records.
Add those records at your DNS host, including each MX record and its priority. Set the receiving MX record on the support subdomain, not on your main domain.
Select Check verification again. DNS changes can take time to appear. Repeat the check if verification is still pending.

Each DNS record shows Complete, Pending, or Needs attention, based on the latest check. Use Copy beside a record's name or value to copy the exact text. After you add or change records, select Check verification to update their status.

If verification does not finish, the result stays beside Check verification and names the records that still need a check. It gives a next step for ownership checks, DNS records, or a delay from the email provider.

Support Station uses the custom addresses only after both sending and receiving pass verification. Until then, ticket emails use the default Support Station addresses. A successful check also enables incoming email for your organization. Keep all DNS records in place while you use the subdomain.

Add Records with Cloudflare

If Add to Cloudflare appears after you save the subdomain, you can use it to add the DNS records.

Select Add to Cloudflare.
Sign in to Cloudflare and approve access to the zone that contains your support subdomain.
Keep the setup page open while Support Station adds the records.
Return to email setup. If verification is pending, wait a few minutes and select Check verification.

Setup adds the ownership, sending, and receiving records. It skips matching records and stops if a record conflicts. It does not replace existing records. If setup stops, any records already added remain in Cloudflare. Review the error before you try again. You can always use the manual steps above, including when the button does not appear or you use another DNS host.

Change or Remove the Subdomain

Select Use default sender to use the standard Support Station addresses for new ticket emails. You can also save a different support subdomain and complete its verification.

Replies to previously verified ticket addresses can still reach their tickets while the old receiving DNS records remain in place. Saved replies keep their original From and Reply-To addresses when you retry them. Changing this setting affects only your organization.

If your organization loses Pro or Enterprise access, new outgoing messages use the default addresses. The custom team inbox stops accepting new requests. Replies to existing ticket addresses still reach their tickets, and saved reply retries keep their original addresses. You can remove the saved domain on any plan.

Email Aliases

Create additional email addresses that route to specific teams. Perfect for:

Department-specific inboxes (billing@, sales@, support@)
Product-specific support (productA@, productB@)
Regional support teams

Creating an Email Alias

Go to Integrations > Email
Click Add Email Address
Enter a name for the alias (e.g., "billing", "sales")
Select the team to route emails to
Optionally enable AI Auto-Response for this alias
Click Create

Each alias gets its own forwarding address. Set up forwarding from your email provider to route specific addresses to specific teams.

AI Auto-Response for Email

When enabled, the AI automatically responds to incoming emails using your knowledge base content. This provides instant answers to customers 24/7.

How It Works

Customer sends an email to your support address
Email creates a ticket in Support Station
AI searches your knowledge base for relevant content
If a helpful answer is found, AI sends an automated response
Customer receives the AI response with:
- A helpful answer based on your documentation
- Links to related knowledge base articles
- Relevant images from your articles (if applicable)
- Feedback buttons to indicate if the answer helped

AI Response Feedback

Each AI email includes a feedback section asking "Did this answer resolve your issue?" with two buttons:

Yes, it helped! - Marks the ticket as Resolved and creates an internal note
No, I need more help - Creates an internal note alerting your team to follow up

This feedback helps:

Automatically close resolved tickets
Alert your team when human follow-up is needed
Track AI response effectiveness

Feedback links expire after 7 days for security.

When AI Responds vs. Escalates

The AI will send an automated response when:

Your knowledge base contains relevant information
The question has a clear, helpful answer
The email isn't from a no-reply address

The AI will NOT respond (leaving the ticket for your team) when:

No relevant content exists in your knowledge base
The email is a bug report, account issue, or billing question
The question is unclear or too complex
The AI isn't confident in providing a good answer

When the AI doesn't respond, it creates an internal note summarizing what the customer is asking about.

Images in AI Responses

The AI can include relevant images from your knowledge base articles directly in email responses. When your documentation contains screenshots or diagrams that help illustrate the answer, the AI will embed them inline in the email.

To get the best results:

Add descriptive alt text to images in your articles
Use captions to describe what images show
Include screenshots of UI elements you reference

Enabling AI Auto-Response

For the default email address:

Go to Integrations > Email
Find the AI Auto-Response toggle in the table
Toggle it on

For email aliases:

Go to Integrations > Email
Find the alias in the Email Addresses table
Click the AI Auto-Response toggle for that alias

Requirements:

AI credits must be available (Starter plan and above)
Knowledge base content must exist for AI to reference

Step 4: Test the Integration

Send a test email to your support address
Wait a few moments for forwarding to process
Verify the ticket appears in Support Station
Reply to the ticket
Confirm the customer receives your email response

How Email Tickets Work

Incoming Emails

When someone emails your support address:

Your email provider forwards the email to Support Station
Ticket created - Email becomes a new ticket
Customer created - Sender is added to customers (if new)
Subject mapped - Email subject becomes ticket subject
Body captured - Email content becomes first message
Attachments saved - Files are attached to the ticket

Email Threading

Replies to existing tickets are automatically threaded:

Customer replies to your email → Added to existing ticket
You reply from Support Station → Sent to customer via email
Thread headers maintain conversation continuity

Two emails with the same subject, such as "Question", do not form a thread. A reply must identify a ticket through its reply address, email thread headers, or ticket number. If those details are missing, Support Station creates a new ticket.

The sender must be the ticket's customer, an active CC recipient, or a member of your organization. An unrelated sender gets a separate ticket under their own customer record, subject to your email channel settings and ticket limit. The separate ticket does not inherit the original ticket's CC recipients or follow-up link.

Responding to Email Tickets

Reply to email tickets like any other ticket in Support Station:

Open the ticket
Type your response
Click Send
Check the send status on the saved reply

The ticket moves from Open to Pending, and its first-response time is recorded, after the email provider accepts the reply. Provider acceptance does not confirm delivery to the customer's mailbox.

If sending fails or cannot be confirmed, your reply stays saved. Its status shows the problem. Click Retry email on that reply to try again without creating another message. The retry uses the original recipients, text, and attachments. Failed replies are excluded from the email conversation history.

Retries are available for 23 hours after the first attempt. After that period, check the email in Resend before sending a new reply. Email to a no-reply address is skipped and marked as such.

Repeated delivery of the same incoming email creates one ticket message. A temporary fetch, storage, or database failure is returned to the email provider for retry. Blocked senders, disabled channels, and other intentional skips keep their existing behavior.

Forwarding emails from your own inbox

Sometimes a customer emails you directly instead of your support address. Forward it into Support Station, and the ticket goes to the customer, not to you.

What Happens

Forward a customer's email to your inbound address. Support Station creates the ticket for the customer, not for you.

The subject loses its Fwd: prefix.
The first message holds only the customer's original text.

Who Can Forward

Only members of your organization can do this. You must forward from your verified Support Station account email address.

A forward from any other address does not trigger this behavior. It creates an ordinary ticket from that address instead.

This rule exists for a reason. Without it, anyone who learns your inbound address could open tickets that look like they came from your customers.

Adding a Note

Anything you type above the forwarded message becomes an internal note on the ticket. The note is credited to you. Only your team sees it.

What the Customer Sees

The customer sees nothing about the forward. Your reply reaches them the normal way.

The activity timeline records who forwarded the email in. This entry is visible to your team only.

Supported Email Clients

Support Station handles forwards from these clients directly:

Gmail
Outlook
Apple Mail
Superhuman

Most other clients work too. If your client is not supported, Support Station creates the ticket for you instead of the customer. You can then change the customer on the ticket.

Turning It Off

The Parse forwarded emails setting controls this behavior. It is on by default.

To turn it off:

Go to Integrations > Email
Find Parse forwarded emails
Toggle it off

When off, a forwarded email creates a ticket for you, the forwarder, as before.

Email Channel Configuration

Auto-Create Customers

When enabled, incoming emails from new senders automatically create customer records. When disabled, you'll need to manually create customer records.

Default Tags

Apply a specific tag to all email-sourced tickets. Useful for:

Routing all email tickets to a specific team
Filtering tickets by source channel
Tracking email vs. other channels

Email Blocklist

Block spam or unwanted senders:

Go to Integrations > Email > Blocklist
Add email addresses or domains to block
Emails from blocked addresses won't create tickets

Parse Forwarded Emails

When enabled, a ticket forwarded by a team member is created for the original customer, not for the forwarder. When disabled, a forwarded email creates a ticket for the team member instead, like any other sender.

This setting is on by default.

Best Practices

Use a Dedicated Support Address

Set up a specific address for support:

Avoid using personal email addresses for support.

Monitor Your Forwarding

Periodically check that forwarding is working:

Send test emails
Verify they create tickets
Check that no emails are being dropped

Watch for Spam

Occasionally check your email spam folder for legitimate support emails that might have been caught by spam filters before forwarding.

Troubleshooting

Emails Not Creating Tickets

Check:

Forwarding is configured correctly in your email provider
Email is being sent to your support address
Forwarding address is correct (check for typos)
Email isn't being blocked by your provider's spam filter
Sender isn't on your blocklist

Test:

Send email directly to your Support Station forwarding address
If this works, the issue is with your email provider's forwarding

Replies Not Delivering