Overview

You can use your own support emails with your company domains in communicating with your customers and tie it up with any of your brands. But before Kayako can start sending and receiving emails from external domains or email addresses, you need to set your email server (e.g., Office 365, Outlook.com, Microsoft Exchange Server, cPanel, Gmail, or Yahoo) to forward messages to Kayako. Once the forwarding is set up, you can start adding the address as a new channel in your Kayako. 

Prerequisites

To set up forwarding from external domains or email addresses, you need administrator privileges or access to the external domain or email address you want to configure.

We strongly recommend you set up SPF and DKIM protection for the address if you will be sending emails from an external domain or email address. This will keep your emails from getting caught in your customers' spam filters.

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Solution

The support email address provided by Kayako follows the formatsupport@[yourcompany].kayako.com. Kayako offers customers the option to spin up more email addresses that follow the domain @[yourcompany].kayako.com – e.g., billingsupport@[yourcompany].kayako.com. However, some customers prefer to use their existing support emails with their company domains – e.g., support@[yourcompany].com. Kayako can handle this too by setting up the email forwarding from the email host directly.

Before we proceed with setting up your email forwarding, as mentioned above, you need to set up the email forwarding directly from your email host, rather than using an automation rule in an email client like Outlook, Airmail, Thunderbird, etc. Any emails forwarded by a rule will be flagged as an automated message and suspended by Kayako's spam filters.

NOTE: If you are intending to use an external email address as the email channel for a specific brand, you need to associate that email address with the intended brand. If you forget to do this, you will not be able to send public replies to conversations that belong to that brand;  you will only be able to post internal or private notes.

Setting Up Forwarding in Office 365, Outlook.com, or Microsoft Exchange Server 

If your team uses Office 365, Outlook.com, or Microsoft Exchange Server, you need to set up forwarding for any email addresses from the Outlook Web App:

1. Log in to your account's Outlook Web App.

   NOTE: If your address is at @outlook.com, @hotmail.com, @live.com, or @msn.com., you can log in to your Outlook Live account. If your address is at a custom domain, you'll need to sign in to your company's webmail, e.g., https://mail.[yourcompany].com.

2. Sign in to the email account you want to forward. 

3. Click the gear icon and click the Options link.

   

4. From the sidebar, under the Accounts heading, click Forwarding.

5. Select the Start Forwarding radio button.

6. In the text box, enter your default Kayako support address: support@[yourcompany].kayako.com

7. If you want to keep a copy of all your messages in your Microsoft account, check the Keep a copy of forwarded messages box. 

8. Click the Save button to start forwarding your messages.

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Setting Up Forwarding in cPanel 

Many web hosts use cPanel for their administrative backend. If that is true for your domain, you need to use cPanel's forwarding feature to forward incoming messages.

To set up forwarding from cPanel:

1. Navigate to your domain host's cPanel login.

2. Log in with an administrator account.

3. Type Forwarders into the search bar, and go to the Forwarders page.

4. Click the Add Forwarder button.

5. In the Address to Forward text box, enter the first part of the email address you want to forward. For example, sales.

   

6. In the Domain text box, select the domain for the address. 

7. Under the Destination heading, select Forward to Email Address. 

8. In the text box, enter your default Kayako support address: support@[yourcompany].kayako.com.

9. Click the Add Forwarder button to start forwarding your messages.

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Setting Up Forwarding Gmail

If your emails come into a Gmail account, you can set it up to forward right from your inbox. You will also need to verify the account so that Gmail knows you are legit. 

To set up forwarding from Gmail: 

1. Log into the Gmail inbox for the address you want to forward.

2. Click the gear icon and click the Settings link.

   

3. Click Forwarding and POP/IMAP in the toolbar. 

4. Click the Add a forwarding address button.

5. In the text box, enter your default Kayako support address: support@[yourcompany].kayako.com.

6. Click the Next button.

7. In the confirmation window, click the Proceed button. 

8. A pop-up window will appear, telling you that a verification email has been sent to your default Kayako account. Click the OK button. 

9. Switch over to the Kayako agent area. 

10. In the Inbox, you should have a verification email from the Gmail Team.

11. Open the message, find the confirmation code, and copy it.

12. Switch back to the forwarding tab in Gmail. 

13. Paste the code into the Confirmation Code text box:

    

14. Click the Verify button.

15. By default, forwarding will be disabled. Select Forward a copy of incoming mail to support@domain.kayako.com and choose what you'd like Gmail to do with the forwarded messages.

16. Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the screen to start forwarding your messages.

    NOTE: You will see a notification banner in your inbox reminding you that you have set the account to forward. The banner will disappear in a week.

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Setting Up Forwarding in Yahoo

If your support team handles customer emails from a Yahoo account, you can set it up to forward from their inbox settings. Just like Gmail, you will also need to verify the account, so Yahoo knows it is forwarding to the right place. 

To set up forwarding from Yahoo: 

1. Log into the Yahoo inbox for the address you want to forward.

2. Click the gear icon and click the Settings link.

   

3. Click Accounts in the sidebar.

4. Click on your Yahoo account to open it. It should be at the top of the list.

5. Scroll down to the Access your Yahoo Mail elsewhere heading.

6. Click the Forward checkbox.

7. In the text box, enter your default Kayako support address: support@[yourcompany].kayako.com.

8. Click the Verify button.

9. A pop-up window will appear, telling you that a verification email has been sent to your default Kayako account. Close the window. 

10. Switch over to the Kayako agent area. 

11. Go to the Suspended Messages view.

    NOTE: Yahoo's verification messages come from a 'no-reply' address, so they will be caught by Kayako's spam filters.

12. You should see a message from no-reply@cc.yahoo-inc.com.

13. Open the message, and click Allow Through.

14. Switch back to the Inbox and open the message.

15. Click the verification link in the email. 

16. It will take back to Yahoo, where you can click a big Verify button.

17. On the next screen, hit the Return to account settings button.

18. You're all set. Any messages coming into your Yahoo account will now be forwarded. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: Again, once the forwarding is set up, you can start adding the address as a new channel in your Kayako. You will not receive the emails from these external email addresses or domains as new conversations in the agent panel until you add it to Kayako.

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Testing

Once you have completed the forwarding setup and has added the email address to Kayako, try sending a test email to the email address you configured for forwarding (ex:support@[yourcompany].kayako.com) and you should be able to receive this test email in Kayako. The new email will automatically be converted as a new conversation in the agent area.

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