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Connect your Gmail address to Kustomer

Last Update: Sep 2024 • Est. Read Time: 4 MIN
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You can directly connect your Gmail email account(s) to your Kustomer instance. Connecting a Gmail mailbox will automatically forward all messages to your Kustomer instance, allowing users to send and receive messages from those email addresses within Kustomer. If your business has multiple Gmail addresses, you’ll need to individually authorize each email address you want to use within Kustomer.

Who can access this feature?
User typesAdmins can access Gmail settings.


In this article

Prerequisites

You must have an active Google Business email account and decide which Gmail inbox to integrate with. This integration does not support Google Groups or aliases.

Add a Gmail address

Before performing these steps, you must be logged into the Gmail email account you want to add to Kustomer. This will prevent the incorrect email address from being used.

To add an email address:

  1. Go to AppsEmail.
  2. Select Add Email Address and go to Gmail.
  3. Select Continue.
  4. Sign in with Google to proceed with the configuration. A Google Authentication window will open and display the Gmail accounts you're currently logged into. You'll need to authorize Kustomer to send and receive email on your behalf.  
  5. Select the Gmail account you wish to connect to Kustomer and select Allow.

    Note: A Gmail account can only be authorized in one Kustomer instance so ensure you do not have it connected to another instance, such as a sandbox. 

  6. Enter the display name for your Gmail address. Agents see this name when they select which email address to reply to messages from or when they create a new outbound message.
  7. Select an email template to use with this address. By default, email messages sent from Kustomer will be in a blank HTML template with no branding or colors. If you have created a custom branded template, you'll want to select it here so all your outbound messages from the selected email address use it. 
  8. Optionally, you can turn on Dynamic Alias Name to have sent messages come from the individual agent's name instead of the default email display name. For example, if you turn this setting on, the reply will be from John@acme.com, notsupport@acme.com
  9. Select Save Changes.

Your connected email address is now listed on the Email page.

Notes: 

  • Connecting your email accounts will not automatically download existing email messages.
  • Read receipts are not supported on the Gmail integration.

Specify email threading

You can choose how threading replies are managed for conversations sent via your Gmail address. You can select the email conversation history style that best suits your business needs. By default, replying to an email will only include the contents of that reply in your email. If preferred, you can also include the previous conversation history in your replies.

The following options are available in the Add threading to email section:

  • Single message replies will send only the current reply when responding to an email.
    • This may be useful if your customers usually contact you multiple times in succession, but tend to have different and unrelated questions each time they reply.
    • Or, if you exchange a large number of messages with users while resolving their concerns, and the full history is not important to newer messages.
  • Include history in replies will include all previous emails in the current conversation thread. 
    • For example, a customer would see their earlier message and remember their initial question about when a package would arrive, avoiding any confusion when you send the tracking link.
    • This also might be useful in troubleshooting contexts where your team has to work back and forth to collect information from a customer.

Deauthorizing an email address

There are two ways to deauthorize an email address from sending and receiving messages within your Kustomer instance. 

Notes: 

  • This won't delete existing messages.
  • To reactivate an email address, restart the authorization process from the beginning.
  • From the Email page in Kustomer, select Delete for the email address you want to remove.
  • You can also deauthorize Kustomer from directly within Gmail by navigating to your Account Settings, selecting Security, and selecting Third-party apps with account access.

    Google may, at any point, automatically deauthorize Third Parties from accessing your data for security reasons. This may be done in the event they detect a security breach or unauthorized access. In the event this happens or an email address is manually deauthorized, the Kustomer interface will display a disconnected flag next to the email address.

If any of your Gmail email accounts show as Disconnected, select Add Email Address and then select Gmail. From there, you can reauthorize Kustomer in Gmail to reconnect the address.

Content management

Any message redactions or deletions within your Kustomer instance will not be pushed to your Gmail account. You will need to ensure that you also go into that account directly to do so. You will also need to log directly into your email account to manage spam blocking and authorizing domains.

Note: Sending bulk messages in your Kustomer instance through Gmail may temporarily or permanently block your email address and effectively stop any sending or receiving. Google controls this based on spam, abuse, and customer complaints, and it may also be triggered by volume. Please consult Google Documentation before sending a bulk message to your customers.

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