How to Map Support Email Addresses to Specific Ticket Categories
Mapping email addresses into categories involves configuring your ticketing system or email client to automatically categorize incoming emails based on the support email address. This ensures that emails are routed to the appropriate category for efficient processing. This guide focuses on an organization with two categories: internal requests and customer/client requests.
Prerequisites
- Ticket categories already exist in BoldDesk (for example, Internal Request and Customer/Client Request).
- Dedicated inbound support email addresses exist for each category you want to map.
- A support email address is being configured in BoldDesk. For the support email setup flow, learn How to Configure Default and Custom Support Email Addresses in BoldDesk.
When to Use Email-to-Category Mapping
Use email-to-category mapping when an organization maintains dedicated inbound mailboxes for different audiences, for example:
[email protected]for internal employees[email protected]for external customers/clients
When BoldDesk receives an email in one of these mailboxes, BoldDesk creates a ticket and sets the ticket Category based on the mapped mailbox.
To implement this, you need to configure your ticketing system to recognize different categories of support requests. Here’s how you can set up two primary categories. Explore How to Configure and Manage the Category Field in BoldDesk Tickets.
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Internal Request: For requests originating from within your organization.
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Customer/client Request: For requests coming from external clients or customers.
Mapping Support Email Addresses to Categories
While configuring a new support email address, you can specify the category based on the email address. To learn more about how to configure support email, refer to this How to Configure Default and Custom Support Email Addresses in BoldDesk.
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Internal support email: Any email sent to the internal support email address (e.g.,
[email protected]) is automatically mapped to the ‘internal request’ category in the tickets. -
Customer/Client support email: Similarly, any email sent to the client support email address (e.g.,
[email protected]) is automatically mapped to the ‘customer request’ category in the tickets.
Here, the internal support email is configured to the internal request category. When a user within the organization sends an email to this support email, the ticket raised in the portal is automatically mapped to the internal request category.
Category-to-email address mapping is applicable only when creating tickets from emails. The assigned category and originating email address are established at the initial ticket creation from an incoming email and do not change with any further replies or updates to that ticket. For tickets generated through the portal, this mapping is not applied automatically. Instead, the category must be chosen manually during ticket creation.
Please watch this video tutorial for further information.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Do I need separate email addresses to map different categories?
Yes. Email category mapping is based on the support email address that receives the message. Each category typically uses a dedicated mailbox (for example, one internal mailbox and one client-facing mailbox).
2. Where is the category selected during setup?
The category is selected while configuring a new support email address in BoldDesk. Explore How to Configure Default and Custom Support Email Addresses in BoldDesk for the configuration flow.
3. What happens when an internal user emails the internal support mailbox?
BoldDesk creates a ticket and automatically assigns the mapped category (for example, Internal Request) when the email is sent to the internal support email address (for example, [email protected]).
4. What happens when a customer emails the client support mailbox?
BoldDesk creates a ticket and automatically assigns the mapped category (for example, Customer/Client Request) when the email is sent to the client support email address (for example, [email protected]).
5. Can I use this approach for more than two categories?
Yes. Add additional categories and configure additional support email addresses, then map each mailbox to the appropriate category during support email configuration.
6. Does this mapping require changes in the sender’s email client?
No. The mapping is performed in BoldDesk based on the receiving support mailbox address.
