Turn Gmail into a ticketing system without turning support into a spreadsheet.

FOUNDATION

Define the support promise before configuring the inbox

Decide which mailbox is customer-facing, who can connect it, what counts as a new ticket, whether acknowledgements should be sent, and how long resolved records are retained. Customers should continue emailing the same address; the change belongs behind the mailbox.

WORKFLOW

Build the smallest reliable operating loop

Connect with OAuth, use the channel connection time as the import boundary, create one ticket per new request, preserve the Google message identifiers, assign an owner, and send replies through the connected Gmail account with standard thread headers. Mark processed source mail so background jobs scan less work.

PITFALLS

Test the edge cases that break team trust

Do not import the entire historical mailbox, do not share the Google password with agents, do not treat an acknowledgement sent by your own account as a new inbound request, and do not permanently delete a ticket without retaining enough source identity to prevent recreation.

CHECKLIST

Validate the customer and agent experience together

Send a new request from an external address, verify ticket creation and acknowledgement, assign it, open it from two agent accounts, add a private note, change recipients, paste an image, attach a file, reply, answer from the customer mailbox, resolve the ticket, delete a disposable test, and confirm a later sync does not recreate it. Record the expected owner and outcome for every step.