Email workflows in Intercom let you automate how emails are processed, tagged, and assigned. By setting clear rules and actions, you can reduce manual work, improve response times, and ensure the right teammate or inbox handles each message.
With workflows, you can:
Route emails to specific teammates or inboxes.
Auto-tag conversations based on sender, subject, or content.
Filter or close irrelevant emails such as marketing threads or automated replies.
Handle specific senders or domains with precision (e.g.,
noreply@orsupport@addresses).
Setting up email automation workflows
1. Automate tagging for incoming conversations
Automatically tagging conversations helps categorize and track emails faster.
To create a tagging workflow:
Go to Fin AI Agent > Workflows.
Open your workflow and set the trigger to When customer sends any message.
Add the condition Email is and specify sender addresses or domains.
Add an Apply tag action to categorize those emails automatically.
Tip: Keep tagging workflows simple. Avoid combining tagging rules with complex routing or branching logic. Use a dedicated tagging workflow for clarity and easy maintenance.
2. Filter and handle forwarded emails
If your team forwards emails from an external client like Gmail or Outlook:
Disable general auto-forwarding to prevent unnecessary messages from entering Intercom.
Set specific filters in your external email client to forward only actionable emails.
In your workflow, use conditions like Email from or Email subject contains to exclude unwanted senders (e.g.,
noreply@).
Tip: Excluding non-actionable senders helps prevent teammates or Fin from responding to automated messages.
Routing and assignment rules
1. Route emails to the correct inbox
Workflows can automatically route messages based on recipient address, subject, or content.
To set up routing:
Add conditions like Email recipient or Email domain to identify which inbox the email should go to.
Use Message content contains to detect keywords such as “priority” or “urgent.”
Define routing actions:
If the email contains “priority,” route it to your High-priority inbox.
Otherwise, send it to your Default inbox for standard handling.
Pro tip: Combine content-based and domain-based conditions to fine-tune routing for different teams or product lines.
2. Assign specific senders or domains to teams
To direct certain companies or partners to dedicated teams:
Use Email domain contains [companyname.com] to identify incoming messages.
Set the workflow action to Assign to team or Assign to teammate.
Use Email to filters to ensure the workflow only applies to messages sent to target addresses (and not sent by them).
Advanced configuration and troubleshooting
Forwarding high-priority emails
If critical systems send alerts (e.g., from info@vip-support.com):
Set up forwarding rules in your external email provider.
Verify that the forwarded messages are compatible with Intercom (plain text or supported formats).
Test that the workflow correctly routes or tags these messages once received.
Preventing workflow misfires
If your email workflows don’t behave as expected:
Confirm the workflow includes recipient-specific filters such as Email to or Email recipient.
Check for overlapping workflows that may route or tag the same conversation multiple times.
Simplify conditions and use “starts with” or exact match operators for stable targeting.
Best practices for managing email workflows
Keep workflows modular: Use separate workflows for tagging, routing, and filtering.
Review regularly: Update workflows as team structures, inboxes, or domains change.
Avoid duplication: Ensure multiple workflows don’t act on the same trigger.
Test before publishing: Send test emails to confirm routing and tagging accuracy.
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