Setup Email to Case in Salesforce

Service teams today handle inquiries across multiple channels like phone, chat, social media, and
of course, email. While email is still one of the most common ways customers reach out, managing a shared inbox can quickly become messy. Messages get buried, cases slip through the cracks, and tracking performance becomes difficult.

That’s where Salesforce Email-to-Case comes in.

What is Salesforce Email-to-Case

Email-to-Case is a Service Cloud automation feature that takes emails sent to your service
address and automatically creates a Case record in Salesforce.

Think of it as a bridge between your email inbox (Gmail, Outlook etc) and
Salesforce Cases, ensuring that no request is ever missed.

Instead of team members manually converting emails into tickets, Salesforce does it for you.
This means every incoming email is instantly logged, tracked, and routed to the right place.

How It Works

1. A customer sends an email to eg : contact@salesforcehours.com.
2. The email is routed to Salesforce (through a special Salesforce-generated address).
3. Salesforce automatically:
   • Creates a new Case record.
   • Stores the email content in the case description.
   • Attaches any files the customer sent.
   • Routes the case to the right queue or agent using assignment rules.
   • Sends an auto-response back to the customer, acknowledging their request

From there, agents can reply directly from Salesforce, and all future customer responses are
threaded into the same case.

Why Use Email-to-Case?

• Efficiency: Automates case creation and routing.
• Organization: Centralizes all support emails in Salesforce.
• Customer Experience: Provides immediate acknowledgement via auto-response rules.
• Accountability: Tracks response times and SLA compliance.
• Scalability: Works whether you have one support agent or a global support team

Prerequisites for Setting Up Email-to-Case

1. You need Salesforce Administrator access or Customize Application user permission to enable and configure Email-to-Case.
2. A verified email address that customers or users will send requests to (e.g.contact@salesforcehours.com).
   This email must be accessible so that Salesforce can send a verification link during the routing address setup.

Steps to setup Email to Case

• Navigate to Setup in Salesforce.
• In the Quick Find box, search for “Email to Case” and select it.
• Click the “Enable Email to Case” checkbox.

• Create a new Email-to-Case routing address by clicking “New Routing Address”.

• Provide all required fields and configure verification email and case settings.
• Then click on Save.
• Once done then, Salesforce will send you one email to your Email Address to verify the email ID.

• Salesforce.com will automatically create the email id like below for you
  

Setting Up Routing/Forwarding Rules

Now that Email-to-Case is enabled in Salesforce, the next step is to configure email forwarding in your email system (Outlook, Gmail, or your provider). This ensures that all messages sent to your support inbox are automatically redirected to the Salesforce-generated service address.

For this demo, we’ll use Gmail as an example.

How to Configure Email Forwarding in Gmail

1. Login to Gmail

• Sign in to the Gmail account you are using.

2. Open Settings

• Click on the gear icon (⚙) in the top-right corner.
• Select See all settings.

3. Navigate to Forwarding and POP/IMAP

• Go to the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.

4. Add a Forwarding Address

• Click the “Add a forwarding address” button.

• Enter the Salesforce service address that was auto-generated when you created your routing address in Salesforce.

5. Verify the Forwarding Address
After adding the Salesforce-generated Email-to-Case address in Gmail, you’ll see a confirmation screen. Gmail sends a verification code to the forwarding address (your Salesforce service email).

Here’s what happens next:

1. Salesforce Creates a Case Automatically
   • When the verification email is delivered, Salesforce treats it like any other incoming message.
   • A new Case is created in Salesforce containing the Gmail verification email.

2. Get the Verification Code from Salesforce

• Open the newly created Case in Salesforce.
• Copy the confirmation code included in the Gmail verification email.○
• This is proof that your Email-to-Case setup is working correctly!

3. Enter the Code in Gmail

• Go back to Gmail → Settings → Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
• Paste the confirmation code into the box and click Verify.

4. Finalise Forwarding Settings

• Under Forwarding, select:
  Forward a copy of incoming mail to your Salesforce Email-to-Case address.
• Choose whether Gmail keeps, archives, or deletes its copy.
• Click Save Changes.

Testing Email-to-Case

With everything set up, it’s time to put your configuration to the test.

• From any email account, generate email to your support email address (that you have used in you email-to-case)
• Include a subject line and some text in the body — this will help you recognize the test case later
• Log in to Salesforce and navigate to the Cases tab.
• Look for a new case record automatically created from your test email.
• The subject line of your email should appear as the Case Subject, and the body should appear in the Case Description.

Email-to-Case Limitation and Considerations

Long Emails → Email-to-Case shortens headers and body to 32,000 characters (can be increased to 131,000 on request).

Auto-Response Emails → Inbound auto-responses from Salesforce are not attached to cases.

Summary

Email-to-Case in Salesforce allows you to streamline and manage customer email inquiries more effectively. Whenever a customer sends an email to your designated support address, Salesforce automatically generates a case and populates the relevant fields. Post a comment if you face any error during setup of this process.

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