Gmail – How to Convert Email ID into Mailing List

gmailgoogle-appsgoogle-apps-emailmailing-list

I have an email ID for "Support" which is wide spread. I would now like to convert the same email ID into a mailing list so that a set of people would act as operators and start serving the support request.

I have googled enough with not much luck. Would like to know if such a thing is possible.

The email ID currently for support is: support@indiansnakes.org

It is hosted in a shared hosting environment which has a Cpanel. We have integrated google apps for this account as well.

Note: Migrated this question from serverfault: https://serverfault.com/questions/584938/convert-an-email-id-into-mailing-list?noredirect=1#comment686720_584938

Best Answer

I'm assuming what you want is for everyone on your support team to receive a copy of any email sent to the support email address?

This can be achieved easily enough by setting up filters or forwarding addresses. Setting a forwarding address will send all emails received by the support email to the specified destination addresses. Filtering might be a better option because it allows you to send emails with specific topics to the correct person. For example, if an email contains the word "iPad" a filter could send the email to your iOS support technician.

To forward all emails to another email address:

  1. Log into the support account
  2. Open Settings
  3. Click the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab
  4. Click the "Add a forwarding address" button
  5. Add the email address you would like to forward to
  6. Repeat for all support personnel

This would forward all emails received to everyone you specify.

If you would like to forward specific emails to the corresponding support employees:

  1. Log into the support account and open settings
  2. Click the "Filters" tab
  3. Click the "Create a new filter" link on the bottom of the page
  4. Specify the filter text. For example, if you wanted to forward iOS related emails, search for iPad or iPhone in the "has the words" textbox.
  5. Click the "Create filter with this search" link to see if this filter applies to any of the emails.
  6. You can configure the functionality for emails that match this filter as you like, but you will need to check the "Forward it" checkbox. If you haven't added a forwarding email address yet you will have to click the "Add forwarding address" link first.

Providing support in this way does have some drawbacks. How does one technician know whether or not another tech has already started working on an issue, for example. How is follow up handled? How do you know how many issues your team is solving a year?

Depending on the size of your team and/or organization, it might be worth looking into a helpdesk support solution. A real solution can be very useful because of the reporting capabilities. For example, maybe you see that your team is spending far to much time assisting people with Microsoft office and you would have the numbers to back up your suggestion to increase training in that area.

Update

Another option would be to create a google group named "Support". You could then add each support person's account to the group and any time support@indiansnakes.org gets an email it is sent to the group. You will also be able to set up one or more alias that will also forward to the group. The capabilities are limited based on whether or not you have a business or education account.

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