Do you use G Suite to power your organization’s email? Have you ever needed to set up a general email box like info@yourcompany.com or support@yourcompany.com for you and/or several colleagues or more to share and help respond to general communications that are not specific to a person? If the answer is yes, then rest assured this is a very common scenario. If you’re already using or considering G Suite, then this post is for you!

Problem:

I needed to configure my agency’s G Suite powered email to have a shared inbox for our general help and support email address. In this case we needed a single email address set up that myself and 3 other colleages can monitor and help respond to customers needing general help and/or support. Our company email address for general inquiries, questions, help, and/or support is help@hale.group. We have a total of 4 staff members that would help respond to the incoming emails.  

Solution:

G Suite to the rescue! Simply use a Google Group as shared inbox. It’s a fairly simple concept. You only need to set up a group in your Google G Suite admin dashboard and assign the group an email address and then add colleagues within your G Suite account’s organization as members of the group. Once set up correctly, the members of the group will then be able to receive and repond to emails sent to the group’s email address and they will be able to do that within their own normal inboxes. In my case, our group’s email address is help@hale.group and the members of the group are myself and 3 colleagues (users) within my G Suite account’s organization (hale.group). Each colleague user has their own email inbox within our organization @hale.group.

How To DIY:

It’s fairly easy and intuative to set up but it’s also easy to miss the most important step and it’s really frustrating if you don’t know this part. Use the steps below to do it yourself. 

1. Sign into your G Suite account’s admin consule at https://admin.google.com and from the main consule, click into the ‘Groups’ feature.
2. Click ‘Create Group’ and then assign the group a name and give it a meaningful email address. For example info@yourcompany.com, support@yourcompany.com, help@yourcompany.com, etc. Also assign an owner of the group which is usually yourself. Click ‘Next’.
3. Configure the settings for the group. This part is very important. Make sure you check the box for ‘External’ under publish posts otherwise your group email address will only be able to receive email from people within your own organization. 
4. Add members to the new group. The members are the other users within your organization that will receive and help respond to incoming emails. 

How to Have it Done for You

If you’d prefer to have your organization’s G Suite account professionally managed while you focus on your actual business mission instead of the technical details of your organization’s communication needs, then simply reach out to us using the form at the bottom of this post or visit our agency’s website at https://hale.group.

About the Author

Dusty Hale
I'm a professional photographer and website solutions consultant living in beautiful Tamarindo, Costa Rica for over a decade. It is my joy and pleasure to serve others using my creative and technical skills in the digital industry.