Ticket Merger

The Zendesk SPF Record and DKIM, Set Up Right

A Zendesk SPF record is the least interesting configuration in your helpdesk, and the one that decides whether your replies are read or filed as spam.

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The three records, starting with the Zendesk SPF record

SPF says which servers may send mail for your domain. Zendesk publishes an include you'll add to your existing record. You get one SPF record per domain, so add the include. Don't create a second record.
DKIM signs your outgoing mail so the receiving server can verify it wasn't tampered with. Zendesk generates the keys and you publish them as DNS records.
DMARC tells receivers what to do when SPF or DKIM fails, and gives you reports. Start on monitoring, then tighten once the reports are clean.

Forwarding versus a custom address

Forwarding from your own mailbox into Zendesk is the quick route. It's also the one that causes deliverability grief, because the forwarded mail arrives from your server rather than the original sender.

Setting Zendesk up to send as your support address, with the DNS records in place, is more work once and better forever. Do it before you scale. Not after somebody complains that your replies land in junk.

How bad email creates duplicates

This is the connection nobody makes, and it's direct.

Your reply lands in the customer spam folder. They see no answer, so after a day they write in again, often from a different address or through the web form because email "isn't working".

You now have two tickets, one of which contains a reply the customer never read. Your first response time looks fine. Your customer thinks you ignored them.

Check your DMARC reports quarterly. A deliverability problem shows up in your queue as a duplicate problem long before anybody reports it.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What does full Zendesk email setup involve?

Three steps: add the Zendesk support address, forward your real mailbox to it, and publish the DNS records. Zendesk email deliverability depends on that last step, which is the one people skip.

Do I need a Zendesk SPF record and DKIM?

Yes, if you want replies to arrive. Modern providers treat unauthenticated mail harshly, and support mail is exactly the kind that gets filtered.

Can I have two SPF records?

No. One record per domain, with all the includes inside it. Two records is a common misconfiguration, and it'll fail validation entirely.

Unread replies become second tickets

When a customer never sees your answer, they write again. Ticket Merger catches the second one.

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