Workflow: How to block the email channel

<p>In Zendesk, you can't block email requests. However, you can use a workaround to close email tickets and direct customers to your help center.</p><p>Follow the workflow in this article to create a trigger to close email tickets and send an automated response that redirects customers to your help center. This article explains how to modify default settings to facilitate this workflow. This change impacts only customer emails. Agents can still use their email and the standard agent interface to communicate.</p><p>This workflow includes the steps below:</p><div style="margin-bottom: 20px; text-align: right;">
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</script><div class="accordion"><h3 id="h_01HDKM37VNYCCDEVRWN81KD32P">Option 1: Set up auto-replies</h3></div><div class="panel">
<h3 id="h_01J8MV71XRNQZNN42QQ5SDC8F9">Step 1: Create a trigger</h3>
<p>Create a trigger that closes out the ticket, tags it, and sends back an automated response to direct the user to your help center.</p>
<p>To create the trigger:</p>
<ol>
<li data-list-item-id="e530f58bfb64ee697027799655a2dbcd6">Create a new <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408886797466-Creating-ticket-triggers-for-automatic-ticket-updates-and-notifications" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">trigger</a>
</li>
<li data-list-item-id="e38f4174c07048fea2c0bd38e98b146f4">Under <strong>Meet ALL of the following conditions</strong>, add these conditions: <strong>Object</strong> &gt; <strong>Ticket </strong>&gt; <strong>Ticket</strong> <strong>|</strong> <strong>Is</strong> <strong>|</strong> <strong>Created</strong> and <strong>Object</strong> &gt; <strong>Ticket </strong>&gt; <strong>Channel</strong> <strong>|</strong> <strong>Is</strong> <strong>|</strong> <strong>Email</strong>
</li>
<li data-list-item-id="e132fca6a2cbcd0bbd6661773145ac83d">
<p>In <strong>Actions</strong>, add these actions: First, add <strong>Other</strong> &gt; <strong>Notify by </strong>&gt;<strong> User email</strong> <strong>|</strong> <strong>Object</strong> &gt; <strong>Ticket &gt; (requester)</strong>, set the <strong>Email subject</strong>, and add the notification message to the <strong>Email body</strong> <strong>|</strong> <strong>Rich text</strong>:</p>
<pre class="language-auto">Thanks for your email.
Please make sure to contact us through our help center.</pre>
<p>Second, add <strong>Object</strong> &gt; <strong>Ticket </strong>&gt;<strong> Add tags</strong> <strong>|</strong> <code>email_ticket</code>. Third, add <strong>Object</strong> &gt; <strong>Ticket </strong>&gt;<strong> Status category</strong> <strong>|</strong> <strong>Closed</strong>.</p>
</li>
<li data-list-item-id="ea20c517e47855bd051cc445d3eec13a7">Click <strong>Create trigger</strong>
</li>
</ol>
<p><img class="wysiwyg-image-resized" style="width: 500px;" src="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/article_attachments/10569894519834" alt="Trigger setup to deflect tickets from email replies.png"></p>
<div class="note">Note: In accounts with <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4412575861018-Creating-custom-ticket-statuses" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">custom ticket statuses</a> deactivated, use the <strong>Ticket </strong>&gt;<strong> Status </strong>condition instead of <strong>Ticket </strong>&gt; <strong>Status category</strong>.</div>
<p>Now, when a customer sends an email, Support responds with an automated email that requests the user to create a ticket in your help center. The trigger closes the ticket automatically and applies a tag. This tag lets you track email tickets in your <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408838151450-Reporting-with-tags" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reports</a>.</p>
<h3 id="2">Step 2: Deactivate default triggers and ticket CCs</h3>
<ul>
<li data-list-item-id="ec33a2c032da91017e982be60df6250cf">
<a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882237722-Managing-ticket-triggers#topic_jvv_kqy_tb">Deactivate</a> the <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408828984346-About-the-Zendesk-default-triggers" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">default triggers</a> that send out emails to your customers and ticket CCs to prevent email responses from users</li>
<li data-list-item-id="ec3eff85546db852cf4733dd26b0efed5">
<a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408843795482-Configuring-settings-and-permissions-for-CCs-and-followers#topic_x3t_4p5_cq">Deactivate CCs</a> on tickets</li>
</ul>
</div><div class="accordion"><h3 id="3">Option 2: Use the blocklist feature</h3></div><div class="panel">
<p>You can reject emails from a particular email domain. Instead of triggers, use your <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408886840986-Setting-your-allowlist-and-blocklist-to-control-email-support-requests" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">blocklist</a> and add the domains you want to reject with the <code>reject:domain.com</code> format. Add multiple entries separated with a space.</p>
<p><img class="wysiwyg-image-resized" style="width: 500px;" src="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/article_attachments/8087217039386" alt="Blocklist.png"></p>
<p>Otherwise, you can reject all emails except those from your company domain:</p>
<ol>
<li data-list-item-id="ee0465a3843f09341bff4a8a85ba03923">Add your company email domain to the <strong>Allowlist</strong> of your account, for example <code>mycompany.com</code>
</li>
<li data-list-item-id="e98237d939d864dc6030639dd417454a5">In the <strong>Blocklist</strong>, add a wildcard * sign<br><img class="wysiwyg-image-resized" style="width: 500px;" src="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/article_attachments/8087226363546" alt="Block all.png">
</li>
</ol>
</div>