Our current CRM auto populates customer records with communications. When we email customers we also have BCC address that automatically copies the email into the communications section of the customer’s record. I want to switch from our CRM to an Airtable solution, but this is a fairly routine and important function. Can Airtable do this? and if so, how? I find Zapier difficult and bit above my pay grade, so any help would be much appreciated.
+3Yes it can.
You will have to make use of the Airtable API, either directly or indriectly.
If you are using it indirectly you will probably have to use Zapier or some other similar third party service.
You will need to connect Zapier to your email account and create a Zap that will populate the customer record with the content of the email on Airtable.
Your customers are going to be uniquely identified by their emails so I suggest that you implement this onto your base.
Basically your Zap will do the following.
1.Find the customer record on Airtable using their email address
2.Populate the above found record with the content of the email
(There will be no need to BCC anymore)
If use the API directly you will need to accomplish the following by writing a program using some language like JAVA, Python etc.
Andrew_Johnson1 wrote:
Yes it can.
You will have to make use of the Airtable API, either directly or indriectly.
If you are using it indirectly you will probably have to use Zapier or some other similar third party service.
You will need to connect Zapier to your email account and create a Zap that will populate the customer record with the content of the email on Airtable.
Your customers are going to be uniquely identified by their emails so I suggest that you implement this onto your base.
Basically your Zap will do the following.
1.Find the customer record on Airtable using their email address
2.Populate the above found record with the content of the email
(There will be no need to BCC anymore)
If use the API directly you will need to accomplish the following by writing a program using some language like JAVA, Python etc.
Andrew, that is super helpful, thank you very much. We use google apps at our office with a staff of 4 people regularly emailing customers from our gapps. So as long as the people are already in our Airtable then this should work, so we would need to create a record for them first. I’ll look on Zapier for how tos on connecting gmail to an airtable base. Any airtable help files relating to how to best set up airtable to receive these incoming emails?
Thanks again for your help
+3Allan_Smith wrote:
Andrew, that is super helpful, thank you very much. We use google apps at our office with a staff of 4 people regularly emailing customers from our gapps. So as long as the people are already in our Airtable then this should work, so we would need to create a record for them first. I’ll look on Zapier for how tos on connecting gmail to an airtable base. Any airtable help files relating to how to best set up airtable to receive these incoming emails?
Thanks again for your help
Check out this link on how to connect Zapier to your Email
Check out this link on how to connect Airtable with Zapier
+4Hi Allan
I have exactly this set up capturing emails to/from my clients (but in Office 365 email).
This requires 2 Zaps, one looking in Sent Items and the other mu Inbox.
When you have multiple staff sending and receiving emails, this may become cumbersome because you’ll need one Zap for each person’s Inbox and Sent Items. This is where it may be a good idea to use the BCC approach so that all sent emails go there and your staff maybe forward incoming emails.
From a database point of view, you will need something like an Activities table to store a new record for each email coming in and out (as well as other client activities).
Andrew_Johnson1 wrote:
Check out this link on how to connect Zapier to your Email
Check out this link on how to connect Airtable with Zapier
Is there a “Zapier for Dummies” guide somewhere. The Zapier guide is definitely not written for ordinary people…
+18Julian_Kirkness wrote:
Hi Allan
I have exactly this set up capturing emails to/from my clients (but in Office 365 email).
This requires 2 Zaps, one looking in Sent Items and the other mu Inbox.
When you have multiple staff sending and receiving emails, this may become cumbersome because you’ll need one Zap for each person’s Inbox and Sent Items. This is where it may be a good idea to use the BCC approach so that all sent emails go there and your staff maybe forward incoming emails.
From a database point of view, you will need something like an Activities table to store a new record for each email coming in and out (as well as other client activities).
Julian,
Do you have a link or screenshot of your Zap flow?
For the BCC version, can you email into Airtable into an Activities table?
Thank you!
If you want a simple plug-and-play solution, try gustermail.com–.
It makes it very simple to log email communication into Airtable. If you’re using Airtable as a CRM, Gustermail is a must.
+4I don’t think Gustermail works anymore. Does anyone know of other plug and play solutions? This would really level up our airtable CRM!
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