Email setup: replies that land in BenchKey

BenchKey sends your customer emails from day one, with nothing to set up. Email setup adds two optional things: customer emails that arrive at your own inbox (like info@yourshop.com) show up in BenchKey, and emails go out from your own address instead of a BenchKey one.

Open Settings → Communications, then Email & SMS → Email setup.

Check your sender name, forward your shop email and send from your own address. (1 min 34 s)

What works with no setup

• Customers see your business name as the sender, with a BenchKey address behind it. The top card, Your email, shows exactly what customers see.
• Replies come back to you. A reply to a ticket email lands on that ticket; any other reply lands in Leads. Leads is part of Pro and Business: on Standard, send those replies to your own mailbox instead (see Where general replies go).
• Choose Change next to Customers see and type the new name in the box in front of the @ (lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens). The empty box shows “your-handle”. It saves as you type. BenchKey adds a number unique to your shop to the end, so frontdesk becomes something like frontdesk-27. Once it saves, Customers see shows the exact address. Leave it blank to use the default based on your business name.

Bring your shop email into BenchKey (forwarding)

Forward your shop inbox so customer emails show up in BenchKey. If a customer has an open repair and BenchKey can tell which ticket an email belongs to, it goes on that ticket. Everything else lands in Leads. Forwarding is part of Pro and Business, and only the account owner can set it up.

1. In the Bring your email into BenchKey card, choose Set up forwarding.
2. Under Where is your shop email?, pick Gmail / Google Workspace, Outlook / Microsoft 365, iCloud, Yahoo or Other.
3. Copy your BenchKey address. Each shop has its own forwarding address.
4. Turn on forwarding in your email account. BenchKey shows the steps for the provider you picked:
   • Gmail: on a computer, open Gmail → Settings → Forwarding and POP/IMAP → Add a forwarding address, paste your BenchKey address, then Next → Proceed → OK.
   • Outlook / Microsoft 365: Outlook on the web → Settings → Mail → Forwarding. Turn on forwarding, paste the address, tick Keep a copy, and save.
   • iCloud: iCloud Mail → Settings → Mail Forwarding. Tick Forward my email to, paste the address, and save.
   • Yahoo: Settings → More settings → Mailboxes → your mailbox → Forwarding. Yahoo only offers forwarding with Yahoo Mail Plus.
5. Confirm (Gmail and Yahoo). Your provider sends a confirmation email to BenchKey, and BenchKey shows it on the page, usually within a minute. Check that the mailbox named is yours, then choose Confirm on Google (or Yahoo). In Gmail, finish by choosing Forward a copy of incoming mail to your BenchKey address and Save Changes.
6. Send a test. Enter the address customers email you at and choose Send a test email. When it comes back you see It works, and new customer emails start showing up in BenchKey (on the customer’s open ticket, or in Leads).

Your mailbox keeps its own copy of every email; BenchKey only receives a forwarded copy.

If the test doesn’t come back within a few minutes, check the provider steps again (in Gmail, the last step is Save Changes). Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 admins can block forwarding to outside addresses; ask whoever manages your company email to allow automatic forwarding. You can send up to five tests an hour.

Send from your own address (optional)

Customers see an address like info@yourshop.com instead of the BenchKey one. It works on every plan; the owner or an admin sets it up. You need a website domain you own (you can’t send as @gmail.com or other free email addresses). Copying the settings takes about 10 minutes.

1. In Send from your own address, type Your website address (like yourshop.com) and choose Continue.
2. BenchKey finds where your domain is managed (GoDaddy, Cloudflare, Namecheap, Squarespace, Wix, Bluehost and others) and lists the settings to add there, each with Type, Name / Host, Value and, for one of them, Priority. Use the copy button next to each value.
3. Sign in where your domain is managed, open its DNS settings, and add each record exactly as shown. Tips for the common hosts:
   • Cloudflare: leave the cloud grey (DNS only).
   • Namecheap: put the MX record under Mail Settings → Custom MX.
   • GoDaddy: in Name, type only the first part BenchKey shows (like send), not your whole domain.
4. Come back to BenchKey. While this page is open, BenchKey re-checks every 10 seconds for about six minutes and marks each record Found, Different value · replace it or Not added yet. Changes usually show up within minutes and sometimes take a few hours. You can leave and come back: BenchKey checks again when you reopen this page, and Check now checks straight away.
5. When your domain shows Ready, type the name customers will see before the @ and choose Use this address. Replies still come back to BenchKey.

What each setting does

Record	What it does
MX	Lets bounced emails come back
TXT (SPF)	Approves BenchKey to send for you
_domainkey (DKIM)	Proves the emails really come from you
_dmarc (DMARC)	The trust setting Gmail and Yahoo expect from businesses

If your domain has no DMARC record yet, BenchKey suggests one: a TXT record named _dmarc with the value v=DMARC1; p=none;.

If it stops working

If a record is changed or removed later, the Your email card says your domain stopped working and emails go out from the BenchKey address until it’s fixed. Choose Fix it to see which record to put back. To stop using your domain, choose Remove domain; emails go back to the BenchKey address.

If BenchKey says That domain is already on another BenchKey account, contact BenchKey support. They check who has the domain before it can be added here.

Where general replies go

Under Technical details (you don’t need these) the owner or an admin can choose where replies to general and campaign emails go: Save general and campaign replies in Leads (the default) or Send general and campaign replies to another mailbox. Replies to ticket emails always land on the ticket. On Standard, which doesn’t include Leads, choose Send general and campaign replies to another mailbox, type the address under General and campaign replies go to, then choose Save General Reply Address so you see those replies.