Email helpdesk: turn every email into a ticket (with or without AI)

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An email helpdesk turns every email that reaches your support mailbox into a numbered ticket: the customer instantly gets an acknowledgement, their replies stay in the same thread and your team answers from the ticket without losing anything. In Dhalinta AI Automation it works without AI, and you can turn AI on later if you want.

What an email helpdesk is

It is the classic way to provide support: the customer writes to an address such as support@yourcompany.com and immediately gets an email like "We have received your request, number TK-2026-00012". From then on, each request has its number, status and history, and nothing gets lost in the inbox.

Dhalinta AI Automation does it with your own mailbox (IMAP/SMTP): emails go out with your address and signature, not from a generic platform address.

How to set it up, step by step

1. Connect your support mailbox in Channels → Email. Guide: Email channel: connect your mailbox.
2. Go to Tickets, open the ticket inbox where you want to receive requests (or create one, for example "Support") and open its settings.
3. Under Receive requests by email, turn on Create a ticket for every new email and choose the email channel.
4. Decide whether you want the acknowledgement (recommended) and whether the AI also replies to these emails.
5. Save. From then on, every new email that reaches that mailbox opens a ticket.

Each email channel feeds one ticket inbox. If you want separate departments (for example, support and billing), you can connect one mailbox for each or, if both addresses reach the same mailbox, use alias rules to send each one to its own ticket inbox.

What your customer receives

If the acknowledgement is on, the customer gets the reply in the same thread, from your address and with the number in the subject:

Subject: Re: I haven't received my invoice [TK-2026-00012]

Hi Laura,

We have received your message and opened request TK-2026-00012.
We will get back to you as soon as possible.

You can check its status here: https://app.dhalinta.com/support/…

If you want to add anything, reply to this email without changing the subject.

The acknowledgement is sent in the customer's language if we know it, or otherwise in your organisation's (Spanish, English, Catalan, Galician, Basque, French, German, Italian or Portuguese), and carries the auto-reply header, so it does not cause loops with out-of-office replies.

When the customer replies

• If they reply in the same thread, or write with the TK number in the subject, their message is added to their ticket instead of opening another one.
• If the ticket was "waiting for customer" or "resolved", it goes back to "in progress" and your team sees it as unread.
• If the ticket was already closed, the email opens a new ticket.

Replying from the ticket

Whatever you write in the ticket is sent from your support mailbox, in the customer's thread and with the number in the subject, so they see it as a normal email conversation. The team's first message counts as the first response for the deadline (SLA), if you use one.

With or without AI?

Which emails do not open a ticket

To keep your ticket inbox free of noise, no tickets are created for:

• Auto-replies (out of office) and bounces.
• Newsletters and mailing-list emails.
• Emails where your mailbox is in CC rather than a direct recipient.
• Suspected phishing.

Those emails still reach Inbox Channels, in case you want to review them.

Several addresses on the same mailbox (aliases)

It is common for several addresses to reach the same mailbox: support@, billing@, alerts@… (aliases, forwards or a catch-all from your email provider). You can decide what happens to the emails sent to each one in Channels → your email channel → Configure mailbox → Aliases and addresses of this mailbox. For each address you choose:

Option	What you can choose
Ticket	Open it in the channel's ticket inbox, in another ticket inbox of your workspace (for example, "Billing") or do not open a ticket (the email only reaches the inbox).
Acknowledgement	As the ticket inbox says, always send it, or never send it.
AI reply	Like the rest of the channel, never, or always (without the filter that discards advertising and notices).
Note	A name to recognise the rule, for example "Server alerts".

• How the address is recognised: by the real delivery address your mail server adds and, if missing, by the To and CC fields. An email sent to an alias with a rule counts as addressed to you even if your main address is not in "To".
• Wildcard *: alerts+*@yourcompany.com covers alerts+db@, alerts+web@…; *@notices.yourcompany.com covers that whole subdomain.
• Order: if several rules match, the first one in the list applies.
• Customer replies: they are added to their ticket even if it is in another ticket inbox and even if they reply to your main address.
• No rule: emails to that address are handled like those of your main mailbox.

Protection against auto-reply loops

A loop happens when an automatic reply comes back into the mailbox and triggers another reply, endlessly. Dhalinta AI Automation always prevents it, with or without rules:

• The acknowledgement carries the auto-reply header: if it comes back to your mailbox, it does not open another ticket.
• There is never an automatic reply to auto-replies, bounces, mailing lists or newsletters, nor to emails coming from your own mailbox or from one of the addresses in your alias list (they open a ticket when applicable, but with no acknowledgement and no AI reply).
• There is a cap on automatic replies per sender per hour.
• Optional: "Do not auto-reply to my own domain". Emails from addresses on your domain (colleagues, internal alerts) open a ticket when applicable, but get no acknowledgement and no AI reply.

The "always" AI option in a rule does not bypass any of these protections.

Good practices

• Use a mailbox just for support (support@, help@…), so personal or sales emails don't become tickets.
• Create categories in the ticket inbox (billing, faults, returns…) to organise and share the work.
• Turn on team notifications in the inbox settings: every new ticket reaches the bell and, if you want, the email addresses you enter.
• Use deadlines (SLA) only if you need them: they are optional and set per inbox.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need AI to use the email helpdesk?

No. It works without AI: tickets are created automatically and your team replies from them.

Is the acknowledgement sent from my address?

Yes. It is sent from the connected mailbox, in the same thread and with the ticket number in the subject.

What if the customer changes the subject?

If they reply in the same thread it is still recognised. If they write a new email without the number, a new ticket is opened.

Can I have support@ and billing@ on the same mailbox and keep them apart?

Yes. Create a rule for each alias in "Aliases and addresses of this mailbox" and choose which ticket inbox each one opens in, with its own acknowledgement and AI settings.

Can an auto-reply loop happen?

No. The acknowledgement carries the auto-reply header and there is never a reply to auto-replies, bounces, mailing lists or emails coming from your own mailbox or its aliases. Details in Several addresses on the same mailbox.

Can I turn it off?

Yes, at any time. The email channel keeps working as a normal inbox and existing tickets are kept.

Can I still use tickets from WhatsApp or the website chatbot?

Yes. The email helpdesk is an addition: the AI assistant can keep opening tickets from the other channels. More in Tickets: inboxes, categories, deadlines and notifications.