Setting up automatic capture of emails in ServiceNow CRM using redirect rules

  • Versão de lançamento: Australia
  • Atualizado 12 de mar. de 2026
  • 3 min. de leitura

    • Automate the process of capturing sales-related emails by configuring redirecting rules in your email client, so emails can be logged in the CRM without manual associations from the Microsoft Outlook add-in by the agent.

    Overview of capturing emails with redirecting rules

    Sales representatives often receive important customer communications directly in their personal inbox. Manually associating each email with CRM records can be time‑consuming and may lead to missed or incomplete logging. ServiceNow supports capturing CRM-relevant emails from an agent's personal mailbox using standard email client redirect rules. These rules route selected emails from the agent's inbox to a shared forwarding mailbox, which the ServiceNow instance monitors through its user mailbox integration framework.

    Automatically capturing emails using redirecting rules enables organizations to capture sales communications in ServiceNow CRM without requiring agents to log every email manually using the ServiceNow CRM for Outlook add-in. The capability relies on existing email infrastructure and ServiceNow's notification framework for inbound email handling.

    Benefits

    • Reduces manual effort required to associate emails with CRM entities
    • Improves consistency and completeness of CRM activity tracking
    • Enables agents to continue working primarily from their email client
    • Complements the Microsoft Outlook add-in by handling routine email capture automatically

    Comparison of email capture methods

    Redirect rules complement the Microsoft Outlook add‑in by improving baseline email capture, while the add‑in remains the primary tool for precise record association and advanced actions. The following table provides a comparison of these approaches.
    Aspect Manual (Microsoft Outlook add-in) Automatic (Redirect rules)
    How it works Agent selects Associate in the Microsoft Outlook add-in Rules redirect emails automatically
    Best for Selective, high-value emails High-volume, bulk capture
    Effort Per-email action One-time rule setup
    Control Agent decides what to log Rules decide what to log based on criteria

    Key capabilities

    Using standard email client redirect rules, ServiceNow provides the ability to:
    • Redirect emails from a personal mailbox to ServiceNow using standard email client rules
    • Preserve original sender, recipients, and message headers when a redirecting rule is used
    • Centralize inbound email ingestion through a shared mailbox
    • Process redirected emails using ServiceNow's inbound email pipeline
    • Make redirected emails available for CRM association in the Staged Email table

    Redirecting vs. forwarding

    When configuring email rules, use redirecting rules instead of forwarding rules because of the following reasons:

    • Redirecting rules preserve the original sender's email address in the From field, enabling ServiceNow to identify the customer or prospect correctly.
    • Forwarding rules change the From field to the forwarding mailbox, which causes all emails to appear as if they came from the shared mailbox rather than the original sender.

    How redirecting emails work

    The following is a high‑level flow for how redirected emails move from a personal mailbox into ServiceNow CRM:
    1. An agent receives an email in their personal mailbox.
    2. The email client evaluates configured redirect rules.
    3. Matching emails are redirected to a shared forwarding mailbox.
    4. ServiceNow retrieves emails from the shared mailbox using Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) or Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP).
    5. Emails are processed and staged in the Staged Email [sys_email_staging] table for CRM association.

    Limitations

    Redirect rules are configured in the email client and aren’t created or evaluated by ServiceNow. The following limitations are due to how email client rules work:

    • Redirect rules can’t query ServiceNow data such as leads, accounts, or opportunities.
    • Email client rules can’t evaluate CRM ownership or relationships.
    • Advanced logic such as domain-to-account matching isn’t supported by standard rules.

    Sample redirect rule scenarios

    Configure redirect rules in your email client based on your organization's needs. Common scenarios include:
    • Recipient-based: Redirect emails where the To or CC field contains the CRM forwarding address.
    • Keyword-based: Redirect external emails where the subject or body contains sales-related keywords such as quote, pricing, RFI (request for information), demo, product, trial, lead, opportunity, evaluate, interest, deal, or proposal.
    • Domain-based: Redirect business emails while excluding personal email domains such as gmail.com or yahoo.com.

    To set up redirect rules for Microsoft Outlook, refer to the official product documentation, Use rules to automatically forward messages.