Associate a reply to automated email with ticket

[mgavenda]

Hello everyone,

I'd like to find out whether this is possible and if so, how do I achieve this.

We have a Form set up, which when submitted, creates a ticket and sends an automated email response to client via Workflow.

Is it possible to capture and associate response to the automated email with the original ticket that was created?

Example:

1. Form submission

2. Ticket #123 created

3. Automated email: Thank you for XYZ, are you interested in hearing more? reply "ABC"
4. client replies "ABC"
5. reply "ABC" gets associated to ticket #123

Thank you in advance

[NicoleSengers · Accepted solution]

Hi @mgavenda 

It sounds like steps 1 - 3 are already happening. You have a form, which creates a ticket and sends an email.

Looking at the fact that you are sending out the marketing email from Hubspot you set the reply email to an integrated inbox, and the response will be logged to the contact record and the associated records as well. 

All you need to do is set the reply email address to be an email address that is in a connected conversations inbox and not a personal email address. 

Alternatively you are able to get the person who receives the response to log their response email to the client and associate that to the ticket, this depends on whether you need these emails to go to one inbox or to individuals.

[JCooper91]

Hi - 

Was there a solution figured out for this? We're facing this same issue (form submission -> workflow sending a marketing email -> reply creates a new ticket unassociated w/ ticket created from form submission) and would love to figure out a solution. 

Thanks!

[JugglingMonk]

Same issue. We have a "We have received your ticket #1234" auto email, and it creates a new ticket when a client responds to that instead of threading with the original ticket.

The auto email's reply to is the same support@company.com as the channel's support@company.com. We use custom ticket numbers instead of the HubSpot's record ID in the subject line.

[danmoyle · Accepted solution]

Thanks @STierney. Hi @JugglingMonk and @JCooper91. Yes, this is somewhat of a limitation (or expected behavior depending on your perspective) in HubSpot. Replies to workflow/marketing emails generally do not thread back to the original ticket the way a “conversations” email sent from the ticket does, and there are multiple community threads where people report exactly what you’re describing without a clean native fix yet. So, Tickets naturally thread when the conversation originates from (or is replied from) the ticket in Help Desk/Conversations and the same connected help desk inbox address is used. In that case, replies are added to the existing ticket instead of creating new ones.

When a marketing/workflow email goes out (even if the reply‑to is a connected inbox), the reply is logged to the contact and often creates a new ticket/conversation instead of associating with the original ticket from the form.

There are some workarounds I've seen in threads over the years. So what I did was ask AI to summarize them into one idea here. It's not a perfect solution, but one of these ideas may help. 

1. Send the first email from the ticket / help desk. Instead of using a marketing email from a workflow, you could use a help desk pipeline and:

• Let the form create the ticket via a help desk-connected form channel.
• Use ticket pipeline automation (“Automate” on the pipeline) to send a one‑to‑one or templated email from the ticket using the connected support inbox.

Because the email is sent from the ticket with the help desk address, replies will thread into the same ticket instead of creating new ones.
​

Trade‑offs: You lose classic marketing‑email features (A/B, design manager, detailed marketing analytics). But you gain reliable threading.

2. Use marketing email + connected inbox, accept that threading may break and clean up. If you must use a marketing email in a workflow, ensure the reply‑to is a help desk / conversations inbox (not a personal address) so replies at least log correctly and associate to the contact and some ticket record. Then have your team:

• Manually merge “reply tickets” into the original when duplicates are created.
• Or train agents to log their reply to the original ticket and associate manually, as the accepted solution in your thread suggests.

​This is essentially an operational workaround.

3. Build an automation/ops workaround around subject or custom ticket number. Since you mentioned custom ticket numbers in the subject line: HubSpot does not currently use the ticket number in the subject to decide threading; users have specifically requested that as an enhancement. You can try a partial workaround:

• Include the custom ticket number in the subject and body.
• Use an external tool (Make/Zapier or a custom integration) listening on the shared inbox (e.g., via Outlook/Google or HubSpot webhooks) to:
  • Parse the ticket number out of the subject/body.
  • Find the matching ticket by custom property.
  • Associate the new conversation/email object to that ticket; optionally close or suppress the auto‑created duplicate ticket.

Community answers I found point toward these kinds of custom/integration solutions when native functionality falls short. This is more engineering‑heavy but gives you better control.

4. Avoid marketing email entirely for the acknowledgment. Here's a different communication strategy all around. Use ticket automation (per‑pipeline) to send an internal notification and a one‑to‑one “We’ve received your ticket #1234” from the ticket record instead of a workflow marketing email. Then, any reply lands in the same conversation and ticket. Again, this trades marketing features for support‑thread integrity.

Hopefully this summary helps spark a solution for you and your team that works best for you all. No solution for everyone currently exists. 

[STierney]

Hey @JugglingMonk - thanks for following up here!

I'd like to tag in some automation experts to see if they have insight on how this entire workflow may be possible. @karstenkoehler, @danmoyle, and @franksteiner79 - do any best practices come to mind?

Shane, Senior Community Moderator

[NicoleSengers · Accepted solution]

Hi @mgavenda 

It sounds like steps 1 - 3 are already happening. You have a form, which creates a ticket and sends an email.

Looking at the fact that you are sending out the marketing email from Hubspot you set the reply email to an integrated inbox, and the response will be logged to the contact record and the associated records as well. 

All you need to do is set the reply email address to be an email address that is in a connected conversations inbox and not a personal email address. 

Alternatively you are able to get the person who receives the response to log their response email to the client and associate that to the ticket, this depends on whether you need these emails to go to one inbox or to individuals.

[Jnix284]

Hi @mgavenda , I agree with @NicoleSengers that if you set the reply email address to your connected inbox, the replies will be automatically logged. As far as associating the reply to the ticket automatically, that also depends whether the original email is associated to the ticket.

[Jonno_Price]

Hi @Jnix284 - do you know how to associate an automated email sent via a workflow to a ticket? Looking into this and can't see that marketing emails can be associated to a ticket... it only associates to the contacts.. Thanks

[Jnix284]

@Jonno_Price you're correct, it's not possible that I'm aware of - when the replies come to the Inbox, the ticket property is removed from the sidebar for marketing emails so it also can't be added manually. 

[TitiCuisset]

Hi @mgavenda 

Thank you for reaching out.

I want to tag some of our experts here - @coldrickjack @LMeert @louischausse do you have any thoughts for @mgavenda on this? 

Thank you!

Best

Tiphaine