Onboarding: Connect Email
Link your business inbox so messages flow into OnePilot's Customer Inbox.
Overview
Connecting email links your existing business inbox to OnePilot's Customer Inbox, so email conversations sit alongside your phone, SMS, and chat conversations in one place instead of a separate mail client.
The email connection screen under Communications
Screenshot coming soon
Why it exists
Customer conversations rarely stay in one channel — a lead might email, then call, then message on WhatsApp. Connecting email is what lets OnePilot show all of that as one continuous conversation with one contact, and lets the AI Assistant draft replies with full context.
Benefits
- Email replies can be AI-drafted using the same Company Profile and conversation history as every other channel.
- Nothing about your existing email address changes — customers keep emailing the address they already have.
- Team members can see and respond to the same inbox without sharing a personal login.
Step-by-step guide
- Go to Communications → Email and click Connect Email.
- Choose your email provider and sign in when prompted to grant OnePilot permission to send and receive on your behalf.
- Confirm the connection — a test message will appear in your Customer Inbox once mail starts flowing.
- Set a sending name (e.g., "Alex from Riverside Plumbing") so outgoing messages look right to recipients.
Tips
- Connect the inbox your business actually uses day-to-day — not a rarely-checked secondary address — so nothing important gets missed.
- If you have a shared team inbox (like support@yourbusiness.com), connect that one instead of a personal account so the whole team can respond from OnePilot.
Best Practices
- Review the first few AI-drafted email replies before relying on them fully, to confirm tone matches your business.
Common Mistakes
- Connecting a personal email instead of the business one. This mixes personal and business mail in the Customer Inbox — use a dedicated business address instead.
- Forgetting to set a sending name. Without it, outgoing mail may show a generic address instead of a recognizable name.
Troubleshooting
If messages aren't appearing after connecting, check that the connection still shows as "Active" under Communications → Email — provider permissions occasionally need to be re-granted after a password change on the provider's side.
Frequently Asked Questions
No — your existing address keeps working exactly as before; OnePilot simply reads and sends through it.
Yes, multiple addresses can be connected and will all appear in the same Customer Inbox, clearly labeled by source.