Easily manage support and order workflows for your Shopify store from Trello. Receive tickets, collaborate with colleagues and keep customers happy!

The best help desk solution for Shopify sellers is one that makes managing and responding to incoming queries simple and efficient.

In this article, we show you how SendBoard’s Email for Trello Power-Up can help you streamline customer service by converting emails into actionable Trello cards. This makes it possible to:

Manage all your Shopify support threads in one place (alongside your incoming orders)
Develop a systematic, process-driven approach to your Shopify support workflow
Collaborate effectively with others, especially if you’re dealing with lots of emails

Let’s take a closer look at how to set up your Shopify help desk in Trello.

How to set up a Shopify help desk in Trello

1. Add the Email for Trello Power-Up

Email for Trello takes a tool you already know and use – plain old email – and turns it into a fully-functioning support workflow that you can customize to suit your business needs!

To get started, activate the Email for Trello Power-Up on the Trello board that you want to use as your Shopify help desk. This allows you to create Trello cards directly from incoming support emails, so that you can manage all customer queries in one place.

2. Create cards from Shopify support emails

When you first activate the Email for Trello Power-Up on a Trello board, you’ll choose a unique email address for the board. We call this your Board Email Address and it will look something like this: support@example.sendboard.com. To get your Shopify support requests into Trello, all you need to do is forward them to this address.

Connect your Shopify contact form to Trello

Most people use a contact form on their Shopify site to receive help requests and enquiries. To redirect your contact form to Trello, change the email address to your board email address (i.e. support@example.sendboard.com) under Settings > Notifications > Sender Email on your Shopify admin. Whenever a customer sends a support request via your Shopify form, it will be forwarded to your Trello board.

💡 TIP If you want to use a custom email address (i.e. without the ‘sendboard.com’ part), visit our help center for more about how to send and receive emails in Trello using your own email address.

3. Set up your Shopify boards in Trello

Create a Shopify support board in Trello

Now it’s time to customize your Trello board! Set up lists that represent the different stages of your support process, so that your team has clear steps to work through when new queries arrive from your Shopify store. Here’s an example help desk workflow to get you started:

Support Inbox: With the Email for Trello Power-Up, new email requests to your Shopify store land in this list. Each card is a help ticket and moves through your workflow from left to right.
Responded/Scheduled: Once someone from your eCommerce support team has responded, cards can be moved to the scheduled list. This is now your backlog of tasks to work through.
In Progress: If there is any work that needs to happen before you resolve a request, here’s where you can collaborate with your team to get things done.
Awaiting Feedback: Cards are stored in this list so that you can get on with other work while you wait for feedback from your customer, or other team members.
Done: All done! This is everybody’s favorite list in Trello! Archive your completed tickets and get ready to start the process all over again.

*An example email help desk workflow for your Shopify store*

Create a Shopify orders board in Trello

You can also manage all your incoming Shopify orders right from your Trello board! Trello’s Kanban-style layout makes it easy to create a standardized process for your team to collaborate and stay on track. Here’s an example workflow for an eCommerce orders team:

Order Inbox: Receive all your Shopify order notifications in one place. Each card represents an individual order as it moves from left to right through the various stages of the process.
Customization: If you offer customized products, you might need to liaise with external suppliers to finish the order. Send and reply to emails directly from Trello!
Packaging: Manage your packing process and check off to-dos before an order goes out.
Shipped: Keep customers informed once their order is on the way.
Review: All done! Ask customers to review their purchase before you archive the order.

*An example order workflow for your Shopify store*

Getting your Shopify order notifications into Trello is easy – all you need to do is add your board email address (i.e. support@example.sendboard.com) as a new recipient under Settings > Notifications > Staff Notifications on your Shopify admin.

💡 TIP Need to manage Shopify returns? Email for Trello can take care of that too! Read more about how to manage your ecommerce returns in Trello.

For more ideas on different ways to set up your Trello board, have a look at our library of ready-to-use Trello board templates that you can copy and customize for your business.

4. Organize, triage and assign tickets

Once you’re all set up, you’ll start to discover the power of managing your Shopify support inbox in Trello! By integrating Email for Trello with Shopify, you can:

Collaborate with your team for better customer service

When everyone in the team has an overview of open help tickets and a clear idea of what they are responsible for, it’s much easier to provide top-quality customer service.

Automatically assign cards to team members in a round-robin, so that work is fairly distributed and nothing falls through the cracks.
Prioritize help tickets based on urgency, complexity, or any other criteria that aligns with your support process. Read more about how to triage tasks in Trello so that your team has a clear structure for dealing with help tickets.

Automate repetitive tasks

Typing out replies to Shopify support emails can get a little repetitive! Here a few handy automation tricks to save your team time:

Set up an auto-reply so that your customer knows their email has been received. For example, you can set up an automation to send out a “Ticket Assigned” email as soon as someone is working on their help request. Plus, Email for Trello also supports standard auto-replies for all incoming emails.
Build a library of template responses. Common questions about shipping, returns or sizing can easily be addressed with Email for Trello’s Saved Reply feature. If you need ideas for canned replies, try our list of 10 email templates for managing your eCommerce workflow.

💡 TIP For more automation ideas (like how to drag a card to send an email or how to send a follow-up email after a certain number of days), have a look at our list of 10+ automations to try in Trello.

Organize your support comms and data

Email for Trello makes it possible to manage your Shopify support inbox while still enjoying all the powerful organizational features of Trello!

Get the benefit of Kanban – for email. Trello’s visual, Kanban-style layout is the perfect way to visualize your support workflow and help your team collaborate effectively. Read more about why Kanban is the best tool for help desk management.
Make the most of Trello Custom Fields for things like sales value, customer data or Shopify order number. Not only is this useful for your team as a quick reference point, but you can also use these values as variables in Email for Trello, or in Trello automations. Get some ideas in our handy beginner’s guide to Trello automation rules!
Use labels to categorize and track tickets based on priority. For example, cards with the red label are ‘Urgent’ and cards with the blue label are ‘Low Priority’. You can even add an extra layer of organization with color-coded and collapsible Trello lists.

5. Add Power-Ups for extra oomph

By bringing your favorite apps into Trello, Power-Ups help you to transform your board into a powerful, centralized workspace. There are lots of Power-Ups in the Trello directory to choose from!

Here are some of our favorite Power-Ups to add extra functionality to your Shopify support board:

See inactive cards with the Card Aging Power-Up. A fun Power-Up that fades old cards over time, making them easy to spot and attend to.
Get input from your team with Trello’s easy to use Voting Power-Up.
Add data and formulas to Trello cards with the Smart Fields Power-Up.
Need to come back to an email later? Snooze any Trello card with Card Snooze. It will reappear later at your specified date and time.
Attach documents like invoices or customer satisfaction surveys to specific Trello cards with the Google Drive Power-Up.
Limit your work in progress and make sure your team stays on top of potential bottlenecks with the List Limits Power-Up.

💡 TIP Need more Power-Ups? Check out this resource for over 100 free Power-Ups. The list is updated regularly by Blue Cat Reports.

Integrate Email for Trello with Shopify

Centralize and streamline your Shopify support workflow with the Email for Trello Power-Up!

Capture support requests from Shopify and convert them into actionable Trello cards, where you can automate, colloborate and get more done. It’s a smooth and organized support experience for both your team – and your customer.

Manage support for your Shopify site in Trello