10 Shared Mailbox Best Practices to Implement Right Away

Sixty-two percent of companies don’t respond to customer service emails. Poor email management is one of the reasons for such an alarming statistic.

Without proper organization and well-defined processes, a shared inbox can quickly become overwhelming, leading to missed opportunities and frustrated customers.

If your team is all too familiar with the struggles of managing a shared inbox, you’re not alone. The consequences of poor inbox management are daunting – unaddressed customer inquiries, lost sales leads, and dissatisfied clients who feel their voices go unheard.

So how to manage a shared inbox to avoid these problems?

We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of shared mailbox best practices. Whether you are part of a customer support team, a sales department, or any other group that handles emails collectively, this guide will equip you with valuable insights and strategies to optimize your shared inbox workflow, enhance team productivity, and deliver exceptional customer service.

1. Create tags and labels for each email category

Start with implementing a robust tagging and labeling system to categorize and prioritize incoming emails. Create as many tags as you need based on the content of the emails you tend to receive. Then, when a new email comes in, it will be marked with the right tag based on the keywords it includes or the sender’s email address. 

This technique will help to divide responsibilities in the team, avoid mix-ups, and make sure none of the emails slips through.

These are a few examples of folders you may want to create:

• Customer inquiries
• Sales leads
• Technical support
• Urgent/Priority
• Customer feedback
• Complaints/Negative feedback
• Marketing/Promotions
• Billing and payments
• Follow-ups
• Internal communications

The specific tags and labels you create will depend on your organization’s unique needs. Be flexible with your tagging system and adjust it as your team’s email management requirements evolve over time.

2. Prepare email templates for each case

How do you maintain a consistent tone when completely different individuals send messages from a shared email? Email templates are the answer.

Moreover, by using pre-written email templates for common scenarios and inquiries, your team can respond to emails fast without sacrificing personalization or quality of response.

A significant portion of emails in a shared inbox comprises common inquiries or frequently asked questions. With email templates readily available, your team members will be able to quickly address recurring issues. It’s also an effective solution for handling customer inquiries during busy periods or seasonal spikes.

3. Establish a standardized inbox management process

To foster consistency, establish shared mailbox best practices or guidelines for handling different email scenarios. For instance, you can define procedures for resolving customer complaints, escalating urgent matters, or routing emails to the appropriate team member. Having a well-documented process ensures consistency in how your team addresses emails and increases operational efficiency.

Don’t forget to determine appropriate response time frames for various email types. Urgent inquiries may require immediate attention, while less time-sensitive messages might have a longer window for response. Having clear response time expectations ensures that customers’ needs are met promptly and avoids leaving inquiries unattended.

4. Give each team member a particular job

Split the obligations between people managing the shared inbox. Since they’ll all have access to the inbox, each member should be in charge of different kinds of emails. For example, one team member could be responsible for handling customer inquiries, while another focuses on managing sales leads.

This will make keeping up with new emails a lot easier. In addition, every member will know which emails they need to put in each folder for their teammates to have easy access to. 

5. Use helpful Chrome extensions

Next one on our list of shared mailbox best practices is using complementary technology. This will significantly improve your team’s productivity and efficiency in managing the shared inbox. Chrome extensions offer a range of powerful tools that integrate seamlessly with your email service provider, providing assistance with group email management.

Proofreading and editing your emails might not come to mind as something necessary in email management. However, most customers will tend to correlate typos and other writing errors with a less reliable business. You can easily avoid it with a typing assistant like Grammarly.

Another use case of Chrome extensions for email management is the Mailtrack extension. With it, team members can see when their emails are opened by recipients and whether links within the email are clicked. This real-time information allows your team to follow up with leads or customers at the most opportune moments, increasing shared inbox management efficiency.

6. Adopt shared inbox software

While standard email services like Outlook or Gmail provide basic collaborative capabilities, they may fall short in meeting the unique demands of today’s support teams.

By adopting an advanced shared inbox management solution like Helpwise, you can take your team’s productivity to new heights. Helpwise allows you to connect all shared inboxes, including social media chats and WhatsApp conversations, in one centralized place. 

7. Automate whatever you can

Automation is a game-changer when it comes to optimizing shared inbox management. By automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks, your team can save valuable time and focus on more critical aspects of their roles.

Here are a few shared mailbox best practices of how you can automate processes:

• Automatically sort and label emails. Set up rules or filters in your email service provider to automatically sort incoming emails into relevant folders or categories.
• Turn on instant replies. Use autoresponders to send instant replies or acknowledgments to customers, informing them that their email has been received.
• Implement an auto-routing system. Create rules to automatically route or assign emails to the appropriate team members based on predefined criteria.
• Set up follow-ups and reminders. Craft automated follow-up emails or reminders for emails that need specific actions or responses.

Helpwise can help you manage your shared inboxes even smarter. With it, you can:

• Connect all shared inboxes (including social media chats and WhatsApp conversations) in one place.
• Auto-prioritize queries with AI.
• Auto-assign conversations to the most relevant agents.
• Send automated replies based on pre-defined conditions.
• Categorize messages with auto-tagging.

Ready to try? Start your free 7-day trial.

8. Promote collaboration

In addition to robust automation functionalities, collaborative email software like Helpwise offer collaboration features that enable team members to collaborate on customer inquiries, share drafts, and delegate with ease. This eliminates the need for constant forwarding or CC-ing emails and ensures that every team member stays updated on customer interactions.

You can also use the internal notes feature to enable team members to communicate directly within the platform. Use these notes to provide additional context, share relevant information, or seek assistance from other team members. Since these notes are internal, customers won’t see them, ensuring that all team discussions remain private and confidential.

Best of all, you can even prevent several agents from responding to the same email simultaneously with the collision detection feature. When someone is actively composing a reply, others are notified that the email is being worked on, reducing the risk of duplicate responses.

9. Set up tracking for your shared inbox

Email service providers offer basic email analytics that can help you track certain performance metrics. For example, you can monitor the number of emails received and sent and email volume trends over time. 

However, this kind of data won’t provide you with valuable insights into your team’s performance.

The good news is, if you choose to use a customer service platform for shared mailbox management, you’ll access in-depth email insights, including response times, resolution rates, customer satisfaction scores, and team performance trends.

10. Regularly review your inbox

Schedule regular reviews of the shared inbox to identify and address any backlog or outdated emails.

During your regular inbox reviews, look for any emails that remain unanswered or unresolved for an extended period. These may include queries that were not properly routed, emails requiring further action, or those that slipped through the automated processes.

Over time, your shared inbox may accumulate irrelevant or outdated emails. Use regular reviews as opportunities to archive or delete messages that are no longer relevant. 

And of course, regular reviews give you a chance to assess the effectiveness of your email templates and established processes. Revisit automation rules and filters — if you notice patterns that require frequent adjustments, consider updating the templates or refining the procedures to better address these issues. 

How to manage a shared inbox effectively?

Summing up, these are proven shared mailbox best practices:

1. Create tags and labels for each email category.
2. Prepare email templates for each case
3. Establish a standardized inbox management process
4. Give each team member a particular job
5. Use helpful Chrome extensions
6. Adopt shared inbox software
7. Automate whatever you can
8. Promote collaboration
9. Set up tracking for your shared inbox
10. Regularly review your inbox

By implementing these practices, your team will experience smoother workflows, increased efficiency, and enhanced customer service. Make sure to communicate these shared mailbox best practices to all team members, provide training and support as needed, and encourage open communication to continuously refine your shared inbox management strategy.