Shared inboxes have become all the rage as they changed the game for team communication and collaboration by eliminating duplicate work and saving much time. Today, we will give you a list of some of the best shared inbox tools for businesses that are sure to take the load off.
What Exactly Is Shared Inbox Software?
A shared inbox is an email inbox that numerous users can access, employing an email alias such as @support or @info. Typically, these inboxes are administered by a team rather than a single individual. For example, the customer support staff will have access to support and be accountable for responding to those emails as soon as possible. Similarly, the sales department will tackle their inbox.
What is the use of a shared inbox tool?
As the quantity of emails in the shared inbox grows, things become more complex. Determining who must work on which email becomes far more challenging. Multiple people may end up handling the same email on a few occasions. Isn’t that the most disorganized way of working? Aside from that, communicating to the entire team that an email requires immediate attention becomes difficult. This is due to the difficulty in keeping team members on the same page.
Moreover, the visibility suffers as well. For example, if a member receives an email and responds immediately, and then another member responds to the same email then the whole workflow is in shambles. Shared inboxes also result in distributed ownership. When many people are in charge of the same work, they feel less accountable for it. What could go wrong? When an email comes, everyone assumes “someone else” is working on it, and it goes unanswered.
And this is why teams require the best shared inbox software: every email is allocated to an individual, every team member is aware of what is going on with emails, and so all goes smoothly.
Advantages of Using a Best Shared Inbox Software
A shared mailbox has several advantages with the most evident one being is the increased collaboration and distributed workload.
For several reasons, it would be best to use the best shared inbox app to manage shared emails in your company. Here are a few examples:
- Maintain control over who responds to what from the centralized email account.
- Stop replying to the same email twice. This is common with distribution lists that relay emails to many accounts.
- Adhere to suitable security standards. Password sharing could be a better security practice.
- Improve team communication by providing information about each client’s request and answer. Most of the tools we’ll look at later also allow you and your coworkers to talk right in the app, saving you time and keeping everything in context.
best Shared Inbox tools Features
The following are some of the specific functions that best shared email inbox apps must include ensuring your investment brings you results :
- Management of Group Email: A shared inbox software has a feature that lets you manage email addresses such as @support and @info. Having a link to all your shared inboxes in one place, without needing to register into different accounts or switch among screens, helps your team reply more quickly and prevents emails from falling through the cracks. Furthermore, allocating fresh emails to individual agents informs each person of their responsibilities, reducing repeated responses and abandoned emails.
- Collision Detection: Collision is that awkward moment when you realize two team members responded to the same customer twice and offered them contradictory information. You may avoid this problem by allocating inbound tickets to agents using a collaborative customer service email. Tickets can be assigned by routing rules or by having agents manually put themselves questions at the front of the ticket line to minimize misunderstanding.
- Automated Emails: Most shared inbox systems support macros and preset responses. They may assist your staff in producing faster replies, especially for simple client concerns, so they are able to concentrate on keeping your customers happy. Canned responses can improve your team’s uniformity and accuracy by utilizing proven answers from your shared mailbox.
- Internal Discussions: Using internal notes to integrate crucial information into each email saves time and is required if you want to provide personalized responses to your clients. Your staff will have access to all necessary information, which will streamline the entire process. That’s why most shared inbox technologies allow you to communicate with teammates via internal comments in the original email instead of forwarding or replying to all.
- Analytics: Although not all shared inbox tools on the market provide analytics, it is a helpful feature. Monitoring email responses and performance can assist you in keeping on track, deciding whether you need extra support, and determining which areas you need to improve to accomplish your ultimate objective of delighting consumers.
Best Shared Inbox Tools
Let’s get to the good stuff as we bring you our list of the best shared inbox apps that can change the game for your team and business.
Trengo
Trengo’s CRM makes up one of the market’s leading CRM applications. By registering for this free CRM, you will have access to the discussions feature, which includes the opportunity to link your team’s email identities to a common mailbox. By connecting your email identities to the shared inbox, you can bring your sales, marketing, and customer support teams together in one location to observe, manage, and respond to all interactions.
Having all of the details required on hand is an essential part of providing excellent customer service. Because team email is built into Trengo’s free CRM, your team will have instant access to contact information and will be able to design effective, customized answers.
Trengo also includes free productivity tools that allow you to promptly provide your customers with the information they want by using models, scripted responses, and documents – all without leaving your email. Look at the image below to see that feature. Book a demo today and begin your journey!
Preis
Starts at $19 per user/month.
Why We Like This Tool?
- All email aliases are combined into a collaborative inbox for smooth communication.
- Quick answer templates.
- Combines with HubSpot CRM, allowing you to view every customer’s data and past interactions before responding.
What we do not like
- It might be difficult to examine the history of closed tickets that are reopened by a consumer.
ProProfs Help Desk
ProProfs Help Desk provides a feature-rich shared inbox application to assist your team in managing numerous team inboxes (@support, @sales, @info, and so on) in one location. Thanks to collaborative tools like collision recognition, internal notes, and parent-child ticketing, everyone on your team can collaborate closely in sync without stepping on one other’s toes. Aside from email, you may track client messages via Live-Chat, Chatbots, online forms, and other methods.
Preis
Starting at $30 per month.
Why We Like This Tool
- Use the Round-robin distribution mechanism to automatically distribute emails that come to team members.
- Create effective chatbots for your website in order to streamline customer care, generating leads, sales, and other operations.
- Metrics such as initial response time, resolution of tickets time, overall client satisfaction (CSAT) score, and so on can help you get an up-close view of how you work.
What we do not like
- It takes a lot of time to independently visit their social media accounts to verify consumer requests or complaints.
Helpmonks
Helpmonks is another effective shared inbox software you can put on a server of your own while still having access to basic functionality such as internal notes, mail assignments, auto-tagging, and automatic answers. The software has data-storage features that turn your shared mailbox into a full-featured CRM. It’s a low-cost solution and one of the few applications with no user restriction on their basic plan, making it a safe bet for businesses of all sizes.
Preis
Starting at $29 per mailbox every month.
Why We Like This Tool?
- Automatisiert triggers classify, categorize, and allocate discussions to various teams based on their content to organize emails and minimize the mess of shared inboxes.
- Multiple representatives can work in the inbox at the same time, and built-in collision prevention prevents them from working on duplicate emails.
What we do not like
- Helpmonk’s main flaws are related to speed, dependability, and bugs, at least on the SaaS platform.
Kayako
Kayako is packed with features and its technology is primarily concerned with uniting your customers’ interactions across email, Facebook, Twitter, and live chat channels while keeping all discussions organized and accessible. Kayako also provides information on customer satisfaction and response time.
Preis
The Classic On-Premise package begins at $59/user per month. Custom pricing is available for the Kayako cloud solution.
Why We Like This Tool?
- For smooth customer care, combine every communication with customers from several social media into a single collaborative inbox.
- Collaborate in conversation behind the scenes in order to ask about concerns and ensure consumers get the most valuable data.
- Allocate emails immediately, depending on their content.
What we do not like
- Interactions with Kayako customer service have proven difficult. The system itself can be glitchy, with difficult-to-detect intermittent faults.
ClientFlow
ClientFlow functions similarly to an email client but provides a further level of project management aimed at aiding customer service teams. Its user-friendly design makes handling interactions with customers, approval, and duration tracking a breeze.
Preis
Starting from $19.00/month
Why We Like This Tool?
- Assign discussions to specific teams depending on their expertise so that they may log in and instantly see the emails that are most relevant to them.
What we do not like
- Sometimes takes too long to get back to queries.
Vorderseite
Front, a popular best shared inbox email, is focused on saving time by allowing you to manage all your accounts in one spot. You can react to emails, SMS, Facebook, Twitter, and real-time chat through the app, providing consumers with superior service regardless of where they contact you. Another helpful feature is the ability to collaborate on email editing, similar to Google Docs. This encourages teamwork while avoiding redundant answers.
Preis
Starts at $59 per seat per month.
Why We Like This Tool?
- When you tag others in email comments, you may easily collaborate to ask clarifying questions or get context.
- Combines with your favorite CRM and many business apps to increase flexibility in processes.
What we do not like
- The plugin is a little puzzling. Because of the top-down feature and lack of a distinct color line, it might be difficult to distinguish between orders and subscriptions.
DragApp
DragApp is an online collaboration tool that claims to provide “everything teams need to get work done.” The software consists of three major components: a shared email for teamwork, task management software for workflow, and an internal team chat for communication. The objective is to close the divide between email and tasks while providing outstanding client service. The task log, mail assignments and notes, shared drafts, collision detection, and automated processes are all included in the shared inbox.
Preis
$5 per user each month.
Why We Like This Tool?
- Columns may be created in your Gmail inbox using project management-style boards to split emails by content.
- The support staff can see their workload and readily locate the discussions that belong to them.
What we do not like
- Unprofessional customer support.
Helprace
Helprace is a ticketing system that also includes a shared mailbox. You’ll be able to route tickets automatically depending on a sender’s user group, organization, or other factors, in addition to basic capabilities like internal notes or tags. Helprace also allows you to customize your replies so that they appear to your clients as emails. If you prefer something different, you may use the visual editor to build your design.
Preis
$9 per user each month.
Why We Like This Tool?
- Create four channels within your shared inbox (questions, suggestions, issues, and compliments).
- The support teams can quickly determine the sort of action needed and obtain the resources they require before responding.
What we do not like
- Users dislike having to subscribe to various sections of the service to have comprehensive software to serve their clients.
Hiver
Hiver, a Chrome plugin, may be an excellent alternative for your team if you use Gmail as your email client. Hiver allows you to manage and communicate on shared inboxes directly from your Gmail inbox, resulting in a minimal learning curve because you retain your original inbox experience. It also includes standard shared inbox functionality such as automation, tagging, internal dialogues, and email delivery.
Preis
Ab $15 pro Nutzer und Monat.
Why We Like This Tool?
- Efficiently allocate jobs and follow email progress to ensure consumers receive the assistance they want on time.
- For seamless workflows, comment, interact, and exchange notes with teams without leaving the app.
What we do not like
- Not being able to designate alerts as unread.
Helpwise
Helpwise is another tremendous shared inbox app that can increase productivity for your team and streamline workflows. It allows users to work on a shared mailbox, with an emphasis on shared accounts such as SMS, social media, and live chat.
Preis
One shared account is free. More expensive plans begin at $15 per month.
Why We Like This Tool?
- There are other features like assigning a person to a conversation, tagging, and communicating with your coworkers.
- Recommended for teams looking for a straightforward platform to handle social media messaging.
What we do not like
- No log-in and out times, and emails are not sorted from oldest to newest.
Missive
The Missive is more of a full email client than a shared inbox service. According to the company’s ideology, “the main aspect of the app has to be so excellent that consumers want to consume all of their email accounts in it.” Keeping this in mind, Missive displays all of your email accounts, even private ones. It supports all email configurations, allowing you to manage your team’s inbox and your Facebook, SMS, and Twitter accounts from a single location.
Preis
$14 per user each month.
Why We Like This Tool?
- Reduce the confusion caused by email sorting by allocating discussions to the appropriate teams depending on their topic.
- Email comments allow support teams to interact seamlessly.
Things we do not like:
- There is no quote/reply function in chat.
- On chat, there are no message read ticks.
Shared Inbox Best Practices
Below are some good shared inbox practices to help you execute things better.
- Create systems of accountability so every member is held responsible.
- Define responsibilities for your team members to avoid confusion in handling emails.
- Record processes and responses outside of the mailbox.
- Make folders or labels for your mailbox to organize better.
- Create boundaries around access to enhance security.
- Establish response time guidelines to enable timely communication.
- Periodically review and archive old emails to ensure your shared inbox remains clutter-free.
Schlussfolgerung
Shared inbox tools allow teams to interact and handle shared inboxes and eliminate the manual distribution of work. You don’t have to be concerned about losing critical information in silos or missing a customer email. Your redundant processes such as email assignments can be automated so no more worrying about duplication. While the market brims with options, focus on your company’s needs and choose the finest tool for you.