While similar in name, a shared inbox and a shared mailbox are nothing alike. Sharing an email account between colleagues in gmail or outlook (a shared mailbox) is often the first step teams take to collaborate on email.
When teams grow and conversations pick up in speed and complexity, a team must eventually rethink how they process email. Conversations falling through the cracks cost clients and revenue.
Especially when trying to build a task-orientated workflow, sharing an inbox will not cut it. But first things first, what is the difference between a shared mailbox and a shared inbox?
What is a Shared Mailbox
A shared mailbox isn't more than a setting on a regular email account in your Gmail or Outlook. Instead, it is a feature that allows multiple users to access and manage a single email account.
A shared mailbox can be helpful for teams or organizations to share information and communicate with multiple people around one topic. collaboration is vital when it comes to scaling customer inquiries and support requests.
Key features:
Send and receive emails from a team email address like info@ or support@
Access all sent and received emails from a group inbox
What is a Shared Inbox
Similar in name, a shared inbox is a powerful email management tool offering features that help boost productivity and efficiency.
Shared inbox tools often come with features that make it easier for teams to collaborate on email, such as assigning tasks and messages to specific team members, tracking progress, and seeing who is working on what.
Teams stay organized and on top of their workload by connecting shared inbox tools with productivity tools, such as project management software.
Shared inboxes are often used by customer support teams, sales teams, and other groups that need to manage a high volume of emails and work collaboratively to respond to inquiries and requests. It extends the functionality a shared mailbox offers with the following:
Connect to customer data
Assign messages to team members
Add private, internal notes
Prevent duplicate replies
Conclusion
A shared mailbox is often the start of a journey to optimize team collaboration. Companies upgrade to a shared inbox tool when things get more complicated. With a shared inbox, team members can easily access and manage incoming messages and requests, ensuring that no vital information is missed or overlooked.
The next step?
When conversations still fall through the cracks, and your team feels overwhelmed? It may be time to upgrade your shared inbox tool for something smarter than a shared inbox. Tons of work hide in all those messages, and a shared inbox won't help you to get that work done... RogerRoger does. 😉
By integrating task management capabilities into your shared inbox, team members can easily add tasks to emails, assign them to one another, track their progress and manage projects. Whatever solution you choose, make sure it fits the stage your company and team are in.
Feel free to contact us for any help in your resource or questions about what RogerRoger can do for you and your team's productivity.
