Tutorials / Getting value

Getting value . 3 min read

Work the shared inbox without tripping over each other

Text, email, Facebook, Instagram, web chat and phone all land in one place, and everything from one person sits in a single thread no matter which channel they used. That is the whole idea: you read a conversation, not six apps.

What you are looking at

The screen is four panels, left to right:

  • Inbox, which filters you are looking through, such as unread or the ones assigned to you.
  • Chat list, the conversations themselves.
  • Message history, the thread with that person.
  • Right panel, who they are and their record, collapsible with the tab on the right edge.

You can drag the dividers to make a panel wider if you live in this screen all day.

Finding what actually needs you

Open an unread conversation and it jumps straight to the first unread message with a New divider, so you are not rereading yesterday. The unread count updates live and stays visible from any tab, which means you can sit on Mine and still see when something new arrives.

Two habits for a team. Assign a conversation to a person rather than leaving it in the pile, because unowned threads are the ones answered twice or not at all. And reply in the thread rather than from your own phone, or the next person sees half a conversation and guesses at the rest.

If it came in after hours

Anything that arrives overnight is still sitting there in the morning, in order, with the channel marked. The automatic replies you have set up appear in the same thread, so you can see what was already said on your behalf before you pick it up.

Next: Send one email to a whole list