This is an email address that you can use with several agents within your organization. In other words, a mailbox where several people have access to all incoming and outgoing messages. Departments and related areas of responsibility can use it to optimize their communication and interact with users in a unified way via an address like support@domain.com or sales@domain.com.
It makes sense to use a shared mailbox if individual messages could be lost in the mass of requests or if you want to transfer the dependency of a single person to the responsibility of a group or an entire team. More eyes - better overview!
But what are the advantages of a shared email inbox?
- The whole team writes and receives emails from a single email address
- Different agents can access a common history
- In the event of illness or absence, a single person is no longer responsible for providing access and information
- You give your organization a consistent image and users always know where to turn
- Shared mailboxes can be created for all matters and topics (and are also great filters for the thematic classification of requests)
- In Zammad we show you who is currently editing conversations to avoid double editing
If you are ready to improve your customer service with a shared inbox, you also have to think about the next steps: Who takes care of what? What has already been done and what is still missing? An issue tracking system like Zammad helps you to clarify exactly these responsibilities and to keep track of what is going on.
In Zammad, every conversation in your shared mailbox (as well as from phone calls, forms, and chats, if you wish) is uniformly displayed as one ticket with history, current agent, status, and priority. This way no conversation thread gets lost anymore - no matter who is currently in charge of answering it. In addition, instructions and notes from other team members can be exchanged and within the shared processing process.
Start by thinking about the issues users would contact you about and set up the appropriate email addresses for each department or product. In the second step, all possible agents need access to the mailbox and a workflow with rules that determine who takes care of which requests. Afterward, let your users know where to turn for help with the issues.
We can help you bring structure to your shared inbox. To do this, install the free open-source version of Zammad or try our hosted carefree version for 30 days completely free of charge. In our product documentation, we have described in detail how you can add email inboxes to your new helpdesk system.
If you want to take your support with Zammad to the next level, here we show you the potential of text modules, a knowledge base, and other partial automation.
If separate email accounts lead to conflicts of responsibility, or if requests and information about processes simply get lost, you should consider having uniform access to your communication channels. For example, shared mailboxes allow for conversations with common conversations that are independent of people. With an issue tracking system like Zammad, you can also organize the division of tasks and keep track of everything. This takes the responsibility of individuals and transfers it to an entire team.
