Crafting a better work experience

As a small business owner, you are probably aware of the importance of offering first-rate customer service to the development and success of your enterprise. It can enhance your entire reputation and brand image in addition to helping you to retain current consumers and draw in new ones.

In today's competitive market, it's important to go above and beyond in meeting the needs and expectations of your customers. In fact, a recent study from American Express showed that 33% of people would consider switching companies immediately after receiving poor customer service.

This article will explore customer service tips for small businesses to provide a top-notch client experience.

Why Is Customer Service Important for Small Businesses?

Most of us know that providing good customer service is important, however, it might be a little harder to express why this is true. By understanding why customer service is important you'll be able to better understand why investing in it is a good idea for your business.

There are 4 principal reasons why investing in customer service might be a good idea for your business.

1. Customer satisfaction & revenue: Providing high-quality customer service leads to increased customer satisfaction, which can lead to loyal customers and repeat business. It can be particularly important if your small business has a limited customer base. A study found that 89% of businesses with customer service that is significantly above average had better revenues than their competitors.
2. Competitive advantage: It would be surprising to learn that your business is in a competitor-free space. Providing exceptional customer support can differentiate your small business from your competitors, giving it a competitive advantage in the market.
3. Brand reputation: Providing high-quality customer service can improve your business's brand reputation, making it more attractive to potential customers.
4. Improve product or service: Providing excellent support can provide valuable customer feedback that can be used to improve your product or service.

Good customer service is essential for providing assistance and support to customers before, during, and after they purchase your products or services. And happy customers are not likely to switch to your competitor.

In fact, a recent study showed that a bad experience will almost make your customer switch to your competitor. The same study showed that 64% of consumers think that pricing is less important than their experience.

While it might be hard as a small team to provide a good customer experience and it can be tempting to automate your customer support, it's important to make sure the interactions you have with your clients provide value and respond to their needs.

Creating a positive reputation for your business is an amazing asset to develop. Indeed, study showed that 72% of customers will share their positive experience with others. After all, word of mouth from happy customers is one of the most powerful forms of marketing.

It's well known by now that keeping customers is better in the long term than continually attracting new ones.  and clients who had a good experience are more likely to stay and repeat their purchase over and over again.

Another aspect of customer service that is less talked about is the fact that it provides a great communication channel with your clients. It can be valuable to gain insight into your product or service from people actually using it and to discover new segments or use cases that you didn't think about in the first place.

What Makes Good Customer Service?

Great client service is only as good as the people delivering it. After all, they are responsible for managing customer interactions and ensuring that clients are happy with their experiences.

To make it efficient, helpful, and personalized, you should follow some key aspects:

• Communication: Being able to effectively communicate with customers, both in terms of listening to their needs and expressing information clearly.
• Empathy: Understanding and being able to relate to the customer's perspective, and showing genuine care and concern for their satisfaction.
• Responsiveness: Being able to efficiently address any issues or concerns that your customer may have, and providing timely solutions. all the new communication channels, people expect faster response time than ever before.
• Problem-solving: Being able to identify and resolve issues and challenges and to provide solutions that are satisfactory to the customer.

But you might be wondering how can you make sure the service you provide actually answers these questions. Well, it has been proven that we're not good at analyzing if the service we provide is good or not. So why not use your interactions with your clients to gain some valuable feedback and work on the parts that could be improved

Overall, great customer care is about making your clients feel valued and satisfied and going above and beyond to meet their needs and expectations. With the customer service best practices, you can ensure that you’re offering a great experience to your clients.

The Best Solutions for Your Small Business Customer Service

A great way to ensure you can offer a great customer experience to your customers is by using customer service software to manage all inquiries. We've already covered the best customer service email software in another article, but here's a summary of the 5 best solutions to help you offer the best customer support.

14 Tips for Successful Customer Service in Your Small Business

As we’ve seen, offering great support is crucial for any small business. We've gartered the best tips that we've observed from our own experience to help you bring your customer service to the next level.

While our goal isn't to help you build a customer service plan from the ground up. We think these strategies will provide a way to implement a consistent and effective way to manage interactions with your customers.

We also recommend you have a look at our best practices for customer service guide to learn more.

Here are 14 small business customer service tips you should start using.

1. Show Love and Care

Showing love and care helps to foster a positive relationship with clients. This can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, which can ultimately result in repeat business and positive word-of-mouth advertising for your business. Additionally, showing love and care can also help to reduce the likelihood of negative customer experiences, which can damage the reputation of your company.

In a small business, where every customer matters, demonstrating love and care can be a valuable tool for building and maintaining a successful customer service experience.

2. Use Feedback to Improve

It can be beneficial that the feedback from your customers is used by your company to help improve the overall customer experience but also your product and/or service. Your clients are in the best place to let you know what works and what doesn’t with your offer.

You can also use their feedback to develop new features, new products, or new services as you will probably learn what are the limitations they are facing.

3. Offer a Comprehensive Self-Help Resource

According to an article published in Harvard Business Review, 81% of customers attempt to resolve problems themselves before contacting customer service. Creating resources your users or future clients can access 24/7 to solve and answer their basic questions or problems can help your business, no matter what you’re offering.

A comprehensive and easy-to-navigate self-help section on your website can bring many benefits:

• Provide customers with immediate answers to their most common questions, which can save them time and effort to reach out to support. This can also free up your customer service team to focus on more complex and urgent inquiries, allowing them to provide better service to customers who do need to contact them.
• Improve the overall customer experience by making it easy for customers to find the information they need quickly and efficiently. This can reduce frustration and improve customer satisfaction, leading to higher levels of customer loyalty and retention.

A well-designed self-service section on your website can provide numerous benefits for both your customers and your customer service team. However, you should make sure that your knowledge base content stays accurate and that it is updated regularly.

4. Be Effective

Being able to efficiently and effectively solve your customers’ problems and meet their needs is important for small businesses because it helps to improve customer satisfaction and retention.

According to a study done by Statista, 27 percent of the respondents cited lack of effectiveness as the primary cause of their customer service frustration.

When customers feel like their issues are being addressed in a timely and satisfactory manner, they are more likely to continue doing business with the company.

Try focusing on effectiveness in your customer interactions instead of just trying to resolve the most tickets in the least amount of time. This way, you can avoid frustration from your clients.

5. Give the Same Level of Support to All Customers

Giving the same support to the smaller clients as you would for the bigger ones can be beneficial for your business. Often the smaller ones are the most public in their praise and love for your product.

Small businesses often rely on word of mouth for their reputation, and if a small customer feels neglected or not valued, they are more likely to speak negatively about your business to others. On the other hand, if a small customer feels valued and receives excellent customer service, they are more likely to spread positive word of mouth and potentially bring in more business.

Giving the same level of support to all customers also shows a level of fairness and consistency, which can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. Customers are more likely to continue using a business if they know they will receive the same level of support every time.

Furthermore, as a small business, you probably have limited resources and may not be able to offer different levels of support based on the size or value of a customer. Treating all customers equally allows your company to utilize its resources efficiently and effectively.

6. Follow-Up with Customers

Following up with customers has been a big win for us at Missive since the very beginning. When you’re small, you don’t have all the features that some of your bigger competitors might have.

We’ve followed up on emails 2+ years old. People were a lot more impressed that we did follow up after all this time than annoyed, especially since we were shipping a feature they wanted or that blocked them to try Missive to begin with.

7. Be Honest

Honesty is a crucial aspect of excellent customer service because it helps to build trust and credibility with your customers. When you are upfront and transparent about your products and services, customers are more likely to feel confident in their decision to do business with you.

If one of your customers has a problem or complaint, it is important, to be honest about the situation and take steps to resolve it in a timely and satisfactory manner. It demonstrates a commitment to customer satisfaction and can help to prevent negative reviews or complaints from spreading.

At the very beginning of Missive, we weren’t afraid to refer people to competitors. That is also when follow-ups are important. You have some leads that you have redirected somewhere else, but you know you can eventually reach back with a good chance to convert.

Being honest means being upfront about your products and services, including any potential limitations or restrictions. It also means being open and honest about any mistakes or issues that may arise and working to resolve them quickly and fairly.

8. Be Responsive and Available to Customers

According to HubSpot Research, 90% of customers say “immediate” responses to customer service questions are important or very important. In addition, according to 60% of customers, "immediate" means within 10 minutes.

While answering all customers’ questions within 10 minutes might be hard for a small business with limited resources, it is still important to be responsive and available to your clients.

When customers feel like they can rely on a company to quickly and efficiently address their needs, they are more likely to return and recommend the business to others.

Additionally, being responsive and available can help small businesses to identify and resolve customer issues more quickly preventing small issues from turning into larger problems that may be more difficult and costly to fix.

At Missive, we rarely have emails sit in the team inbox for more than a few hours. The right balance between immediate (a lot of questions get answered by themselves if you give people a bit of time and good self-help resources) and too long (you do want your customers to feel like you’re dedicated and responsive) has to be found.

Overall, being responsive and available to customers is an essential part of providing good customer service, and it is especially important for small businesses that rely on customer loyalty and repeat business to thrive.

9. Don’t Get Overwhelmed

Getting overwhelmed by the support of customers’ requests can result in poor communication, slow response times, and a lack of attention to detail. This can lead to frustrated customers who do not feel valued or heard, which can ultimately harm the reputation of your business.

At Missive, it’s been a tremendous weight off our collective shoulders when we started using assignments to stop receiving replies that were assigned to someone else. We know we’re all always a single @mention away.

With good customer service collaboration, team members are not overwhelmed. They can take the time to fully understand customer needs and provide personalized, efficient solutions leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

10. Know Your Product

As a small business owner, you probably know your product or service down to the last detail. But by making sure your team is knowledgeable about your product or service, they will be able to better understand and address customers’ questions and concerns. This can help to build trust and confidence with clients.

Knowing your product also allows you to be proactive in addressing potential problems or issues that may arise. If you are familiar with the product or service, you can anticipate potential issues and work to prevent them from occurring. This can save you time and resources, as well as improve the overall customer experience.

In addition, having a deep understanding of your product or service allows you to better tailor your customer service to the needs of your customers. You can offer personalized recommendations or solutions based on your knowledge of the product or service, helping to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

11. Offer Personalized Service

By treating your customers as individuals rather than just a transaction, you can differentiate yourself and stand out from competitors. This means going above and beyond to ensure that each customer feels valued and appreciated. Taking the time to understand a customer's unique needs and tailoring the service to meet those needs can help build strong, long-lasting relationships.

When a customer feels like they are being treated as an individual rather than just a transaction, they are more likely to return to your business in the future. This helps to increase customer retention and can ultimately lead to increased profits.

12. Be Present on Multiple Communication Channels

Having a presence on multiple communication channels allows customers to choose the method that they feel is most comfortable and convenient to use.

A study from Statista found that 42% of customers prefer calling, 20% prefer emailing, and 38% prefer digital channels to contact customer service.

Depending on the industry, these numbers can change. And chances are, if you’re a SaaS, emails will be among the preferred methods to get support.

Being available on multiple platforms, like email, SMS, live chat, phone call, and social media is a great way to build a good relationship with clients.

13. Use Canned Responses

Adding a response to a draft is really easy with the search option.

You are probably getting a lot of the same questions over and over again and manually answering all of them can be time-consuming, especially for a small team. Canned responses are a great way to make replying to these emails a lot faster.

Templates also allow you to ensure that all responses to common questions are consistent and that your customers receive the same level of service and information no matter who they are interacting with within your business.

Using canned responses can also free up time for your team to focus on more complex or unique customer inquiries, allowing for better and more efficient customer service overall.

However, as we’ve seen in the previous tip, personalized service is the key. It’s best to personalize these templates with variables to make your reply more friendly.

14. Use the Right Tools

Using internal tools for customer service can greatly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the support provided. With good collaboration software for small businesses such as Missive, you and your team can easily work together to track and respond to customer inquiries, resolve issues more quickly, and improve overall customer satisfaction.

Overall, using technology can help you provide better, faster, and more personalized service, which can lead to increased customer loyalty and ultimately, more business for your small company.

There are many tools and platforms available that can help your business improve its customer cares, such as live chat, a customer relationship management (CRM) system, and a messaging system.

These tools can help you to respond to customers quickly and efficiently but having to switch between all these apps can be counterproductive. With Missive, you can gather all your communications channels in one collaborative communication tool that integrates many other tools you might already be using.

Conclusion

In order to maximize customer satisfaction, gain a competitive edge in the market, build a favorable brand reputation, and develop your products or services, exceptional customer service is crucial for your company. Effective communication, empathy, responsiveness, and problem-solving are all key components of a positive customer experience.

By implementing the 14 tips discussed in this article, you can improve customer service and provide a top-notch experience for your clients.

Have questions on how can Missive help your business? Read how LANDR is using Missive to solve customer inquiries efficiently or book a demo!

Microsoft Outlook shared inbox rules are one of the oldest features of the software. They allow users to set certain rules and actions for new emails that land in the inbox. These rules can be used to delete certain emails, move them to a specified folder or reply to emails.

But creating rules for a shared mailbox in Outlook (part of Microsoft 365) isn’t the most straightforward process.

In this blog, we’ll take a look at how these rules can be set up, the most common problems with shared mailbox rules in Outlook and how can Missive could be a better alternative.

How to Create Rules for a Shared Mailbox in Outlook?

Rules in a shared Outlook mailbox are a great way to allow your team to manage incoming emails in a team inbox.

You can create rules to send emails to the right folder to remove certain people from emails so they are only viewed by the right member of the team.

To create rules for a shared mailbox in Outlook, you will need to have full access to the mailbox and be able to log in to it.

If you don’t already have a shared mailbox, follow these instructions first to create one.

Creating Shared Mailbox Rules on Outlook on the Web

To create rules in Outlook on the web you’ll need to open a shared mailbox in a new browser’s window. To do so:

1. Sign in to your Outlook 365 account on the web.
2. Click on your name in the top right corner of the window.
3. Click on Open another mailbox...
4. Choose the shared mailbox in which you want to add rules by entering its email address.

With that shared mailbox opened you can set up a rule by doing as follow:

1. In the setting menu ⚙️ located on the top right, select the  Inbox and sweep rules in the Mail > Automatic processing section.
2. In the Inbox Rules window click on the + to create a new rule.
3. Name your new rule.
4. From there you can create your rule and set up the conditions, exceptions, and actions you want it to accomplish.
5. When you’re done, click on Ok to save.

Creating Shared Mailbox Rules on PC and Mac

Outlook 365 on PC

1. On your PC, open the Outlook app.
2. In the menu bar click on File and then select Manage Rules & Alerts. You can also access this menu by clicking on Rules and Manage Rules & Alerts in the Outlook ribbon
3. In the new window, select the shared mailbox from the menu named Apply changes to this folder.
4. Create a rule by clicking on New Rule.

Outlook 365 on Mac

This menu is only available for managed accounts.

1. On your Mac, open the Outlook app.
2. From the menu bar, select Tools > Rules.
3. In the new window, you’ll be able to select the shared account to which you would like to add a rule.
4. You can then select the type of information you want, such as From, Recipients, or Subject, by clicking on the arrows in the first box. Make sure to select all the conditions for your rule.
5. You can add terms by clicking on Add search terms. Add each term you want to the search list.

Can Microsoft Outlook or Office 365 Rules Be Shared?

Microsoft Outlook and Office 365 (recently renamed Microsoft 365) individual rules can be shared with other users in your organization. To do this, you can use the "Rule Sharing" feature in Outlook, which allows you to share your rules with other users in your organization.

On the other hand, rules created for shared mailboxes are already shared among all team members as they are assigned to the specific mailbox. The rules can be created, modified, and deleted by any member of the mailbox as long as they have Full Access permission.

Rules to Manage Your Outlook Team’s Shared Mailbox More Easily

Note: These rules are applicable to those running the old Outlook. The new Outlook removed certain functionality, including rules that customized sounds and printed emails.

1. Send Automatic Replies to Emails

Setting up a rule to automatically reply to certain incoming emails can help you and your team. It can be especially useful to set up for a support inbox as it will let know your customer that you’ve received their messages and that you’ll get back to them as soon as possible.

To do so:

1. In the Microsoft 365 portal, click on Groups and then Shared mailboxes.
2. Select the shared mailbox you want to set up an auto-reply to.
3. On the right of the menu, click on Automatic replies.
4. Write the reply you want to be sent automatically.

2. Filter emails coming to a shared email alias in folders

Some shared email aliases are really general and broad. It can be useful to filter incoming emails into categorized folders to improve your team's efficiency.

To do so:

1. Create a new rule by following the steps above.
2. As the condition select Move messages with specific words in the subject to a folder as the template and click on Next.
3. Next, select the condition you want to be met for this rule to apply. For example: with specific words in the subject. Once selected click on Next.
4. Next, we want to select the action the rule will perform. This time let's select: with specific words in the subject. Click Next.
5. Lastly, you can select an exception when you don’t want to apply. If you don’t want an exception, click on Finish without any options selected.

3. Automatically Filter out These Annoying Outreach Emails

Like almost anyone at this point, your inbox is probably bombarded with unwanted or annoying outreach emails

There are a few different approaches you can take to automatically filter them out. The most commonly used is to use a spam filter, which can automatically identify and move spam emails to a separate folder or mark them as spam. Most email providers, like Outlook, include one built-in.

But some of them still manage to slip into the cracks. Another approach you can take is to create custom rules in Microsoft 365 to automatically move or delete emails that match certain criteria.

To do so:

1. Create a new rule by following the steps above.
2. As the condition select Move messages with specific words in the subject to a folder as the template and click on Next.
3. Next, select the condition you want to be met for this rule to apply. For example: with specific words in the subject. Once selected click on Next.
4. Next, we want to select the action the rule will perform. This time let's select: with specific words in the subject or body. Click Next.
5. Enter the words you want to trigger the rule, such as "outreach" or "sales pitch".
6. Lastly, you can select an exception when you don’t want to apply. If you don’t want an exception, click on Finish without any options selected.

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Common Problems with Shared Mailbox Rules in Outlook

There are several common problems that users may encounter when working with rules in a shared mailbox in Microsoft Outlook.

The most common problems tend to be related to permissions and configuration, and can usually be resolved by an administrator with the appropriate knowledge and experience.

1. Inability to create or modify rules: In some cases, users may not have sufficient permissions to create or modify rules in a shared mailbox. This can be due to the mailbox being set up with the wrong permissions, or the user not having the appropriate permissions.
2. Rules not applying to all messages: If the user has created a rule that is supposed to apply to all messages in the mailbox, it may not be triggered for messages sent to a specific email address or folder. This can be due to a misconfiguration of the rule, or the mailbox not being set up properly.
3. Rules not working properly: In some cases, rules may not work as intended, or may not be triggered at all. This can be due to a number of factors, such as incorrect settings or conflicting rules.
4. Inability to customize rules for individual users: Shared mailbox rules are typically applied to all users, which may not be suitable for everyone.
5. Potential for rule conflicts: Shared mailbox rules may overlap or conflict with each other, leading to unexpected behavior or incorrect application of rules.
6. Not enough space: Outlook's inbox rules are limited to 256 KB in both the web and desktop apps. You will need space in your mailbox for each rule you create. The space limit only applies to enabled *inbox *rules.

Even if you’re following the shared mailbox best practices and setting up rules correctly in Microsoft 365, it can be hard to manage all your team inboxes in Outlook.

How Do Missive Rules Compare to Shared Mailbox Rules in Outlook?

Outlook rules are a good way to manage shared mailboxes, but they are not the most straightforward to set up and are, not to say the least, basic. When trying to manage a shared inbox, team collaboration and workflow efficiency is the key to success.

Missive rules are a powerful way to automate your team's workflows. They work the same way Outlook 365 rules and Gmail filters do. When the rule conditions are met, the automated actions defined on the rule are triggered.

However, as opposed to Microsoft 365 rules, they can be executed when any message, let it be an email, SMS, tweet, DM, Facebook message, WhatsApp, or Missive Live Chat comes in or out of your inbox. They can also be defined by some user actions like applying/removing a label, changing the status of a conversation (assigned/closed/reopened), or posting a new comment in a conversation.

In addition, Missive offers a powerful way to use rules for better teamwork and productivity. For example, you can:

1. Round-Robin assignment to only employees online: With rules, you can automatically assign conversations to selected coworkers on a cyclical basis. Incoming conversations are rotated to online team members in the order they are received.

1. Make sure all emails get a reply on time: With time-based rules, you can respect your Service-level agreements (SLA). Rules can notify stakeholders when a message hasn’t been answered in the appropriate time and send auto-response messages to customers when the SLA has been breached.

1. Automatically assign sent emails to authors: With rules, you can auto-assign emails to the author. It can be useful if many employees send cold emails to customers using a common shared email account. By doing this, if the recipient replies, only the author will receive it in their inbox.

1. Add special notes to communication: With a simple rule, you can automatically add a note to each email. People in the team can use this information to better meet the needs of that customer.

There’s also the possibility of creating custom rules to automate your workflow. We’ve compiled a list of 15 templates to help you get started.

Still have questions? Learn how Canny’s team is taking advantage of Missive’s rules to be more efficient with their inbox or book a demo!

Technology has provided us with an array of channels through which to communicate. But this has given rise to a very modern dilemma: which one should you use when contacting your customers?

Today’s customers are hit with a barrage of information on a daily basis.

We all know the feeling of plowing through a bulging inbox each morning. We’re often selective about which to respond to, which to send straight to junk, and which to consign to the ‘do later’ stack.

Inevitably though, those never get done later. By the time you get around to it, there’s another stack of fresh emails to sift through. Sound familiar?

With that in mind, as a business, you must ask yourself whether adding to your customer’s neverending inbox is the optimum way of contacting them.

Maybe a quick call would be better? Or perhaps a text message?

The method of communication you choose could be the difference between a positive customer experience and a negative one.

In fact, a study by McKinsey & Company showed that one organization that redesigned its customer experience culture identified opportunities to improve profits by 15 to 20%.

Choosing the right method of communication plays a key role in creating a positive customer experience. So which one should you choose when contacting your customers?

Let’s take a look at the benefits and drawbacks of each.

Business Communication Methods

You might be wondering whether you even need all three types of communication today. In short, the answer is yes.

While methods such as phone calls and text messages may seem outdated, they still have a big part to play in today’s business world, especially when it comes to communicating with your customers.

It’s true that anyone under the age of 20 may snigger at the very idea of email – sarcastically referring to it as ‘snail mail’, perhaps throwing in a comment along the lines of “nobody uses that these days”. But it still plays a leading role in business communications.

Text, emails, and calls all have specific functions and, at least in the short- to medium-term, are here to stay.

The key is to learn when best to use them!

This may feel overwhelming at first. So rather than spending hours stewing over email best practices, let’s take a look at the different options for using each when contacting your customers.

Text vs Email vs Call

When considering the debate of text vs. email vs. call, a good place to start is by taking a close look at the pros and cons of each.

You may realize that there are far more pros than cons with all of these methods of communication. Even if you get things wrong, it’s unlikely that they will be terribly wrong.

Text Pros and Cons

While text messaging may seem unfashionable – something associated with a phone the size of a small car and performed by someone wearing very 1990s attire – you may be surprised to learn that its popularity is actually increasing.

Why? Because of its convenience, high response rates, immediacy, and scalability.

Texts are also fast, easy to reply to, inexpensive, and allow the customer to respond in their own time. Plus, the majority of customers read text messages.

What’s not to like?

Well, the cons include a limited character count, difficulty in conveying voice, and lack of security.

What’s more, it’s tricky gaining a positive reaction from a limited text message, and they can come across as very impersonal, particularly if sent in bulk.

That said, there are ways to overcome this. You may want to consider getting a text messaging service for businesses that can help with how your organization handles this part of your operations.

Email Pros and Cons

As you’ll know from your daily business interactions, email is a huge part of professional communication today.

Emails are excellent for record-keeping, which can be vital as evidence in case of a dispute. They’re also scalable, have unrestricted timing, and are cheap.

If you send out a lot of emails, a good email management software will help your teams collaborate efficiently. This is particularly important for staying on the same page when more than one person may have to contact the same customer.

Missive’s team inbox and chat app allows teams to collaborate around email

But it’s not all a bed of roses. As a consumer, you’ll no doubt have found yourself frustrated by an email. They can be impersonal, get buried in your spam, or arrive at an inappropriate time.

As a business, you may face the same challenges. When contacting customers, you cannot be sure they’ve received the email until they respond. Plus, if you send them too often, many people will stop paying attention.

Call pros and cons

While phone calls may seem like old news, they remain the ultimate form of personalized communication.

Depending on the nature of your business, it’s likely that not all of your customers will be tech-savvy millennials. So maintaining a healthy level of customer contact over the phone remains vital.

If you need to explain complex issues, nothing beats a phone call. Once you have the customer on the phone, you can have an immediate back-and-forth to ensure all details have been fully understood.

Phone calls are also less intimidating as they’re more like ‘real-world’ conversations. They’re also safer; you can verify exactly who is receiving the message.

But as with everything, calls do have their downside. They’re not scalable, are time-consuming, and are easy to ignore. Plus, the customer must be available and will have to stop what they’re doing to take the call.

With that in mind, if you’re a bigger organization that handles large volumes of calls, a strong VoIP for enterprise phone system is essential.

When to Use Each Type of Communication

A large part of deciding which type of communication to use is selecting the one that is most appropriate for each circumstance.

Let’s take a look at when (and when not) to use each method.

Quick and Concise

As mentioned earlier, business texting is actually increasing in use. It’s brief, to the point, and crystal-clear. It’s unlikely that a text message has left you scratching your head, right?

This ease of use means texting is most appropriate for short communications, such as sending out passcodes or informing a customer their online payment has been received.

When considering whether to send a text, determine if the message requires a response. If your answer is no, a text is probably your best bet. If the message requires a simple yes or no response, then texting is also appropriate.

Texting is best avoided when contacting new customers as it’s impersonal. Keep in mind as well that due to the lack of security, texting is inappropriate for sending confidential or sensitive information.

Elaborating on a Message

Emailing is such a big part of our daily business communications that we barely give a second thought as to whether it’s appropriate or not in any given situation.

So what is the ideal situation? Emails are great when you don’t need an immediate response. For this reason, many customers favor them as they can reply in their own time.

Emails also give you a chance to showcase your brand. You could even create a dynamic email signature to create a clear and memorable brand identity.

Emails are also appropriate if you need to send links or attach files. They are far more detailed than texts and will leave a lasting record that both you and your customers can refer back to.

So you could consider using emails to send documents, engage with leads or provide customers with delivery updates.

On the flip side, if your communication requires an urgent response, an email shouldn’t be your first port of call.

Additionally, if the communication is confidential or your previous emails have gone unanswered, consider a call instead.

Making it Personal

In the high-tech modern environment with its plethora of communication channels, it may seem surprising that an old-fashioned phone call is still in vogue.

But sometimes people just need to hear another human voice. As a result, those old-fashioned phone communications remain relevant in the age of multimedia.

In the business world, phone calls are still the optimum method of communication for when you need an immediate answer or to convey an urgent message. For example, if you need to change or even cancel an appointment, phone calls are your friend.

There’s no limit to a phone call and you can more clearly convey your message. For that reason, calls are great for clarifying points that your email communication has failed to get across or following up on unanswered emails.

Given their personal nature, phone calls are also the optimum way for conveying confidential information, taking customer feedback, or persuading leads to take that vital next step.

However, calls can also be inconvenient, particularly if they come out of the blue. So be sure to call people at appropriate times of the day and keep calls concise to avoid wasting customers’ time.

Contact Your Customers the Right Way

When deciding which type of communication to use for a given scenario, it comes down to a three-pronged attack.

1. Evaluate the pros and cons of each method.
2. Consider which is the most appropriate for each scenario.
3. Confirm your communication method based on the findings of your appraisal.

Maintaining contact with your customers is an integral part of any business. By choosing the best method for each individual situation, you can ensure a positive customer experience.

Taking Advantage of Emails, Texts, & Calls in One PlaceThere's no need to juggle multiple communication apps when you can take advantage of emails, texts, and calls all in one place. With Missive and the Dialpad integration, you can take advantage of Missive's intuitive UI and the powerful Team Inboxes to manage and collaborate on all your communications without having to constantly switch between different apps.

Being able to easily keep track of all your conversations and messages in one place and collaborate with team members on customer communication is a major productivity boost.

Interested in seeing how can Missive help your teams collaborate better and be more productive? Book a demo today!

We all get submerged with tons of emails every day. And for many of us managing them and keeping an inbox free of clutter can be daunting. Unfortunately, the more we postpone the task the worst it gets.

Luckily for us, a lot of techniques and tools have been developed to help us overcome this challenge, but one, in particular, has become the go-to for a lot of people.

The inbox zero method!

In this article, you will learn about the benefits of achieving and maintaining inbox zero, the steps and strategies you can follow to master it, and the tools you can use to stay there.

What is Inbox Zero?

Inbox zero is a popular email management method aiming to help you keep your inbox organized and free of clutter by responding to or deleting emails as quickly as possible. The goal is to help you manage your email more efficiently, and reduce the stress and anxiety associated with having a cluttered inbox by keeping your inbox empty or almost empty at all times.

The inbox zero method was first introduced by Merlin Mann on his website 43 Folders. However, the technique gained traction when Mann gave a talk in 2007 at Google Tech Talk. He explained how inbox zero could be used to help people manage their email.

The talk and subsequently the inbox zero method become so popular that a movement around this email management method to stay organized and manage email emerged since then.

On his blog, Mann published five principles to explain the concept:

1. Not all emails are equally important: Don't treat every email like it's urgent. Instead, focus on the few messages that matter the most.
2. Your time is valuable and limited: Don't try to respond to every email. Accept that you have more work than time and use time management strategies accordingly.
3. Shorter email responses are often better than longer ones: Avoid sending lengthy emails that waste time and don't add value.
4. Don't feel guilty about having a lot of emails in your inbox: It's common to have a full inbox, so focus on cleaning it up instead of feeling bad about it.
5. Be honest with yourself about your priorities and how much time you have: Don't pretend that you'll respond to every email when you know you won't. Instead, be realistic and focus on what matters most.

While a completely empty inbox may seem impossible, many people would argue that the core idea behind the inbox zero method isn't necessarily about having an inbox containing zero emails at the end of every day anymore. The goal is more about being able to deal with the constant stream of emails without having to stress or put too much focus into it.

With the right steps and strategies that we’ll explore below, you'll be able to achieve stress-free email management.

Is Inbox Zero a Good Idea for You?

Inbox Zero isn’t just good for your inbox.

According to a study by Atlassian, over-reliance on email to collaborate with team members is consuming a lot of our time in a workday.

The same study showed that we receive on average 304 business emails a week, look at our inbox on average 36 times per hour, and that it takes approximately 16 minutes to refocus after handling emails.

That's a lot of time wasted!

Being more productive and efficient with emails also helps you be more productive in your other tasks.

Benefits of Achieving Inbox Zero

While achieving inbox zero can prove challenging, it can also be extremely rewarding.

There are many benefits to achieving inbox zero, including:

• Improved focus and less stress
  
  For starters, achieving inbox zero can help you stay organized and on top of your emails. By responding to or deleting emails quickly, you can keep your inbox clean and organized. This can help you stay on top of important emails and make it easier to find emails when you need them.
• Increased productivity
  
  Achieving inbox zero can also help you be more productive. By responding to emails quickly and efficiently, you can free up your time to focus on important tasks and projects. This can help you get more done in less time, which can lead to increased productivity.
• Better organization
  
  Finally, achieving inbox zero can help you reduce stress. By responding to emails quickly and efficiently, you can avoid feeling overwhelmed by your inbox and reduce the stress caused by email overload.

How to Master the Inbox Zero Method?

With so many benefits let's explore how to master the inbox zero method. Here are the steps and productivity tips you can use to achieve and maintain inbox zero.

Steps to Achieving Inbox Zero

1. Unsubscribe from any email lists or newsletters that you no longer need or want

The first step to achieving inbox zero is to unsubscribe from any newsletters or email lists that you no longer want to receive. This can help reduce the number of emails you receive, making it easier to keep your inbox organized. You can use unsubscribe tools, do it manually via the link in each email, or use an email client, like Missive, with an unsubscribe button to easily send remove your address from the list.

2. Create folders or labels to organize your remaining emails

The next step is to create folders or labels to organize different types of emails. This can help you quickly find emails when you need them and keep your inbox organized.

3. Creating rules or filters to automatically sort incoming emails

The third step is to create email filters or rules to automatically sort incoming emails. This can help you quickly sort emails into their respective folders or labels so you don’t have to manually sort them every time.

4. Process each email in your inbox

According to the technique developed by Merlin Mann, each time you receive an email you should:

• Delete or achieve: If the email is no longer relevant or necessary, delete or achieve it if you might need it later.
• Delegate: If the email requires someone else or can’t be handled by you, delegate it to the appropriate person.
• Respond: If the email can be answered quickly and easily, respond immediately.
• Defer: If the email requires a longer or more involved response, or it needs a follow-up later, schedule time on your calendar to deal with it later.
• Do: If the email can be handled quickly and easily, do it immediately.

By following these steps and regularly checking and processing your email, you can maintain an empty inbox and stay on top of your email communications.

Strategies for Staying at Inbox Zero

Achieved inbox zero is great, but staying with an empty inbox is another challenge.

To make sure you’re staying on top of your emails and that your inbox doesn’t fill up again here are some strategies you can use to stay at inbox zero.

1. Use the two-minute rule. This rule states that if an email can be dealt with in two minutes or less, do it. This can help you respond to emails quickly, so they don’t pile up in your inbox.
2. Use the “touch it once” rule. This rule states that if you open an email, you should respond to it, delete it or archive it, defer it, or delegate it. This can help you quickly deal with emails and keep your inbox organized.
3. Use the “no cc” rule. This rule states that if you’re not the primary recipient of an email, you should not respond to it. This can help you avoid unnecessary emails in your inbox and keep your inbox organized.
4. Limit the amount of time you check your inbox every day. Checking your emails once every hour or more for a few minutes is enough.

Email Management Tips for Achieving Inbox Zero

In addition to the steps and strategies listed above, there are also some email management best practices you can use to help you achieve and stay at inbox zero. Here are some tips that can help:

1. Use an email client that allows you to quickly sort and organize emails. This can help you quickly sort emails into their respective folders or labels and make it easier to find emails when you need them.
2. Use the “snooze” feature to temporarily hide emails. This can help you hide emails that you don’t need to respond to immediately but might need to reference later.
3. Use labels to quickly organize emails. This can help you quickly find emails when you need them and make it easier to stay organized.
4. Use canned responses to quickly reply to emails. This can help you respond to emails quickly and efficiently, so they don’t pile up in your inbox.

Tools to Help You Achieve Inbox Zero

There are a number of email management software that can help you achieve and stay at inbox zero. Email clients like Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail, and Gmail can help you quickly sort and organize and manage emails.

For example, here’s how you can achieve inbox zero with Gmail:

By taking advantage of a few basic Gmail functionalities you can declutter your mailbox:

• Take advantage of folders to categorize your emails
• Set up rules to filter incoming emails
• Sort messages with snooze, labels, and archive

But what about when you need to also manage shared mailboxes?

A tool like Missive can help you quickly respond to emails, stay organized, and achieve inbox zero while collaborating with your coworkers.

Second, there are productivity apps like Todoist, Evernote, and Trello. These apps can help you manage tasks and projects, so you can focus on responding to emails and achieving inbox zero.

How to Use the Inbox Zero Method with Missive?

We believe Inbox Zero is intended to make you more productive, not a slave to your inbox.

These tips are unique to Missive because we throw a collaborative aspect into the picture. Interesting right?

1. Check emails in batches

You can limit to getting 2 or 3 batches of emails per day. This will immediately free up dozens of minutes of your day. We wrote a popular blog post entirely dedicated to this topic.

Batching emails in Missive is quite easy. You can create rules to define when emails should land in your inbox.

When enabled, all emails arriving between 12:00 AM and 7:59 AM won't show up in your inbox until 8:00 am.

2. Use labels to organize your emails

By creating an organizational system, you can prioritize messages to easily know what should be worked on first. The system can be as meticulous or simple as you want.

We suggest a product management prioritization framework named the MoSCoW method. It helps you categorize emails into four unambiguous labels:

<div class="process-container label-container">  <div class="label-example red-label"> Must respond</div>  <div class="label-example yellow-label">Should respond</div>  <div class="label-example blue-label">Could respond</div>  <div class="label-example gray-label">Won't respond</div>

• Must respond: Emails that need to be dealt with, the non-negotiables. Otherwise, your email organization can suffer.
• Should respond: These are less time-sensitive than the "must haves", but can be as critical. Not answering them promptly won’t affect your business, but you do need to work on them eventually.
• Could respond: These emails could be answered if you have some spare time, nothing critical.
• Won't respond: Emails that have no impact on your work, just discard them.

In Missive you can create labels and sub-labels in the blink of an eye. But even more interesting, you can create sharedlabels. These can be shared across different teams, coworkers, or through the entire organization!

3. Delegate when possible

Using the prioritization method above, try to delegate your "could respond" emails to an assistant or someone in the team that can speak on your behalf.

In Missive you can seamlessly pass the baton to a colleague or assistant with the click of a button. You can even chat inside emails to let others know how a message should be dealt with. If you want we have an in-depth article about delegating to an executive assistant.

You can also easily delegate your calendar for someone else to manage!

4. Limit or eliminate your newsletter subscriptions

Take back control of your inbox and try unsubscribing from most newsletters.

In Missive you can create groups of contacts and then rules to automatically trash emails coming from them. You can create a group named "Spammers" and then a rule to delete emails from them. This is how you can build that rule:

5. Screen emails from strangers

Have a place where emails from strangers arrive, without email notifications. You can screen them and allow important ones to reach your inbox. This is a little different from a spam filter since these emails are not discarded immediately.

Not a lot of email clients have the power to offer this, but Missive does. You can achieve this by creating a rule like this one:

All emails coming from people outside your contact book will be removed from everyone’s Inbox and labeled “To Screen”.

To mark an email as safe, simply add the sender as a contact.

6. Snooze emails

When receiving an email that you need to differ, you should snooze it to a later time instead of keeping it in your inbox.

In Missive, you can snooze messages by clicking the Snooze button. You can also configure often-used schedules, like “After work” or “Early morning”.

Pro Tip Missive is big on privacy, we actively block read trackers so senders can’t know if and when you open their emails. So read emails at your discretion and reply when you see fit, no pressure.

Why Inbox Zero Method Might Be Bad?

Since Marlin Mann first talked about the concept of inbox zero in 2007 digital life has evolved tremendously. Now there is way more than an email inbox to manage.

There’s social media, chat apps, and even voicemail. And with smartphones and an internet connection almost everywhere, you’re always available to receive and view tons of messages.

In an article published on Wired in 2020, Mann re-explored his inbox management technique to adapt it to modern reality. While the inbox zero method is good at its core, there’s a risk to take it too literally and trying to achieve inbox zero through all means.

Marlin Mann's new take on the inbox zero method is to allow yourself time off and focus on what matters the most to you first. This way you can avoid stressing out with a technique meant to reduce stress caused by emails.

Conclusion

Achieving inbox zero can seem like an impossible task, but it doesn’t have to be. With a few simple steps and strategies, you can easily achieve and maintain inbox zero.

By unsubscribing from newsletters, creating folders or labels, creating filters or rules, responding to emails quickly, deleting emails, and archiving emails, you can keep your inbox clean and organized. In addition, you can use email management tips and tools, and services to help you achieve and stay at inbox zero.

To enhance your email productivity, you could also consider trying one of the best AI email assistants.

FAQ

What is the Inbox Zero Method?

The Inbox Zero method is an email management technique that focuses on quickly handling emails as they arrive:

• Respond immediately
• Delegate or forward right away
• Schedule or snooze for later
• Delete if irrelevant

This ensures you never miss important emails and that they don't pile up and cause you stress. The key is training yourself to take action on every email the moment you read it.

Is Inbox Zero a Real Thing?

Yes, Inbox Zero is a real email management technique with practical benefits. The goal is to handle each email immediately.

While truly having zero emails may seem impossible, even reducing your pile by half will declutter your head and boost productivity. You'll be less stressed and less likely to miss important messages.

The "zero" refers to taking care of incoming emails when you open them so you don't have a backlog of emails to deal with.

The process of switching between multiple apps to get all the information you need is counterproductive.

You may experience this problem if you have to switch between your CRM and email client to access information about your client.

Wouldn't it be great to quickly access all of the information you need directly in your email?

If you are using Missive to manage your personal and team emails and you want to display data from your own database or from a Google Sheet, Retool is a good tool to use.

Here is a tutorial on how to use the Retool integration to add this data to Missive.

What Is Retool?

Retool is a powerful and flexible tool that helps you build custom internal applications quickly and easily. It provides a simple, but powerful, drag-and-drop interface that lets you add any data source to custom applications and share them with your team.

How to Use Retool with Missive?

Retool is a great way to create a custom integration that connects a source of data with an application used by your team. You can easily use this low-code solution to build the internal tools you need to kickstart your team's productivity.

In this tutorial, we'll explore how to use Retool to display data from a Google Sheet next to your emails in Missive.

1. Creating Our Queries in Retool

To be able to see the data of a Google spreadsheet alongside conversations, we'll need to query our Google Sheet document in a Retool application embedded in Missive.

We must first create three queries in our Retool application. To do so, let's log in to Retool and create a new app by clicking on Create new > App. If you don't already have one, create a Retool account.

Then we must create our data queries:

1. One will query data from the Missive application.
2. One will query data from a Google Sheet.
3. One will merge those two data sources and display the correct data in the Retool application (Missive sidebar).

We can add a data source to your Retool application by clicking the + icon and selecting the Resource query. We will first create the query that gets the data of the selected conversation in Missive.

We can add a data source to your Retool application by clicking the + icon in the bottom left panel named Code and selecting Resource query.

To start let's create a query that will fetch the data of the selected conversation in Missive.

Below, we're calling the query getCurrentConversation , but feel free to change the name if you wish. The resource select should be set to ParentWindow and the selector input should be set to conversation.

The second query connects our Google Sheet to Retool. To create it, add a new query as we did previously. In Resource , select + Create a new resource. Then select Google Sheets and follow the instructions.

From there, we can select the spreadsheet you would like to connect to.

We can test with one that has the same columns as this one:

Lastly, we need to create the query that will merge the data from Missive with the spreadsheet. we'll simply name it query. For this one, select Query JSON with SQL as the Resource.

The query should be as follows:

select * from {{ googleSheet.data }} where Email = ANY({{getCurrentConversation.data.email_addresses.map(x => x.address.toLowerCase())}})

In a nutshell, this will find all of the rows in the spreadsheet where the email address is equal to at least one in the selected conversation in Missive.

2. Creating a UI for Missive

Now that we have the correct data, we can build a simple user interface to display it. In the right panel of the Retool editor, select the Create tab, then drag and drop the Key Value component in your application.

Then select the dropped component and in the Inspect tab of the right panel and in the Data input paste {{ query.data[0] }}.

That's it! We've got a basic but functional application.

Before we try it in Missive, let's make some stylistic changes to the Retool application so it renders better in the Missive right sidebar.

For this, select the More menu at the top-right corner, then select the Scripts and styles option.

Then paste this CSS code:

._retool-container-table1 {
   width: 100% !important;
}

._retool-container-keyValue1 {
   width: 100% !important;
}

The ._retool-container-keyValue1 class name depends on the name of your component. Make sure to update it according to your component name.

This CSS will make the component dynamically resize with the Missive sidebar width.

3. Adding Our Retool Application in Missive

It's time to try this in Missive! Copy the link View link of your application:

In Missive, open the Settings > Integrations and add a Retool integration, paste the copied link in the Retool public URL input:

Lastly, add this ?_embed=true at the end of the pasted URL. It will remove the Retool header from the integration for a far better look.

Also, make sure to disable the Enable mobile layout from your Retool app settings:

And here is the final result!

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Using Missive JS API from Retool

You can also take advantage of Missive JS API from your Retool app. Here are the steps to do so:

1. Enable parent window communication

By default, Retool will block any communication between the app and its parent window (Missive). You can enable it in your Beta settings:

2. Add missive-retool.js library to your Retool app

Add this script in the Scripts and styles section of your Retool app:

https://integrations.missiveapp.com/retool/missive-retool.js

3. Use the Missive JS API

You can now use the Missive JS API from your Retool app. You can, for example, add a link that will add new comments and tasks to the selected conversation:

All software needs limits. Almost every part of any software needs a hard limit. At least every part that deals with lists. In most languages and databases, this means arrays and strings.

This sounds obvious, but I suggest every engineer reading this open up their codebase and look around. Surely you have length validations here and there, but if you never dedicated half a day to go over all lists aiming to set a limit on each, you likely have several cracks remaining.

I do not mean obvious user-facing limits, such as “3 seats” or “15 days email history“ on our Free plan. I mean limits that 99% of users will never hit. For instance, pasting several paragraphs in your email subject instead of the body. Or likewise, typing the “Notes” of a contact in the “First name” field. Or everyone’s infinite loops you’ll be plagued with as soon as you introduce a public API.

The only scenario where you do not need a hard limit is when a list is always accessed through pagination. After all, pagination means there is already a LIMIT involved.

Embrace Hard Limits

I love hard limits. I love knowing they are there. I love introducing new ones with any new feature. Hard limits are key to keeping me asleep at night.

They are also low-effort; they don’t need public documentation. You naturally implement decent error messages for the few outliers that will hit them, but nobody needs to have these limits in mind to plan whether they will affect their business.

You should even make it a requirement to not have to disclose these limits. If you start seeing a significant enough number of exceptions, you’ve most likely just set it too low. The point is not to annoy or restrain users; it’s to avoid crashes. Increasing one limit from 500 to 1000 will not cause your app to crash, but it may make the difference between one user hitting that limit every month instead of every day.

It’s also an occasion to remember that our world is diverse. Stay humble, accept and embrace the fact that some of your customers will have use cases you never expected. Don’t fall into the trap of accusing people of misusing your software.

One day, we did have an organization hit a roadblock due to a limit and they emailed us. They needed to set over 25 custom fields on a contact. Did we ask them to explain their situation and figure how they could adjust their usage? Of course not. We had set that 25-limit arbitrarily at first so we could just as well increase it to 50. Problem solved!

Avoid Bikeshedding

I suggest you constraint yourself to a short list of numbers for all your limits:

1 • 5 • 10 • 50 • 100 • 500 • 1000 • 5000

These are the easiest to remember for anyone. There is also a wide enough gap between each to make decisions easy. It’s wasteful to wonder whether 100, 200 or 300 is appropriate. Any doubt 100 isn’t enough? Pick 500, that’s plenty!

“1” comes into play when used as KB or MB. What should be the max length of an HTML email body? I’m sure you’ll agree 1 MB is OK, given that’s roughly a Harry Potter book.

What size of JSON payload should our web server refuse to parse? Either 5 MB or 10 MB sounds great. The latter is what Amazon API Gateway uses.

When you reply to an email thread and we quote it under your response, where do we stop? 10 KB of quoted text for the win.

How many labels will you apply to that one conversation? I hope 100 is fine with you.

How many concurrent sessions do you need before you smell like multiple users not wanting to pay a fair price per seat? Never heard a soul needing more than 10.

The list goes on.

Hope you enjoyed this and will spend your next morning adding sweet limits all over your codebase. Do it, it’s fun! ✌️

Should I use (or still use) a distribution list or a shared mailbox? We get asked this question a lot, and although some say that it depends on your business needs, I say most businesses should opt for a shared mailbox. Let me explain.

Let’s start with understanding what they are and how they differ.

What is a Distribution List?

A distribution list is a method using a single email address to send emails to multiple people at the same time. Using a maintained list of email addresses, you can send emails to all recipients without having to use CC or BCC to manually enter all the addresses.

Companies have been using distribution lists mostly as a hack. They want a group of people to receive emails sent to a particular email address, for example, a support team getting emails from support@company.com.

The original email is replicated and sent to all the members of the list. The lists can be managed easily to add or remove recipients.

It's great for sending out information, but not for collaborating seamlessly or coordinating a discussion.

Distribution lists were created in the early 1980s as a way to share news about certain subjects such as wine tasting.

What Are the Drawbacks of Distribution Lists?

Distribution groups sounds like a great solution, but what about replies? This is where it all goes south. You have no way of knowing who has answered which emails, or what they responded to. This leads to doubled responses, sending conflicting information, or simply not answering some messages at all.

This is where the second layer of hacking comes along. Businesses start developing intricate labeling systems to keep track of who's working on what.

I've heard about these labeling chaos situations countless times. Those systems work at first, but you cannot scale much with them.

Simply put, they were not designed to be used in a collaborative or team setting.

Distribution lists are great for sending information or content to a lot of people at once, like a newsletter or internal notifications for example, that don't require responses or open communication. They can be set up in Gmail or Microsoft Outlook, or into a marketing tool that will enable you to take advantage of segmentation.

What is a Shared Mailbox?

A shared mailbox is a mailbox that multiple team members can access simultaneously. Each member maintains a personal email account, but they all can "send as" and read messages from a particular email address.

Shared inboxes are a step up from a distribution list as they enable communication and collaboration around emails.

For example, Amy (amy@acme.com) and Lucy (lucy@acme.com) can receive and send messages from the shared mailbox address help@acme.com. They can reply using their personal accounts or use the shared address.

Users with access to the shared email inbox will be able to see and manage the mailbox from their personal account under their personal inbox. When an email is deleted from a shared inbox by a user, it will automatically be removed from the shared mailbox of all other users.

Contrary to distribution lists, most shared mailboxes offer collaborative features. For example:

• Ability to know who sent which email from a shared address
• Ability to assign messages to specific team members
• Ability to send canned responses or templates

A shared mailbox solves all the pain points presented by distribution lists.

• You promote accountability in the team.
• You stop sending conflicting information to customers.
• You add a notch of professionalism to your business belt by not responding twice or, even worse, not responding at all.

How to Set Up a Shared Mailbox?

Setting up a shared mailbox isn't complicated. Most email clients offer some sort of shared inbox functionalities, however, as we'll see later the tools to manage share mailboxes don't offer all the same functionalities.

To create a shared mailbox in Google Workspace, you can either delegate an account to team members or use a Collaborative Inbox within Google Groups. Both enable team members to have access to shared email aliases and reply to messages, however, Collaborative Inbox enables teammates to collaborate around emails.

If you're using Outlook, you can create a shared mailbox to give permission to team members to view, edit and send emails using share email aliases such as support@company.com. You should note that shared mailbox in OUtlook arn't avaible on mobile device.

Missive Team inboxes are shared inboxes made for collaboration and assignment between team members. It is useful for teams who want a "triage" step that will clean up messages for all coworkers at once.

You can set it up easily by creating a team and giving it access to the email address you want to share.

Distribution List vs. Shared Inbox: Which One Should You Use?

If your goal is to collaborate in a team setting, 10 out of 10 times go for the shared mailbox option. On the other hand, if your only goal is to broadcast information and you're not expecting replies, go for the distribution list.

Businesses with customer support, sales, or any other customer-facing teams will benefit the most from using shared mailboxes, as it will enable better collaboration and make sure every team member are synchronized.

You can find very affordable ways to create distribution lists, whereas shared mailbox solutions tend to be a little more expensive. There's a reason for this; one was made with collaboration in mind, and the other is mostly a message forwarder.

Which Shared Mailbox Tool Should I Use?

If you are looking for the best shared inbox software for your team emails, I suggest having a look at our guide.

As always, there are plenty of collaboration tool solutions out there (google shared inbox). But they are not all created equally.

Depending on your needs, some features and functionalities might be more important than others, but being able to collaborate around shared emails is the most crucial aspect of a shared inbox tool.

Basic solutions like Outlook or Gmail simply don't compete with a robust tool like Missive. Sure they offer basic collaboration functionalities like labels and assignments, but with them, you won't be able to chat with coworkers inside an email conversation or compose an email collaboratively.

Considering a shared inbox tool with more advanced features can help your business offer better customer service.

No matter what tool you decide to use in the end, following shared inbox best practices will help your team collaborate seamlessly and augment productivity.

Trying a Better Solution

Missive is much more than a simple shared inbox medium; it's a team inbox and chat app that empowers teams to collaborate around email and other channels of communication like SMS, WhatsApp, Twitter, Messenger, and live chat.

It can be used in various scenarios in all areas of a business.

In addition to the shared inbox experience, you will also get access to these great features:

• Internal chat
• Live drafting
• Tasks and assignments
• Shared calendars
• Rules
• Canned responses

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Book a demo to see how Missive can help your business.

Are you wondering how to manage a shared mailbox so it stops being a daunting task?Between keeping track of customer conversations, managing team member schedules, and responding to messages, there's a lot to juggle and even more to keep organized.

One way to streamline the process and make things run smoothly is to set up a shared inbox. But having a shared mailbox isn't all it takes to optimize efficiency.

By following these shared mailbox best practices, you can better manage your team's time, keep everyone on the same page, and provide top-notch customer service. Adopting these best practices early will also ensure that your company can easily scale without running into problems.

What Is a Shared Mailbox?

A shared mailbox is a mailbox that multiple team members can access to view and, unlike distribution lists, send emails from the same email address.

This type of mailbox is often used by sales and customer support teams but can be beneficial for any team that needs to manage email communications.

8 Shared Mailbox Best Practices to Use in Your Workflow

From recording your processes and creating systems of accountability to leveraging automation and making security a priority, following these tips for managing a shared inbox will help you be more efficient.

1. Record Your Processes

Have you ever been on a team where everyone seems to be doing things differently? Maybe one person responds to customer inquiries right away while another waits a few hours. Maybe one person CC's the whole team on every email while another only CC's relevant team members.

This can lead to confusion, frustration, and subpar customer service.

It's essential to have your processes documented. That way, everyone on your team follows the same best practices and procedures. It'll also make it easier to onboard new team members without training them on everything from scratch.

To record your workflow, you can use tools like Google Drive Docs, Notion, Guru, and more. All you need to do is lay out the steps that need to be taken for each type of customer request.

For example, let's say you're setting up a process for responding to customer complaints. Your process might look something like this:

1. Acknowledge the complaint and apologize for the inconvenience.
2. Attempt to resolve the issue.
3. If the issue can't be resolved, offer a refund or other compensation.
4. Follow up with the customer to make sure they're satisfied with the resolution.

You can then share your processes with all of your team members whenever you need to. For example, suppose you're onboarding a new customer support agent.

2. Create Systems of Accountability

The worst thing that can happen in customer support is an email going unanswered. Unfortunately, it's all too easy for emails to fall through the cracks, especially when you're dealing with a high volume of inquiries.

Thanks to shared work mailboxes, you can create systems of accountability to ensure every customer request is handled promptly and professionally and that each team member is doing their fair share of work.

Decide who will be responsible for checking and responding to messages in the mailbox. It's usually best to have one primary person who checks and responds to messages, with others only checking the mailbox periodically. This will help to avoid duplicate responses and ensure that messages are dealt with in a timely manner.

3. Make Security a Priority

Using a regular inbox as a shared mailbox for a shared email address account is a very risky and insecure practice.

Giving your team access to shared emails by sharing an alias credential, in Gmail or Outlook, for example, is a huge security risk that can lead to many problems down the road ranging from information leaks to hacking.

Apart from security concerns, many pitfalls come with sharing passwords.

What happens when someone on your team leaves the company and you have to change the password? You have to go through the pain of changing it for everyone on your team. And if you forget to do that, you’re back at square one with a security risk on your hands.

Luckily, with team email management software that prioritize sharing and collaboration, like Missive, you can give team members access to a collaborative mailbox through their own accounts without sharing passwords.

Even with these tools, it’s best to stick to these best practices: don’t store passwords in unsecured locations like a post-it note, don’t log in to the mailbox from unsecured Wi-Fi networks, and use multi-factor authentication.

4. Organize Emails Using Labels

A shared inbox can quickly become a cluttered mess if emails aren't properly organized. This is where labels (tags that you can apply to emails) come in.

You can use labels to categorize emails in any way you see fit. For example, you could create a label for all customer requests that need follow-ups. Or you could create labels for each stage of the customer journey (e.g., "new customer," "subscriber," "loyal customer," etc.).

Not only do labels make it easy to find specific emails, but they also help your different teams keep track of the work that needs to be done.

For example, if there are several requests labeled "follow-up," the team knows that those need to be dealt with as soon as possible.

5. Use Canned Responses for Faster, Uniform Replies

Let's face it, not all team members are gifted writers. And when you're dealing with a shared mailbox, you can't afford to have team members spending hours crafting the perfect response to each customer's email.

Canned responses (also known as email templates) are a lifesaver in this situation. They allow team members to quickly respond to frequently asked questions with pre-written replies that can be easily customized for each customer.

Not only do these templates shorten response times, but they also ensure that all team members are replying to similar requests in the same way. This is important for maintaining a consistent brand voice and providing a positive customer experience.

6. Go for Inbox Zero

The Inbox zero method is the holy grail of email management, and it's something that every team should strive for. But what is inbox zero, exactly?

Inbox zero is the practice of keeping your inbox empty (or as close to empty as possible) at all times. That means handling each email as it comes in and either taking action, delegating it, or filing it away for later.

The goal of inbox zero is to minimize the time you spend managing your inbox and maximize the time you spend doing work. And while it may seem like a daunting task, it's achievable with a little bit of effort and organization.

The best practices we cover will help you achieve inbox zero, but there are a few other things you can do.

You can set up email filters to automatically sort your email into different folders. That way, you can easily find the email you're looking for without having to search through your entire inbox.

You can also set up rules to automatically delete certain types of emails, such as spam or emails from mailing lists. This will help keep your inbox clean and make it easier to find the email that's actually important.

7. Leverage Automation

Shared mailboxes often end up filled with a lot of emails and it can be a tedious and time-consuming task to manage. Luckily many shared mailbox management apps come with some form of automation built-in so your team can focus on more important things.

For example, you can set up an automated message to be sent to customers when their request comes in. This way, they know that their message has been received and that someone is working on a solution.

You can also automate the assignment of requests to specific team members. For instance, you could set up a rule so that all messages from customers in a particular region are automatically assigned to the team member responsible for that region.

8. Eliminate Forwarding and Copying With Comments and Chat

If you're not using a shared inbox software, chances are you're relying on forwarding and copying (CC'ing) emails to keep team members in the loop. But there's a better way.

Microsoft Outlook shared mailbox or Google Gmail shared inbox don’t offer built-in ways to communicate around emails with your teammates. Their solutions keep you reliant on forwarding emails to coworkers to collaborate.

This exposes you to accidentally sending internal information to the wrong people. The other way to communicate is to leave Gmail to discuss an issue in Slack, and come back to Gmail, however, you’ll lose all context around the email.

Shared inbox software often let you add a comment to email conversations. For example, If you're onboarding a new team member, you can leave a comment on an email thread with all the relevant information they need to know to answer the customer's inquiry.

Shared Mailbox Are Not All Created Equal

Gmail and Office 365 shared mailbox were perfect for the early days of email, but they're not designed for modern team collaboration. Today, there's no reason to spend hours managing your email when there are tools that can do it for you.

If you want to take your customer support to the next level, you need a dedicated shared inbox tool. Modern shared inbox software has a lot to offer, from increased productivity and better customer satisfaction to features like canned responses, email delegation, accountability systems, and more.

Missive is a tool designed specifically for today's customer support teams. With Missive, you can easily collaborate with team members, take action on customer requests, and provide a better overall customer experience. Unlock the power of your customer support team today with Missive!

<div class="align-center p-top"><a class="row button button-medium" href="https://mail.missiveapp.com/#signup">Try Missive for free</a></div>

Wouldn't it be wonderful if managing emails within your team wasn't a hassle? Do you wish you could manage your shared email accounts and collaborate as a team seamlessly while maintaining accountability?

Well you're not alone, many growing companies ask these questions every day.

While using a couple of Gmail or Outlook email addresses might be manageable when your business is small, it becomes a lot harder as your business starts to gain some size.

When the volume of requests becomes unmanageable for one person, it's time to stop using an email client that hasn't been designed for this type of collaborative work and start looking for a shared inbox tool. These software are built to make email handling and collaboration efficient.

In this article, we'll dive into shared inboxes and explore why you should be using one and give your the list of the ten best shared inbox software available today.

Let's dive in!

What Is a Team Email?

A team email, or shared email alias, is a single email address that multiple team members can access and use to communicate with customers or external collaborators.

It makes communication more efficient within your team and also provides a single, consistent point of contact for anyone reaching out to a business.  the best way to access team emails is by using a shared inbox where multiple coworkers can access and manage emails together.

What Is a Shared Inbox?

A shared inbox is an email inbox that can be accessed by multiple coworkers at the same time. Each user maintains their personal account, but they all can send, read, and manage messages from particular shared mailboxes.

For example, John (john@acme.com) and Lucy (lucy@acme.com) can both receive, send and manage emails from the shared address help@acme.com.

Unlike standard business emails, shared inboxes don't have their own ID and password to log into them. To access them, you'll need permission that is granted by an administrator.

Following shared mailbox best practices will ensure you make the most of team collaboration.

How Does a Shared Inbox Work?

The general process among shared inbox tools is roughly the same: You select an email address, share it with a team and now multiple users can access the catch-all email account. But the real power behind shared inboxes lies in the ability to distribute and categorize emails among a team properly. This is the added value that differentiates shared inbox software.

For example, with Missive, any email address can be made into a shared account. Here's how it works:

Should You Use Shared Inboxes?

Operating shared email aliases with 1 or 2 people without a shared inbox tool can be relatively straightforward, however, it is a totally different story when you start to scale your business.

Problems start to arise when a team of people needs to collaborate together on a shared mailbox. If you have experience situations where conversations slipped into the cracks and were forgotten, duplicated responses were sent, or follow-up email messages were addressed to the wrong person, you certainly need shared inbox software to help you manage shared emails.

Customer service, sales and support teams can benefit from a collaborative inbox tool making all shared information accessible in one centralized inbox. Teams can then implement effective workflows so they can be more productive as a squad. Better collaboration between team members will also help decrease the response time and improve customer experience.

Benefits of Using a Shared Inbox

Having a shared inbox comes with many benefits. The most obvious ones are the collaborative advantages it brings. Teams that need to manage incoming emails will be the ones who will experience the most of it.

There are many reasons why you would want to use a shared inbox tool to manage shared emails in your business. Here are some key ones:

• Quickly scale the number of requests you can receive not by creating new points of contact but by distributing a centralized email account (help@acme) to multiple coworkers.
• Maintain ownership of who answers what from the centralized email account.
• Stop responding twice to the same email. This often happens with distribution lists that forward emails to different accounts.
• Follow proper security protocols. Sharing passwords is a terrible security practice.
• Communicate more efficiently in your team by sharing information about every customer request and response. Most tools we'll explore later on also let you and your coworkers chat directly in the app saving you time and keeping everything in context.

In addition to these direct benefits, you can expect additional improvement in your customer interactions like customer service and sales. By having one centralized point of contact it is easier for your customer to get the help they need and for your team to make sure their inquiries are replied to.

The 10 Best Shared Inbox Software

Missive

Recommended for teams that want the best-shared inbox for productive team collaboration.

Missive is much more than a simple shared inbox tool, it's a team inbox and chat app that empowers teams to collaborate not only around email but other channels of communication like SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and live chat.

Missive can be used with your personal email address as well as with your shared accounts, making it the perfect solution for an all-in-one small business collaboration software.

The Team Inbox is a shared inbox made for collaboration and assignment between team members. It is useful for teams who want a "triage" step that will clean up messages for all coworkers at once.

It offers two roles:

• Active members receive notifications for new messages. They see conversations listed in the Team Inboxes mailbox in addition to the team inbox.
• Observers do not receive notifications and see conversations listed in the team inbox only. This is perfect for managers who want to monitor the work being done but don’t want to be flooded with notifications.

By adding this layer of roles, you can easily manage a shared inbox right from the start. This makes it easier to know who is working on what, and it adds transparency and accountability to all employees.

Missive shared inbox can be used in a variety of scenarios in all areas of a business like customer support or sales for example. Missive can even replace your help desk.

Some other features are a great addition to the shared inboxes to help you and your teams collaborate seamlessly and be more productive.

• Internal chat: Communicate with coworkers inside emails, this proves effective when you need help with a difficult question or need to verify some information. Simply @mention a colleague and start a conversation, all without leaving the email in question.

• Live drafting: It lets you collaborate on crafting an email with one or multiple coworkers, live. This feature also enables everyone to see who’s working on a particular case in real time. So no more double replies to customer emails.

• Tasks and assignments: Some issues cannot be resolved immediately, so you can create tasks or to-do lists inside emails to keep track of what needs to be done. These tasks can also be assigned to other coworkers. Collaboration at its finest.

• Shared calendars: With Missive Calendar, you can quickly reply and schedule meetings, and video calls, get reminders about upcoming activities, and more. As with all Missive features, Calendar was conceived with teamwork in mind. Sharing events or entire calendar accounts is easy!

• Rules: With Missive, you can create sets of rules that automate actions; these can save time and spare support employees from doing repetitive tasks. For example, all refund-related emails can be automatically assigned to the Finance team or a specific employee.

• Canned responses: They will let you write and reply to emails faster with pre-written snippets. Templates are especially useful when you end up replying to the same questions over and over again.

Price: Free for up to 2 shared accounts. Starting at $15/month for more.

Google Collaborative Inbox

Recommended for small teams that need a basic shared inbox solution in Gmail.

Google Collaborative Inbox is a good option for small teams that want to use Gmail for shared inbox management. It's a feature of Google Groups for Business that enables members of a group to manage conversations with each other. Collaborative Inbox gives users basic functionalities like assigning a person to a conversation and marking conversations as resolved.

While more powerful than the next solution on the list, Outlook, it is not nearly as powerful as Missive or other solutions on the list.

Price: Free for Google Workspace users

Outlook Shared Mailbox

Recommended for small teams that need a basic shared inbox solution in Outlook.

Outlook shared mailbox is a good option for small teams already using Outlook as their email client. It offers basic shared inbox functionalities like shared access to company mailboxes and user permissions. It works by creating a shared email folder in which you can invite members.

However, Outlook shared inbox comes with some drawbacks. For instance, it only works with Microsoft 365 emails. In addition, it isn't built for scale since Microsoft doesn't recommend it for shared inboxes with more than 25 people due to risks of failure.

Price: Free for Exchange Online service users.

Front

Recommended for enterprise businesses with a big budget.

Front offers a shared inbox to manage shared aliases like support@acme.com. Similar to Missive, you can also manage SMS, social media, and live chat on their platform.

It also offers features such as internal comments and more advanced functionalities like CRM and analytics on its highest-tier plan.

Price: Staring at $38/month on a yearly contract.

Helpwise

Recommended for teams that want a simple platform to manage social media messages.

Helpwise is a shared inbox similar to Missive and Front. It offers a way to collaborate on a shared mailbox with a focus on shared accounts like SMS, social media, and live chat.

Functionalities like assigning a person to a conversation, tagging, and chatting with your coworkers are also offered.

Price: Free for 1 shared account. Starting at $15/month for more.

Help Scout

Recommended for teams that want to share an inbox, live chat, and knowledge base in one tool.

Help Scout is a platform that offers a shared inbox, live chat, and a knowledge base. With their shared inbox feature, you can manage shared emails, assign people to a conversation, chat with teammates, and tag conversations.

Price: Starting at $25/month.

Hiver

Recommended for teams that want to use Gmail to manage shared mailboxes.

Hiver is a Chrome extension that enables you to collaborate and manage your shared inbox in Gmail. It offers the standard shared inbox functionalities such as assigning people to a conversation and tagging emails and comments privately in a discussion. Hiver also comes with features like task automation and analytics.

However, you'll need to be a Gmail user to take advantage of Hiver.

Price: Starting at $19/month.

Gmelius

Recommended for teams that want to use Gmail and want project management features all in one place.

Gmailius is a Gmail add-on that brings shared inboxes directly to the Gmail platform. It comes with features like chats with your coworkers in an email thread, adding labels, and assigning team members to an email.

Gmailius also offer Kanban-style board for project management directly in Gmail.

Price: Start at $15/month

Helpmonks

Recommended for teams that want an all-in-one marketing tool.

Helpmonks offers shared inboxes for team emails with functionalities like assigning a person to an email, tagging conversations, and private notes that you can send to your coworkers. You also have the option to host their solution on your own server.

They also offer a marketing platform that includes a CRM, an email marketing platform, and a live chat.

Price: Starting at $29/month.

HubSpot

Recommended for teams that already use HubSpot and need more basic shared inboxes.

HubSpot offers a shared inbox tool as a part of its CRM solution. You can connect team mailboxes, Facebook Messenger, live chat, and even use their chatbot builder to a shared inbox where team members can manage, view, and reply to messages.

Price: Free with HubSpot branding. Starting at $50/month without.

How to Manage a Shared Inbox?

Using a shared inbox that centralizes all your emails in one tool is a great way to manage incoming communications and be more efficient as a team. To fully benefit from a team inbox, it's important to handle it with care. Here are some tips to help you manage your shared inbox and make the most of it:

• Define roles and responsibilities: Take advantage of assignments to assign emails to specific team members. This way, everyone knows who's responsible for what, and you have accountability in the team.
• Increase collaboration: Shared inbox software allows you to add labels, comments, and sometimes chat within email conversations. Using these features will encourage collaboration and help team members work more efficiently.
• Create guidelines: Having well-established guidelines on how to manage the shared inbox workflow will help everyone on the team. From procedures on how to assign different types of emails to setting response time standards, and implementing a categorization system using labels, you can save time and improve everyone's productivity. You should also ensure messages are prioritized based on their importance or urgency.
• Use canned responses: A shared inbox enables multiple team members to collaborate on emails, but it also means that maintaining consistency in replies can be challenging. Using canned responses for frequently asked questions will help your team save time and ensure accurate and consistent responses across the board.
• Set up rules: Rules are a great way to automate some actions like labeling emails, assigning them to a team member, or automatically replying to them. Using rules can take your team's productivity to the next level and make sure that your workflow is respected.
• Keep updating and improving your workflow: As time goes on and your team starts experimenting with a shared inbox, keep updating and optimizing your workflow to fit your team's needs. There is no one-size-fits-all way to manage a shared inbox.

Switching to a Shared Inbox Tool for More Productivity

At Missive, we are advocates for all things that help teams to share and collaborate more effectively. A shared inbox is a great way to have all your team emails in one place, making them easier to find, manage, and respond to.

In the end, it's up to you to decide if a shared inbox software is the right tool for your team and if so, which of the top shared inboxes is the best fit.

Interested in learning more about how Missive can help your business?  Attend one of our webinars.

You’re probably already familiar with the concept of an email thread or email chain. They certainly have been part of your email inbox at some point, or maybe you still use them for your business communication.

Email threading allows you to trace the history of your emails easily, but it comes with certain disadvantages.

In this blog, we’ll look at email threads' advantages and disadvantages, unspoken email etiquette around email chains, and how you can use Missive to take advantage of the future of email conversations.

What Is an Email Thread?

An email thread is the chain of messages and replies between you and other people, grouped together in a conversation. When you click "Reply" to a message, your new message is added to the end of the thread so that everyone can follow the conversation.

This way, you can see the whole conversation that has taken place between you and other people. Unless someone is removed from the copy, all recipients will receive all the group messages with their replies.

Email thread replies are typically arranged in chronological order starting from the first reply to the most recent one. This arrangement is helpful for recipients who are following the conversation because it’s organized the discussion in a simple structure.

Email threading can be helpful when you need to refer to a previous conversation.

With email threading enabled in your email client, all replies will automatically use the "RE:" preposition in the subject line and will be grouped in one discussion.

Advantages of Email Threading

An email thread can be extremely beneficial in several ways for your business communications. Here are some reasons why email threading can be helpful:

Reduce Inbox Clutter

First, email chains can help reduce the amount of time you spend managing your inbox. By keeping all messages in one place, you can quickly scan through a thread and get the information you need without having to search through your entire inbox.

Keep All Recipients Informed

A conversation view can help improve communication with your team. By using a group email, you can avoid miscommunication and ensure that everyone is on the same page.

Organize All Related Emails

Email threads allow you to keep track of an entire conversation in one place by organizing related emails into one group. This can be very helpful when trying to resolve an issue or follow up on a task.

Disadvantages of Email Threading

While an email thread can be a helpful way to keep track of related messages, it can also have some drawbacks. Here are some of the disadvantages of email threading:

Email Can Get Long

It can be difficult to follow a thread if it gets too long or if there are too many messages in it. When email threading is enabled, each reply to an email is grouped with the original email and any previous replies.

Additionally, if you delete an email in a thread, it can delete all emails in the thread, which can be frustrating if you only wanted to delete one email.

Data Leak

When an email thread is shared with both people from your organization and people externally, there are high risk of sharing internal communication with the people in the thread outside of your organization.

This happens when people communicate internally about a specific thread and forget to remove the external recipients from the message.

Email Threading Is Not Universally Supported

Some email providers do not support email threading, which can make it difficult to keep track of conversations if you switch between providers. If you’re using an email provider that does not support email threading.

Some Recipients May Receive Irrelevant Emails

Some recipients of email threads may receive irrelevant emails. This is because when someone replies to an email thread, everyone who was originally included in the thread will receive the reply.

This can be a problem if the original email was not relevant to everyone in the conversation or if the reply is not for all the recipients of the emails and is only for internal communication.

Unspoken email etiquette for email chains

Now that we covered the advantages and disadvantages of email chains, here are some unspoken rules to maintain proper "reply all" etiquette.

Say no to tangent discussions

Email threads are great for a historical log of decision making, it is not good for discussion and even worse for discussion that doesn't involve or require the entire group. By doing the latter, you are stealing attention and time from everyone who has to open that email.

Do not share sensitive information 

This is obvious but often forgotten, so we wanted to remind you explicitly. Sensitive or private information should always be sent as a separate individual email. 

Missive: Communications Made Easy

Missive is a collaboration tool for teams built around emails. It’s a great way to communicate with your team and collaborate on emails and other types of communication mediums.

With Missive, you can take advantage of the best email threading practices to make while avoiding all its disadvantages. It’s easy to collaborate and discuss with your team members privately in an email thread with people from outside your organization.

Communications with your colleagues are sent as chat messages directly in the conversation with the emails. It ensures that you don’t send confidential information accidentally to the wrong people.

This way there is no data leak possible, internal communication happens via chat messages, and external communication happens via emails.

Missive also lets you easily share emails with other team members without having to send them a copy of the email. You can either link to an email in a new conversation, mention them in a chat inside the email conversation, or assign a team or someone personally.

Best of all, you can merge all types of messages in one conversation, let it be emails, chats, SMS, social media messages, call logs, voicemail, etc.

How to Enable Email Threads in Your Email Client

The most popular email clients support email threads and enable them by default. However, here’s how to activate it in the most popular email clients:

Gmail Threads

By default, Email threading is enabled in Google’s email client. Here’s how to manage email thread setting in Gmail.

Gmail the Web

1. Open Gmail in your browser.
2. Click on the gear icon in the upper-right and then click on See all settings.

1. In General, select Conversation view on in the Conversation View section.

1. Click Save.

Gmail on Mobile

1. Open the Gmail app on your device.
2. Click on the 3 horizontal lines icon in the top left of the screen.
3. In the menu that appears, scroll down to the settings option and click on it.

1. In the settings menu, click Inbox customizations in the Inbox section.

1. Toggle the Conversation view on and off to enable or disable it.

1. Click Done to exit the settings menu.

Outlook Threads

Email thread is turned on by default in Microsoft’s email client. Here’s how to manage email thread settings in Outlook.

Outlook on the Web

1. Open Outlook in your browser.
2. Click on the gear icon in the upper right.
3. Select Group into conversations in the Arrange message list section.

Outlook on Mobile

1. Open the Outlook app on your device.
2. Click on the profile icon in the top left corner, and then on the gear icon in the bottom left corner to open the settings.

1. Toggle on Organize By Thread in the Mail section.

Apple Mail Threads

Email thread is turned on by default on Apple’s email client. Here’s how to manage email thread setting in Apple Mail.

Apple Mail on macOS

1. Open the Mail app on your Mac.
2. Click on View in the top menu.
3. Select Organize by Conversation from the list of options.

Apple Mail on iOS

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Scroll down to the Mail setting and click on it.
3. Scroll to the Threading section and toggle on Organize by Thread.

Missive

In Missive, email threading is always on. As a collaborative app, we think that threading is part of the core experience. However, we do offer an alternative for people who prefer each email to have its conversation.

You can move an email out of its original conversation and into a new one with just one click. This is a great way to keep important emails separate from the rest of the conversation, which can be noisy and overwhelming.

Best Practices for Effective Email Threads

If you decide that you prefer to stick with email threads for your professional discussions, no worries.

Here are a few etiquettes in mind to keep email threads effective.

Use a Clear Subject Line

First, always include a clear and concise subject line that accurately reflects the content of the email. This will help recipients quickly understand what the email is about and whether or not they need to read it.

Even if this rule doesn’t only apply to email strings, it is really important in a thread to be sure the subject line accurately reflects the content of the conversation.

Stay on Topic

When using a thread to reply to messages, always make sure to stay on topic. If the conversation veers off course, start a new email thread. This will help to keep the discussion focused and avoid getting lost in the messages when trying to follow the conversation.

Don’t Overuse Email Threads

Email threads are a great way to communicate in emails and organize replies in a nice and sorted conversation. However, if an email thread becomes too long or convoluted, consider moving the discussion to another medium, such as a phone call or in-person meeting.

Emails are not a chat. Other tools like Missive will be best suited for chatting and exchanging with your colleagues.

Be Clear About What You Are Replying

An email thread can quickly become confusing if people are not clear about what they are replying to. When replying to an email, always include a reference to the original message so that the recipient knows which part of the conversation you are replying to.

If the original message is no longer visible in the thread, quote it in your reply so that everyone can see what you are referring to. This will help to keep the conversation flowing smoothly and prevent misunderstandings.

Only Use Cc and Bcc When Necessary

Threads can quickly become confusing and difficult to follow when too many people are in CC (carbon copy) or BCC (blind carbon copy).

Only use cc and bcc when absolutely necessary to avoid overwhelming recipients and cluttering up the thread. When in doubt, it’s usually best to leave people off the cc or bcc list.

Conclusion

Email threading can be a useful tool, but it’s not for everyone. Some people prefer to keep their messages separate, and others find that email threading makes it harder to find the messages they’re looking for. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide whether email threading is a helpful feature or a hindrance.

FAQ

What Is an Email Thread?

An email thread is a sequence of messages with the same subject organized into a conversation. When you reply to a message, the new message is added to the end of the thread.

How to Reply to an Email in a Thread?

You usually can "reply" or "reply all" in most email clients. The first option replies just to the form, and reply all replies to From + TO + CC.

How to Remove Someone From an Email Thread?

To remove someone from an email thread simply remove their email address from the CC or BCC section of the email.

Is email threading the future?

There’s no doubt that email threading is a convenient way to keep track of conversations, especially when multiple people are involved. But threads are actually a hindrance to productivity, as it can be difficult to follow a conversation. It also poses a security risk as it can be easy to accidentally share internal communication outside the organization.

With new tools, like Missive, that enable teams to collaborate outside the regular emails there is no doubt that a collaborative inbox will soon replace the traditional email thread.