How to run a shared inbox when several people answer

With one person on the phone, the inbox is that person's memory. With three, nobody knows who is answering what. Most of the mess comes from the same few gaps, and none of them are about effort.

Four rules cover almost everything: one owner per conversation, one unassigned queue, hand-offs with a note, and agreed reply targets. Write them down and put them where the office can see them.

1. Every conversation has exactly one owner. The owner answers it, follows it up and marks it done. Others may read it, but they don't reply unless the owner hands it over.
2. New conversations wait in one unassigned queue. Not in everyone's view at once, and not on one person's phone. The queue has a count and the oldest one is at the top.
3. Hand-offs carry a note. "Customer wants Thursday afternoon for the driveway, can you book?" The customer never has to repeat themselves.
4. Everyone knows the reply target. For example: a new lead within 5 business minutes, an existing customer within 30 minutes, everything before the end of the day.

Whoever is best placed to finish it. New leads go to whoever has new leads at that hour; replies from an existing customer go to the person already working with them; replies about a quote go to the sales rep who wrote it.

• Claim before you reply. Taking a conversation should be the first click, so others can see it is taken.
• One person on new leads at a time. Rotating by the hour or half day is clearer than "whoever is free".
• Cover the gaps on purpose. Lunch, the morning huddle and the last hour of the day are where conversations get lost.

The unassigned queue is the office's front door: every new conversation lands there, the person on duty clears it from oldest to newest, and the count should be zero most of the day. If it isn't, the rota needs another person at that hour.

• Make it the default view for whoever has new leads.
• Show the count and the age of the oldest waiting conversation. "3 waiting, oldest 7 min" tells you what to do.
• Sort oldest first. Answering the newest first feels faster but makes the oldest wait longer.
• Route the obvious ones automatically. A reply from a customer whose quote has a rep can go straight to that rep, so the queue holds only the truly new.
• Treat a lead as answered only when a person has replied. An automatic "thanks, we got it" does not take it out of the queue.

Reassign it to a named person with a one-line note, then tell the customer who will be in touch and when. A hand-off without a note is how customers end up explaining their driveway three times.

1. Write the note for the next person: what the customer wants, what you already told them, and what is left to do.
2. Assign the conversation to that person (not "to the office").
3. Tell the customer: "Thanks, Lena. Kendra handles our larger quotes and will text you by 3 PM."
4. The new owner replies, and the old owner stops.

Set a target for each kind of conversation and measure it in business hours. New leads need the tightest target, because the first company to answer usually gets the job; see speed to lead.

Your name, the company, that you saw what they asked for, and one easy next step. The first reply's job is to start the conversation fast, not to quote a price.

• Sign with a name. "Maria at Palmetto" gets more replies than "Palmetto Exterior Care team".
• Ask one question at a time by text. A list of six questions gets no answer.
• Keep consent in mind. Text customers who reached out to you or agreed to texts, and stop when anyone replies STOP.

Claim first, then reply. When a conversation shows who owns it, and the others can see that a teammate is replying or just replied, double answers mostly disappear.

• Owner shown on every row. "Maria has this" in the list, not only inside the conversation.
• Look before you type. Open the thread and read the last message before replying, even if it is assigned to you.
• If you collide, one person says sorry for both. "Sorry for the double message, Lena. Maria will look after you from here."
• Fix the cause. Collisions mean someone replied without claiming. Remind, don't blame.

1. First 15 minutes: clear everything that came in overnight, oldest first.
2. All day: the person on new leads keeps the unassigned count at zero; everyone works their own Mine list.
3. Mark done as you go. A conversation that needs nothing more is closed. If the customer writes back, it reopens.
4. Before lunch and before close: a quick look at anything over target.
5. Last 30 minutes: nothing new is left unanswered overnight. Leads that arrive late get a reply before anyone leaves.
6. Weekly: the owner looks at open conversations per person and the slowest replies, and adjusts the rota.

A shared office inbox is one of the things Birdy is built around. Here is what is there today and what is still coming.

• Today: Messages keeps one thread per customer or lead, with tabs for Open, Mine, Done and All, an Assign menu on every thread, Mark done and Reopen, and search.
• Being connected: texting runs in a test mode until each company's number is registered with the carriers, so texts to customers are not live yet. See texting.
• Coming: an unassigned queue as the office's default view, claiming a thread when you reply, a guard that shows when a teammate is replying, and assignment rules (for example, a quote's rep gets their customers' replies).
• Coming later: phone calls.
• Today: Reports show speed to lead, and a sales rep sees only their own leads.