Outlook’s shared mailbox is a free characteristic of the platform that lets a number of people collaborate on responding to e-mail requests from their very own accounts. It’s an awesome selection for small companies which might be simply getting began with buyer assist, but it surely doesn’t actually maintain up as your organization grows.
In case your group has outgrown Outlook’s shared mailbox and is trying to improve to one thing that’s extra purpose-built for buyer assist, we’ve accomplished the work of compiling a shortlist for you. The six greatest Outlook shared mailbox choices under are all straightforward to make use of, reasonably priced, and — most significantly — constructed particularly for buyer assist groups.
Overview of the most effective Outlook shared mailbox alternate options
Get a fast abstract of our picks for the most effective Outlook shared mailbox alternate options under. If you would like extra details about any of the instruments, we share our detailed critiques of every platform later on this article.
Assist Scout is a assist desk platform that grows along with your group, providing a shared inbox, automation, collaboration and organizational instruments, and built-in AI to spice up productiveness.
Emailgistics provides superior assist options to your current Outlook shared mailbox, together with assignments, automation, and reporting.
Dynamics 365 Buyer Service is Microsoft’s assist platform, providing AI-powered routing, collaboration by means of Groups, and sturdy safety.
Timetoreply connects to Outlook so as to add real-time SLA monitoring and efficiency analytics, serving to groups monitor response occasions and determine bottlenecks.
Entrance unifies shared and private inboxes into one collaborative workspace that features highly effective group, automation, and AI instruments.
Missive allows teammates to co-write e-mail responses stay. It’s greatest for small groups that want higher collaboration options however don’t have any plans to supply multi-channel assist.
The benefits of utilizing Outlook’s shared mailbox
Outlook’s shared mailbox presents two large benefits to early-stage companies: It’s free, and in case your group is already utilizing Outlook for private emails, there’s no studying curve to get began.
Moreover, Outlook’s shared mailbox does have a number of options that assist your group collaborate extra successfully and preserve requests organized:
Create a free shared e-mail tackle (assist@, data@, assist@, and so forth.) that may each obtain and ship messages.
View and reply to emails immediately from inside Outlook with out having to open up one other utility or browser tab.
Categorize (tag) emails to extend group.
A number of group members can see and reply to messages despatched to a shared e-mail tackle utilizing their very own Outlook logins — which is rather more safe than sharing a username and password for a person e-mail account — however its advantages actually finish there.
The disadvantages of utilizing Outlook’s shared mailbox for assist
Utilizing Outlook’s shared mailbox for buyer assist is like utilizing graphing paper to create a spreadsheet. It’s potential to do it — and the top product will seem like a desk — however you gained’t have entry to any of the sorting, calculating, and automation options that make spreadsheet software program highly effective.
Shared inbox platforms which might be constructed particularly for buyer assist include tons of useful (and admittedly obligatory) options you gained’t discover in Outlook:
Dialog assignments: Having the ability to assign emails to different group members helps stop emails from getting misplaced or forgotten about and lets everybody know what they need to be engaged on.
Collision detection: Indicators that present when another person has replied or is actively replying to a dialog stop duplicate work and — extra embarrassingly — clients receiving duplicate replies.
Automation: From easy workflows that mechanically assign requests to the correct group to AI-powered chatbots and assistants that reply to requests for you, automation options considerably enhance your group’s pace and productiveness.
Collaboration options: Having to ship a separate e-mail to get the assistance you should reply to a buyer slows the entire course of down. Shared inbox platforms have built-in methods for groups to speak about requests privately earlier than sending a reply.
Analytics and reporting: As your group grows and the variety of requests you obtain will increase, you’re going to want experiences that show you how to simply determine what’s working and what isn’t.
Indicators that you will have outgrown Outlook’s shared mailbox
For rising companies and assist groups, Outlook’s shared mailbox isn’t an excellent long-term resolution. Listed here are among the indicators that it’s time to improve:
Prospects are writing in saying they by no means obtained a reply to their questions.
A number of group members are losing time replying to the identical requests.
Your management group is asking for efficiency knowledge that you just don’t have.
You’re spending extra time serving to different group members than serving to clients.
You’re creating lengthy paperwork with the solutions to questions you get requested on a regular basis.
You’ve observed your group members are cherry-picking: solely replying to emails with easy inquiries to keep away from tackling extra advanced requests.
You’re regularly having to ask clients to answer again to you with an extended checklist of particulars that you just want in an effort to decide who they’re and what account they belong to.
Any one of many conditions above might considerably influence your online business. In the event that they sound acquainted, it’s time to search for a shared mailbox various.
The 6 greatest Outlook shared mailbox alternate options
Beneath, you’ll discover detailed critiques of every of our picks for the most effective Outlook shared mailbox alternate options.
We chosen these instruments based mostly on how reasonably priced they’re for rising firms that don’t have large budgets, how straightforward they’re to make use of for busy groups that may’t spend months studying a brand new system, and the way successfully they resolve the problems that assist groups run into with Outlook’s shared mailbox.
1. Assist Scout – Greatest for groups which might be planning to scale
If you would like a platform that may develop alongside your group and enterprise, Assist Scout is a superb choice. It has a free plan that you should utilize whereas your group remains to be small to supply email-only assist and construct a information base, however you may as well improve to a paid plan so as to add further channels like stay chat and social assist if you’re prepared for them.
Assist Scout’s organizational and collaboration options throughout all of its plans are a big improve over Outlook.
Shared inbox
The entire requests your group receives — whether or not by means of e-mail, chat, or social media platforms like Fb Messenger and Instagram — present up in a shared inbox that everybody has entry to. Requests are displayed from most to least latest, making it straightforward to see which clients have been ready the longest.
If you wish to assign requests to a particular particular person or group, you are able to do that manually, or you’ll be able to arrange workflows to mechanically assign messages based mostly on issues like who the client is or what choices they chose on an consumption type.
Collaboration options
Collision detection indicators show in each the inbox view and within particular person requests to point out you which ones requests your teammates are already viewing or replying to. In the event you do occur to answer to a request another person has already dealt with, it is going to warn you {that a} reply has already been despatched if you attempt to ship your response.
While you need assistance replying to a request, you’ve gotten a number of choices. Create a personal notice (which is invisible to the client) and @point out a teammate to inform them, or do a fast search of earlier replies to see if another person has answered the identical query earlier than.
Productiveness options
A buyer profile is displayed in a sidebar for each request you obtain. It exhibits particulars just like the buyer’s identify, account info, and former conversations they’ve had along with your group. This eliminates the necessity for back-and-forth questions making an attempt to determine who you’re speaking to and allows you to ship extra personalised assist.
In the event you get quite a lot of the identical questions again and again, your group can create saved replies, which you’ll be able to insert right into a response in simply a few clicks. You possibly can even use AI Drafts to jot down a reply to a request for you; it’s skilled on earlier replies to clients and your information base (if you happen to’ve created one) that can assist you craft correct, useful replies in seconds.
Different AI options you’ll discover in Assist Scout embrace AI Summarize, which mechanically generates a abstract of a dialog so you’ll be able to stand up to hurry rapidly, and AI Help, which does issues like translate textual content, clear up spelling and grammar points, and both develop or condense replies you’ve written.
Group options
A number of options in Assist Scout make it straightforward to maintain issues organized and orderly.
Add tags to requests to make it simpler to seek out what you’re on the lookout for later (or to set off a workflow). Create views to group the messages you see in your principal inbox by matter. You possibly can even snooze messages you don’t wish to lose observe of (however don’t wish to reply to immediately) to cover them out of your view briefly however guarantee they pop again into the queue later.
Studies
Studies in Assist Scout offer you the entire info you should monitor and report in your group’s efficiency. You possibly can see when your busiest occasions are for incoming requests for more practical scheduling, tendencies in variety of requests over time so you recognize when it’s time to rent, and satisfaction scores to your particular person brokers so you’ll be able to determine who might have teaching.
Scaling with Assist Scout
While you’re able to scale, you should utilize Assist Scout to start out supporting your clients in lots of different methods:
Use Beacon to supply stay chat assist in your web site or in your app.
Activate AI Solutions to launch a chatbot that may assist clients with easy questions.
Construct and launch a information base with Docs.
Use Messages to have interaction with clients proactively or ship them surveys.
Arrange integrations to attach your assist desk to the opposite instruments you employ.
Pricing
Free plan and trial obtainable. View Assist Scout’s present pricing.
Study extra about Assist Scout:
2. Emailgistics – Greatest various for including extra options to Outlook
If you would like extra support-focused options however aren’t fairly prepared to maneuver to a completely new e-mail platform, Emailgistics is an efficient choice to think about. It’s an extension that works along with your present Outlook shared mailbox so as to add useful options like assignments, reporting, inside notes, dialog histories, response templates, and group scheduling.
Emailgistics’ assignments characteristic is nice for placing your queue administration on autopilot. Assign emails to group members manually, or save your self quite a lot of time by organising auto assignments. It helps you to create advanced resolution bushes that specify what kinds of requests go to who and set guidelines that do issues like solely assign requests to people who find themselves scheduled to work.
Guidelines can be used to mechanically apply particular tags to requests that meet standards you’ve set, auto-reply to emails so clients know their requests had been obtained, and set increased priorities on emails despatched by VIP clients or that include particular kinds of content material.
So far as collaboration and productiveness options, you’ll be able to see historic conversations your group has had with a buyer in a sidebar, add inside notes to have non-public discussions with teammates earlier than replying, and construct snippets and templates to rapidly reply to regularly requested questions.
Managers may use Emailgistics to set SLAs, then monitor efficiency in actual time from high-level dashboards. When you should do deep evaluation, experiences can be found that go into element on issues like response occasions, request volumes, and variety of instances closed by particular group members.
Pricing
No free trial provided. View Emailgistics’ present pricing.
3. Dynamics 365 Buyer Service – Greatest for groups that wish to keep within the Microsoft ecosystem
Whereas it’s pricier than the entire different instruments on this checklist, Dynamics 365 Buyer Service is an efficient choice for groups that need or want to remain in Microsoft’s ecosystem. Through the use of a Microsoft product, you get all of Microsoft’s enterprise-level security measures for preserving your knowledge safe, corresponding to phishing detection, conditional entry insurance policies, and safety incident alerts.
So far as performance goes, Dynamics 365 is an enormous improve from a easy Outlook shared mailbox. It comes with many superior options that enhance productiveness and reduce repetitive, guide work.
You’ll go from not having the ability to assign emails to people in Outlook to having the ability to mechanically route emails based mostly on abilities, intent, and buyer sentiment. AI may help your group at each step of the way in which, drafting e-mail replies for you and producing summaries and timelines to get you on top of things rapidly — all powered by Microsoft’s Copilot know-how.
While you need assistance from one other group member to answer to an inquiry, you’ll be able to launch a Microsoft Groups chat from the inbox view to succeed in out to them immediately. Lastly, if you happen to determine you additionally wish to supply stay chat assist, you’ll be able to invite chat clients to a stay Groups name to troubleshoot points which might be too difficult to resolve by means of back-and-forth textual content alone.
Pricing
Free trial obtainable. View present pricing for Dynamics 365 Buyer Service.
4. Timetoreply – Greatest for including reporting to Outlook shared mailbox
In the event you’re proud of the performance you’ve gotten in Outlook’s shared mailbox and simply want a approach to make analyzing your knowledge and reporting on it simpler, Timetoreply could also be what you’re on the lookout for. It integrates with Outlook to provide you a approach to set and monitor SLAs, floor forgotten requests, and look at your group’s efficiency each total and intimately.
Timetoreply provides a countdown timer to each e-mail you obtain, letting groups rapidly determine requests that want replies the soonest. It’s going to additionally shuffle the order of your inbox as wanted to maneuver the emails that want replies the soonest to the highest of the queue, and group members obtain alerts within the inbox that notify them of requests which might be liable to exceeding your SLA.
You may also show efficiency particulars in your inbox’s sidebar that present groups how they’re doing: It shows metrics like common reply occasions by group or particular person and color-codes them in purple and inexperienced to allow them to perceive the information at a look. Managers get entry to rather more detailed experiences that present all of their most essential metrics, all up to date in actual time.
In the event you work in an business the place getting again to clients rapidly is non-negotiable, Timetoreply generally is a large assist. Nevertheless, it’s price preserving in thoughts that having folks work on an limitless timer can generally induce nervousness or encourage low-quality work in favor of assembly response targets. It’s greatest to weigh the professionals and cons to determine if this sort of construction could be an excellent match to your group.
Pricing
No free trial provided. View Timetoreply’s present pricing.
5. Entrance – Greatest for totally migrating away from Outlook
In the event you’re on the lookout for another that allows you to entry not solely your shared inboxes but in addition your private inboxes in a platform aside from Outlook, chances are you’ll wish to try Entrance. It’s one of many few shared inbox platforms that may work with each shared e-mail accounts like assist@ and particular person e-mail accounts like jessica@.
Entrance’s Starter plan is an reasonably priced choice for small companies (it will probably solely be utilized by a most of 10 customers). It provides you one assist channel, and if the assist channel you choose is e-mail, you’ll be able to create inboxes for each shared and private e-mail addresses.
Including your private e-mail tackle to Entrance opens it as much as extra collaboration options. You possibly can assign an e-mail you obtained in your private inbox to a different group member or @point out them to request their assist/give them a heads-up. You possibly can even delegate entry to your private inbox to a teammate briefly to handle your inbox whilst you’re out of the workplace.
Within the shared inbox, you get entry to the entire customary collaboration and group options: tags, views, assignments, inside conversations, templates, and snoozing. The Starter plan additionally helps you to create a fundamental information base and offers you a reasonably beneficiant variety of makes use of of its AI options that show you how to draft replies, translate textual content, and summarize conversations.
Pricing
Free trial obtainable. View Entrance’s present pricing.
6. Missive – Greatest for real-time collaboration on replies
In case your group must collaborate on writing replies to clients, Missive has an fascinating characteristic that makes that simpler than sending back-and-forth replies through non-public notes or a group chat platform. Its reply operate works like Google Docs, permitting two or extra folks to jot down replies collectively in actual time and see the place others have their cursors or are typing.
General, Missive is a quite simple system. It’s for e-mail administration solely (although you’ll be able to add channels like SMS, social, and stay chat through integrations), making it nice for groups that aren’t planning to scale to different channels and don’t need the distraction of options they gained’t use. The restricted scope additionally makes its pricing extra reasonably priced than many alternate options.
Within the shared inbox, emails solely show within the “learn” state if you’ve personally opened them. You possibly can merge conversations if a number of tickets had been opened for a similar concern and assign requests to teammates manually or mechanically. You possibly can even create particular person duties for tickets and assign these to folks in your group.
Past these options, you’ll additionally get entry to the belongings you’d count on from a assist platform: canned responses, snooze and ship later choices, labels for organizing requests, and reporting. You possibly can even add customers as visitors to your plan that give them restricted entry to the platform with out including to the variety of customers you need to pay for.
Pricing
Free trial obtainable. View Missive’s present pricing.
Selecting the best Outlook shared mailbox various to your group
Transferring from one assist platform to a different is an enormous initiative that carries a good quantity of danger and requires quite a lot of effort, so ideally, will probably be one thing you do as not often as potential. For that cause, it’s useful when selecting a brand new platform to think about not solely what you want immediately but in addition what you may want one 12 months, two years, or 5 years from now.
Excited about your organization’s plans for future development generally is a helpful train. If for the foreseeable future you intend to remain small, a easy resolution like Emailgistics, Timetoreply, or Missive could also be all you’ll want for a very long time. However if you happen to’re planning to develop, which means extra clients, extra assist requests, and extra group members wanted to handle all of it.
Easy shared inboxes can buckle as assist calls for rise — simply because it’s doing now in your shared mailbox. If you recognize your organization is planning to develop, it’s price contemplating if you happen to ought to select one thing now that may develop alongside your online business. In these instances, extra sturdy programs like Assist Scout, Dynamics 365 Buyer Service, and Entrance are higher selections.
Past that, choosing the proper choice generally is a easy matter of constructing certain the system you choose checks the suitable containers. Does it have the options you want? Are you able to afford it? Is it straightforward to arrange and intuitive to make use of? If potential, be sure to attempt the programs you’re contemplating before you purchase them, or, on the very least, request a demo walkthrough.
Don’t rush into making the choice. Take your time, think about the choices rigorously, and produce your teammates in to get their enter to make sure that the platform you select is the best choice to your distinctive wants.
