Shared inbox & ticketing

A shared inbox gathers messages sent to addresses such as support@ or sales@ in one place instead of in personal mailboxes. Ticketing adds structure, so each request has an owner, a status such as open or solved, and a history. Colleagues can leave private notes, assign work and see who replied. Tools such as Help Scout, Zendesk, Freshdesk and Gorgias are built around this.

Without it, requests get lost in forwarded emails, two people answer the same message or nobody does. A shared inbox gives a clear picture of what is waiting and how long it has been waiting. It matters as soon as more than one person handles customer messages. A single person working alone may manage with a normal mailbox.

• Can you assign, tag and prioritise conversations, and are there rules to do it automatically.
• Is there a way to see when two people open the same conversation.
• Does it report response and resolution times.
• How are collaborators or part-time helpers charged, for example as full users.