Are you ready to get started using LeadSimple's Inbox to manage your team's communication? Let's do it!
To get started, you will need to:
(Optional) Set up a LeadSimple phone number (if you haven't already) to use Inbox for phone calls and text messages
Possible Shared Inbox Configurations
You will need to set up and connect a shared email inbox for each department or team. We recommend having a limited number of inboxes, so your customers only have to remember a few emails to communicate with. (Examples: leasing@example.com or maintenance@example.com).
If you are new to using shared inboxes, here are three possible example configurations based on three different team configurations. This is not exhaustive list; there may be a better configuration for your particular company than the ones listed here. Contact us if you have questions about the ideal set up for you.
1️⃣ Configuration #1: One Shared Email Inbox
Your whole team uses one single email inbox (e.g. support@example.com) for all customer communications. All emails sent to your teams' personal business inboxes (e.g. zach@example.com) are forwarded to the shared inbox and users are discouraged from using their personal inboxes at all (for internal communication use Slack, Google Hangouts, etc...). New emails to the inbox are manually or automatically assigned to the correct team members or teams.
Pros: One single email address for your owners and tenants to remember; one shared, collaborative email inbox for your team and managers to monitor; Works for many different team configurations.
Cons: Requires more complex routing configurations to assign conversation to the right people. This can be done in LeadSimple's Inbox using tags and automated routing rules.
2️⃣ Configuration #2: Departmental Inboxes
Each department (Leasing, Maintenance, Property Management) uses a dedicated shared inbox for that department (e.g. leasing@, maintenance@, etc...) for customer communications. Team members may still use their personal business email addresses, but not for customer communications.
Pros: Each department has their own inbox where they know exactly what they're responsible for. Less categorization is needed inside your shared inbox system.
Cons: Owners and tenants have to remember several email addresses and what to use each one for, which is confusing; as a result communications can end up in the wrong inboxes and not get handled as quickly.
3️⃣ Configuration #3: Portfolio, Squad and/or Hybrid Inboxes
The portfolio manager, or squad and their team uses their own shared inbox. It could be named after the portfolio manager (e.g. sally@example.com) to keep a personal touch, but regardless of what you name it, it is shared with all members of the portfolio team or squad and they all use it for customer communications.
In a hybrid model, departments that work with each portfolio team (e.g. leasing, maintenance, etc...) would also work out of the portfolio team's inbox (sally@example.com), specifically monitoring it for the issues that they need to handle. Conversations in each inbox can be tagged with the corresponding departmental team responsible for it to assist with assignment.
Pros: Naming the address with the portfolio or squad leader's name adds a personal touch even though it is shared; owners can continue communicating with the email address they are accustomed to.
Cons: More complex routing and assignment rules are needed. See LeadSimple's automated conversation routing and tagging capabilities.
Connect your team's shared email inboxes
Once you've decided what shared email inbox configuration you are going to use, it's time to connect your shared email accounts to LeadSimple.
Important: Your email accounts need to be standalone Gmail or Outlook user accounts. They should not be aliases of another account as that makes it difficult to connect to LeadSimple.
You can connect LeadSimple with your Gmail, Outlook or other email client account.
Grant users access to shared email accounts
Once you've connected a shared email account, you can select which users get access to that particular inbox. Click on the pencil icon next to the email on the righthand side and select the users in the window that appears.
If a shared email account is the default sending address for a pipeline or process type, the users who have access to that pipeline/process type will automatically have access to it. Those users cannot be removed from the email account without first removing their access from the pipeline/process type; this way they can always send from it in that pipeline/process type.
This is also where you can change the from name that appears on all emails sent from this email address.
Provision LeadSimple Phone Number(s)
In order to text through LeadSimple, you will need to provision one (or more) LeadSimple phone numbers in your desired area code(s).
Note that you can have individual phone numbers for each team member (typically the best method for sales agents), or give multiple team members access to the same number (typically the best method for operational teams).
Once you've provisioned a phone number (following the instructions linked above), you will be able to use it to send and receive texts, receive inbound phone calls, and use it as your caller ID when making outbound calls. Learn more about how these features work here.
Now that you've connected your email inboxes and set up your phone numbers, new inbound emails, calls, and texts will create conversations in your Inbox!
Click here to learn how to navigate the inbox and find your open, closed, and snoozed conversations.