Assign it, don't forward it
Three habits for a shared inbox: assign a conversation instead of forwarding it, talk it over in team chat, and bring a colleague in with @.
DMU Mail team· · 4 min read
On this page
When a customer writes to info@ and the answer lies with someone else, the habit is to forward the email to that person. It works once. It also takes the conversation out of the shared inbox, leaves nobody else knowing who has it, and sends the reply from somewhere else.
In short
Assign the conversation, so everyone can see who has it and the customer's mail stays in the inbox.
Talk it over in team chat. The customer never sees it, and it stays with the conversation.
Type @ to bring a colleague in, even one who cannot see the mailbox.
Why forwarding falls short
Forwarding copies the customer's message into one person's inbox. After that:
Nobody else can tell the question is being handled, so a second person may answer it.
The discussion happens in a thread the rest of the team cannot read.
The answer comes back by email, and somebody has to carry it into the original conversation.
Assigning and team chat do the same job inside DMU Mail, with everything in one place.
Habit 1: assign the conversation
An assigned conversation shows its assignee's face in the list. It becomes In progress and leaves the shared Inbox, then appears under Assigned to me for that person and Assigned to others for everyone else. The person you assign is notified.
Open the conversation and choose Assign. You can also press v.
Pick a name. Me is at the top, and the menu stays open so you can pick a second colleague straight away.
To take someone off again, click a name that has a tick.
If you want it yourself, Assign to me takes it in one click. When you reply to a conversation nobody has, DMU Mail assigns it to you once the message has gone. You can change this in Settings › Writing, under After sending.
Assigning can give access to one conversation
Habit 2: talk it over in team chat
Every conversation has team chat. It sits under the email, next to the Reply tab. Only people at your organisation see it, and it is never part of the email that goes out.
Under the email, next to the Reply tab, choose Team chat.
Type your note and press Enter. Shift and Enter start a new line.
When the chat is long, it folds to one line showing the number of new notes. Choose Show team chat to open it.
A new note makes the conversation unread and brings it to the top of the list for the people involved: its assignees, anyone who has written in its team chat, and anyone mentioned. The next person to open the conversation can read what was said, so nobody needs to forward the discussion.
An example. Maria at Aegean Freight is answering Alpenhof Trading about a customs delay. She does not forward the email to the customs desk. She writes in team chat, "Does Kyma Customs need the invoice before the weekend?", and the answer ends up beside the email.
Habit 3: bring a colleague in with @
Type @ in team chat and a list of people and teams opens. You can mention a whole team, and everyone on it is mentioned.
In team chat, type @.
Use the arrow keys and Enter, or click, to choose a person or a team. The list shows each person's team, and whether they can already see the conversation.
Send your note. They are notified and can open the conversation.
A mention gives access to that conversation only, not to the mailbox. Whoever gave the access, or an administrator, can remove it later. DMU Mail asks first and offers Undo. A note that names nobody gives nobody access.
What stays the same
The customer's reply still arrives in the conversation, so there is one thread to read and one history of who did what. Assigning and team chat never send anything to the customer. When you are ready to answer, you write the reply from the shared mailbox as usual.
The full steps are in Assign a conversation and Team chat and mentions.
Share
