Every business decides who should see which customer conversations. In a small shop, everyone helps everyone, and it makes sense for all conversations to be in plain view. In a larger operation, Sales has no need to read Support’s conversations, and each person works better when their Inbox shows only their own work.
Hellotext gives you two ways to work: the Shared Inbox and the Team inbox. This guide explains the difference, what each person sees in each one, and how to choose.
The two ways to work
Shared Inbox: one inbox for everyone
Picture a single counter where the whole team serves customers. Everyone sees every conversation: their own, their teammates’ and the ones nobody has taken yet. Anyone can step in and help.
- It suits small teams, and teams where everyone covers for everyone.
- It is how every business starts. There is nothing to set up.
- It is available on every plan.
Team inbox: each team sees its own work
Picture a company with separate desks for Sales, Support and Returns. Each person sees the conversations that are theirs to handle, and each desk has someone who looks after all of it.
- A teammate sees the conversations assigned to them and the ones waiting for their teams.
- A team supervisor sees every conversation of the teams they look after.
- Managers, Administrators and the Owner still see everything.
- It suits businesses with separate areas, branches or shifts, with sensitive conversations, or where people keep stepping on each other’s work.
- It is available on the Grow, Pro and Enterprise plans.
Switching between the two does not move, reassign or delete any conversation. It only changes who can see what.
Who sees what
| Shared Inbox | Team inbox | |
|---|---|---|
| Agent | Every conversation | Their own conversations and the ones waiting for their teams |
| Team supervisor | Every conversation | Every conversation of the teams they supervise |
| Manager, Administrator, Owner | Every conversation | Every conversation |
With the Team inbox on, this is what each person can see and do:
| Regular teammate | Team supervisor | Manager, Administrator or Owner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conversations assigned to me | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Conversations waiting for my teams | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Conversations assigned to other people in my teams | No | Yes | Yes |
| Conversations of teams I am not part of | No | No | Yes |
| Conversations someone else closed or snoozed | No | Only in my teams | Yes |
| Take a waiting conversation for myself | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Assign a conversation to someone in my teams | No | Yes | Yes |
| Assign a conversation to someone in another team | No | No | Yes |
The people
Three things describe a person’s place in Hellotext. They are easy to mix up, so it helps to keep them apart:
- Role: which parts of Hellotext the person can use. The roles are Agent, Manager, Administrator and Owner.
- Teams: which groups of work the person belongs to, such as Sales or Support.
- Supervisor: whether the person looks after a whole team, beyond their own conversations.
Regular teammate
A regular teammate is an Agent who belongs to one or more teams. With the Team inbox, their Inbox is focused on their own work:
- The conversations assigned to them.
- The conversations waiting for one of their teams, which they can take.
They do not see what their teammates are handling, and they cannot pass their conversations on to someone else. When they need help, they can mention a teammate in the conversation or ask a supervisor to reassign it.
Team supervisor
A supervisor is not a new role. It is an Agent who, besides answering customers, looks after one or more teams. For those teams they see everything: the conversations waiting, the ones assigned to each person, and the ones already closed or snoozed. They can also hand work to the people in those teams.
- A supervisor does not see the teams they do not supervise.
- Someone can supervise one team and be a regular teammate in another.
- Someone who supervises several teams sees all of them.
- A supervisor also sees what is assigned to the people in their teams, wherever the conversation came from.
Managers, Administrators and the Owner
They see every conversation in both ways of working, and they can assign any conversation to anyone. The Team inbox changes nothing for them.
Keep reading: Team roles and permissions.
The General queue
Not every conversation is sent to a specific team. The ones that are not go to the General queue, the place for work that has no team yet.
- Every business has a General queue. It cannot be renamed or deleted.
- Everyone belongs to it from the start. So when you turn on the Team inbox, your teammates still see the conversations that have no team, and nothing gets hidden by accident.
- You can take people out of it. A teammate outside the General queue sees only what is assigned to them and what waits for their own teams.
- When you assign a conversation to a team, the General queue is the last option in the list.
Three examples
A small store with three people. Marta, Diego and Sofía answer whatever comes in, and they cover for each other at lunch and on days off. The Shared Inbox is right for them: everyone sees everything and nothing is left waiting because the right person was out.
A store with Sales and Support. Ana sells and Luis leads Support, with two more people on his team. With the Team inbox, Ana sees her own conversations and the ones waiting for Sales. Luis, as supervisor of Support, sees every Support conversation and can pass one from a teammate who is overloaded to another. Carla, the Manager, still sees both teams.
Each seller looks after their own customers. In some businesses a conversation belongs to one seller, and the others should not read it. Turn on the Team inbox, take the sellers out of the General queue, and leave them out of every other team. A seller who belongs to no team sees only the conversations assigned to them, while Administrators and Managers see everything and hand out the new ones. If you do put sellers in a team, they also see the conversations waiting for that team, and a supervisor of that team sees all of its conversations.
Good to know about the Team inbox
- What is assigned to you is always yours to see, even when the conversation belongs to a team you are not part of.
- A mention lets you in. When a teammate mentions you in a conversation, you can open it and help.
- You keep what you closed or snoozed. Those conversations stay in your Inbox views.
- You see the whole story. When you can open a conversation, you see everything said with that customer, including earlier messages from other teammates and from the AI.
- Conversations the AI is handling stay out of agents’ way until they are handed to a person or to a team. The team’s supervisors, Managers and Administrators can see them.
- Notifications follow the same rules. You hear about conversations waiting for your teams, not about another team’s work.
- Links follow them too. A link to a conversation you cannot see does not open it.
Before you switch
The Team inbox works well when your teams are ready first. Take a few minutes to check:
- Your teams exist. Create one for each area that handles its own conversations.
- Each person is in the right teams. Someone who belongs only to the General queue sees the General queue and their own conversations, nothing else.
- Each team has a supervisor, if you want someone to watch over all its work.
- You decided who stays in the General queue.
- Your playbooks and journeys send conversations to the right team. A conversation sent to a team reaches only that team.
- Your team knows what will change. Tell them their Inbox will show their own work from now on.
Keep reading: Teams and Inbox capacity.
Turn on the Team inbox
Owners, Administrators and Managers can change this setting.
- Open Settings and go to Your Team.
- Open the Options tab.
- Under Inbox visibility, select Team inbox.
- Read the confirmation and select Switch to Team inbox.
If you select Keep Shared inbox, or close the confirmation, nothing changes.
The change applies to everyone right away. The Inbox your agents have open reloads on its own, so they see their own work without doing anything.
To go back, select Shared Inbox in the same place. It applies at once and asks for no confirmation.
If your plan does not include the Team inbox, the option shows Upgrade to Grow to enable this feature instead.
Choose your supervisors
Supervisors only make a difference while the Team inbox is on, so that is when Hellotext lets you name them. You can do it in two places.
When you invite someone. After the Inbox capacity step, Hellotext asks What should this member manage in their teams? Choose Regular teammate or Team supervisor. The question appears when the person is an Agent and you added them to at least one team besides the General queue. A supervisor chosen here supervises the teams you selected for them. On the Grow plan the invitation does not add people to teams, so this question does not appear. There you name supervisors from the team itself.
For someone already on a team. Open the team in the Teams tab and add the person under Supervisors. Only members of that team can supervise it.
Common questions
Someone supervises two teams. Do they see both? Yes. They see every conversation of all the teams they supervise.
Can a supervisor see a team they do not supervise? No. If they are a regular teammate of that team, they see the conversations waiting for it, like any other member.
A conversation was sent to a team I am not in. Can I see it? No, unless it is assigned to you or someone mentions you in it.
What does a teammate with no team see? The conversations assigned to them, and the General queue while they belong to it.
Can an agent pass a conversation to a colleague? No. An agent can take a waiting conversation for themselves. Supervisors hand out work within their teams, and Managers and Administrators can assign to anyone.
Does switching change who a conversation is assigned to? No. Assignments, teams and history stay as they are. Only what each person can see changes.
Does it change my reports? No. Reports are not filtered by this setting.
What happens if our plan no longer includes the Team inbox? Your business works as a Shared Inbox again. Your choice is kept, so the Team inbox comes back when the plan includes it.