Communication gets easier when it lives in one place. Unify your entire team's text message conversations into one shared inbox with MessageDesk.
MessageDesk is a shared inbox - meaning your whole team can seamlessly jump in and out of conversations with contacts.
There are a variety of tools to help you and your team manage conversations easily.
From creating a team in MessageDesk to launching campaigns, this guide will explain how we can help you and your teammates maximize your efficiency.
Using the Inbox as a Team
Using the Inbox as a Team
1. Adding Teammates
It's not a real shared inbox without teammates. Luckily, MessageDesk allows you to add teammates to your account. Once added, they'll be able to jump in and out of any conversation.
Navigate to the Team page in your MessageDesk Workspace.
Click on the Invite New Teammate icon in the top right.
Enter the Email address of the Teammate that you would like to invite to your workspace.
Choose the Role of your teammate.
Reference How to Add Team Members to Your MessageDesk Account for an in-depth tutorial on this feature.
💡 What are Roles?
MessageDesk supports 3 levels of permission: Admin, Manager, Operator. Role determines the type of access that a team member will have in your account.
Admin
Admin
The creator of your MessageDesk account. This person has access to everything and is the only person who can update the account’s subscription. Each account can only have 1 Admin. To change this admin, please email support@messagedesk.com.
Manager
Manager
Has the same level of feature access as the Admin but is not the point of contact for the account. They are prevented from updating the account’s phone number or payment details. This is great for teammates who need all-access to the platform.
Operator
Operator
Has limited access to MessageDesk features. They are unable to delete or edit existing contacts, create or edit SMS campaigns, and unable to upload contact data in bulk via CSV uploads. This is great for teammates who may need to send a Broadcast, manage the inbox or need to export information from MessageDesk.
2. Filtering the Inbox
Now that you have conversations assigned across your team, you'll want to filter your Inbox so you only see conversations assigned to you.
To filter conversations in the Inbox, just select the Filter Icon shown below:
Than apply your desired Inbox Filter:
3. Mentioning a Teammate in a Conversation
With the Comments feature in MessageDesk, you can easily add a comment to the conversation you are having with one of your contacts.
A comment is a message that isn't sent to the contact, instead, it's a way for you to communicate with your team about a conversation you're having.
Comments are even more useful when you tag a user in you MessageDesk account. Let's say I needed to let Jason know that Morgan just confirmed her appointment by texting in.
To make a comment, just click the "Comment" icon when composing a message:
Then just compose your comment!
Once I'm ready to type my comment, all I have to do is type '@' anywhere in my message, and I'll see a menu of teammates to mention.
You can read more about making comments, and mentioning teammates in the following article.
4. Assigning Conversations to Teammates
Once you start a conversation, team members can assign themselves the conversation or they can hand off the conversation to someone else on the team.
Assigning one to a teammate declares your ownership over a conversation. It's a great way to communicate "Hey team, I've got this one" without having to walk across the hall to tell everyone you're going to respond.
At any point, you'll be able to filter your inbox based on assignee - which teammate is assigned - making it easy to keep things organized.
When someone assigns you a conversation you'll receive an email notification and an in-app notification letting you know.
How to Assign a Conversation
There are 2 ways to assign a conversation in MessageDesk.
You can select multiple conversations and assign them or you can assign each conversation individually.
In this step-by-step description, we will be going over how to assign an individual conversation. To see how you can select multiple conversations at once, visit the following article.
Navigate to the conversation that you would like to assign.
Select the profile picture or person icon in the top left of the conversation
Select the contact you would like to assign
5. Customizing your Inbox Workflow
You can customize the way MessageDesk assigns conversations to teammates, when someone will get notified about a new message, and more.
You can do this by going to Settings -> Workspace Settings.
6. Send on Behalf of a Teammate
When messaging as a team under a MessageDesk workspace, all text messages are sent through one universal business landline. This prevents the possibility of confusing contacts and conversations by messaging them from different phone lines.
On the flip side, contacts will receive all messages from your team from the same number to avoid confusion with separate team members.
7. Team Member-Specific Notifications
Want to make sure a specific team member replies to a contact? Assign them the conversation so they get an email and in-app notification.
And get notified when a team member closes a conversation.
The good news is, these notifications are enabled be default. So no action is needed on your end to receive these notifications.
