Guide
Set up a shared customer support inbox
Stop losing customer emails in your personal inbox or a teammate's DMs.
Create one dedicated support email address
support@yourbusiness.com or help@yourbusiness.com. Never use a personal email for customer support, it doesn't scale past one person and looks unprofessional.
Use a shared inbox tool, not a forwarding rule
Free tools like Help Scout's free tier, Gmail's collaborative inbox, or even a shared Google Group let multiple people see and claim the same messages without duplicating replies.
Set up a simple auto-reply
Confirm receipt and set expectations: 'We got your message and reply within 1 business day.' This alone reduces frustrated follow-up emails significantly.
Create 5-10 saved reply templates
For your most common questions (shipping times, return policy, how to reset a password), write a template once. Personalise the first line, paste the rest. Cuts response time dramatically.
Assign an owner for daily triage
Even with a shared inbox, one person should check it first thing each day to make sure nothing urgent sits untouched. 'Everyone's job' quietly becomes 'nobody's job' without an owner.
That’s the whole thing.
Keep going
What to read next
- 01
Customer Support & Fulfillment
Write a return and refund policy customers can actually understand
A clear policy prevents most disputes before they happen, and makes the ones that do happen easier.
- 02
Customer Support & Fulfillment
Create response time promises you can actually keep
A simple SLA (service level agreement) that sets expectations instead of leaving customers guessing.
- 03
Customer Support & Fulfillment
Handle a shipping delay without losing the customer
A simple script for turning a bad situation into one that still keeps the customer on your side.