alternative to outlook365- unified inbox grumbles

[Glasgowrob]

looking for a decent mail client ( i dont need any of the other functions ) as outlook despite my best attempts has no useable unified inbox
mac version has which is fantastic given i'm looking after a dozen email accounts but buying a new mac for home may be a tad overkill if theres a reasonable alternative out there.


slight creep on this, is there any suggestions for something to manage multiple users accessing the same mailboxes and log who has actioned what email?

[dapprman]

I assume you're using IMAP mail accounts? I have run Outlook (on PC) with multiple accounts for years with no issues. Two POP3 accounts go in to the main inbox (including gmail) by default, 4 go in to their own dedicated inboxes through use of rules on arrival (else they would go in to the main inbox) (this includes hotmail and yahoo mail). It's only the several IMAP boxes I connect to that have their own separate folder structures and you can't unify those without breaking them (or more accurately moving emails out of the accounts).

[drmotorsport]

Outlook is just an email client, 365 is a mail service and is really a separate subject. M365 can provide you with shared mailboxes and all sorts of forwarding and other rules, or you can have multiple email addresses and domains associated with one mailbox.

Multiple users working from shared mailboxes can get messy, you maybe better off with some business processes or use dedicated ticketing software.

[xeny]

drmotorsport said:

Multiple users working from shared mailboxes can get messy, you maybe better off with some business processes or use dedicated ticketing software.

This - something like OSticket is free and reasonably straightforward to set up and provided a nice track of who is responsible for what.

[dmsims]

Mailbird or eMclient ?

[Bikerjon]

Glasgowrob said:

slight creep on this, is there any suggestions for something to manage multiple users accessing the same mailboxes and log who has actioned what email?

What job function is this for? Explain what they are doing. I suspect Outlook isn't the right tool, but sometimes you can create decent enough workarounds using tags/categories/subfolders etc.

[randlemarcus]

Bikerjon said:

Glasgowrob said:

slight creep on this, is there any suggestions for something to manage multiple users accessing the same mailboxes and log who has actioned what email?

What job function is this for? Explain what they are doing. I suspect Outlook isn't the right tool, but sometimes you can create decent enough workarounds using tags/categories/subfolders etc.

If Outlook is your only tool, then subfolders and strong governance to say "the process is anything in the Inbox can be picked up by anyone, and once dealt with moved to their Marcus|Dealt wiith folder. Do not read messages and do nothing, as that annoys everybody. Once a day, the process owner will take all undealt with mails in the inbox and put them in the users To Be Dealt with folder. If they are in your To Be Dealt with folder, you deal with them."


There will be all sorts of fun and games to begin with, as Exchange is not great at subfolder permissions, and you cant easily do those, or report on them, so a few cockups and a few shouting sessions before the process settles down.

[Durzel]

Could layer something like Gorgias on top of the email if its a customer services sort of thing that's being dealt with?

[Glasgowrob]

Bikerjon said:

What job function is this for? Explain what they are doing. I suspect Outlook isn't the right tool, but sometimes you can create decent enough workarounds using tags/categories/subfolders etc.

we're a small airport transfer/taxi company and various shift staff will action an email and leave it showing unread or read it and not action it (even more frustrating as things get missed) other than a bit stick to hit them with i'm open to suggestions

[Harpoon]

Glasgowrob said:

we're a small airport transfer/taxi company and various shift staff will action an email and leave it showing unread or read it and not action it (even more frustrating as things get missed) other than a bit stick to hit them with i'm open to suggestions

As per some of the other suggestions on the thread, a ticketing system would help. You would stop working on a shared mailbox and have the ticketing platform access the mailbox. It converts the e-mails into tickets (or whatever you want to call them) and the staff then respond to them through a browser interface. That way you can see what tickets are still waiting for attention, who to replied etc etc.

There are options you can install and run yourself but I'd look for a hosted system so once setup, you just get on with using it and not looking after it.

Freshdesk has a free tier:

https://freshdesk.com/pricing

[Bikerjon]

Glasgowrob said:

we're a small airport transfer/taxi company and various shift staff will action an email and leave it showing unread or read it and not action it (even more frustrating as things get missed) other than a bit stick to hit them with i'm open to suggestions

Are the incoming emails booking/quote requests, that sort of thing? A ticketing system might be overkill for that.

Maybe the shared mailbox could have subfolders for each shift member. They move the email into their own subfolder as the very first step in actioning it.