SMS inbox: How teams can work together from a shared inbox

Employees handling texts on different devices. Messages getting buried in personal numbers. Scattered customer messages slow team downs — leading to customers repeating themselves or waiting longer for responses.

Best case scenario? You have a lot of angry customers on your hands. Worst case? They move on to another business.

That’s why SMS inboxes are so important for building stronger customer relationships. They keep all customer messages in one place so teams can work together, reduce response times, and avoid mix-ups.

In this guide, we’ll break down everything you need to know about SMS inboxes — what they are, how they work, the key features to look for, and how to set one up. 

You’ll also get six practical tips from Kathleen Buffington, Customer Success Manager at OpenPhone, on the best ways to use an SMS inbox.

What is an SMS inbox?

An SMS inbox is where you can send, receive, and manage text messages. Some inboxes are personal, while others let multiple team members handle conversations from a shared phone number.

With a shared SMS inbox, your team can access customer messages in one place. Employees on the same number can also:

• Get real-time notifications of new messages
• View all customer conversations, even if another team member handled them
• Provide a seamless experience by working together without confusion or duplicate replies

And if you’re a director or supervisor, you can easily check who said what and provide coaching to deliver better customer experiences. 

Let’s say you’re using SMS for customer support and three customers text in at the same time. One team member can handle a billing question, another can troubleshoot an issue, and a third person can schedule an appointment — all without the customers feeling like they’re talking to different people. 

Other customer-facing teams can also use this feature:

• Sales teams can quickly schedule follow-ups with prospects and assign specific contacts to available team members.
  
• Account managers can get up to date on past interactions and jump into conversations wherever needed.
  
• Recruiting teams can coordinate with candidates, answer questions about the hiring process, and ensure a smooth handoff between recruiters.
  

But the biggest benefit of an SMS inbox isn’t just engaging contacts — it’s capturing the context of each interaction.
Everyone on your team can scroll through your conversation history to better understand past and present interactions. Then, your team can use this information to provide a better customer experience.

Key SMS inbox features for teams

Ready to get an SMS inbox for your team?

Here are key features to check for when evaluating messaging apps:

• Shared numbers: You could get a texting number that’s completely separate from your calling number. But it’s far more efficient to call and text from the same number so you can interact with contacts on a number they recognize. The right provider can also help you review communications more quickly by putting calls, texts, and voice messages with a specific contact into a single view.

• Internal threads: Think of these as a kind of team chat that lives inside your customer’s conversations. You can easily tag teammates to get their input or hand off tasks to another colleague. Customers never see these internal messages — just the great customer service you provide.
  
• Auto-replies: Automatically respond to incoming messages if your team is temporarily busy or it’s outside your business hours. This helps set realistic expectations for your customers, while employees have the opportunity to disconnect from work.
  
• Scheduled messages: If you communicate with customers in different time zones, you can use tools like scheduled messages to send texts based on their local hours without having to be online yourself.
  
• Contact details: Look for an SMS inbox that lets you add contact notes for key details (like a customer’s time zone, team size, or birthday) and custom properties to further organize and identify contacts by adding structured details like follow-up dates, URLs, or tags (like “VIP” or “close to churning”).
  
• Short learning curve: The last thing you need is an SMS inbox your team will struggle to use. Find a texting solution that’s intuitive (or at least has a familiar interface) and can be easily customized as your business needs change.

6 practical ways teams can use an SMS inbox

Wondering how you can use an SMS inbox to make your business more efficient?

Kat Buffington, Customer Success Manager at OpenPhone, shares six practical ways she’s seen businesses use SMS inboxes effectively:

1. Cover team members when they’re out of the office

A shared SMS inbox is an excellent way to facilitate handoffs within your business so you never miss a call or text. They’re especially helpful when a team member is off the clock, such as out on vacation or taking a sick day. 

Every team member on the same number can access their colleagues’ call and text conversation history, so they’re always up to date. 

And when they have to delegate responsibilities or provide additional context, they can use internal threads.

“Let’s say your shift is about to end,” says Kat, “and someone’s just sent you a message. You can tag a coworker and ask them to take over and respond while you head out for the day.”

Employees can also use the filtering functionality to help make things easier for the team member covering their tasks.

If they’re going to be out of the office, they can mark SMS conversations as “unread” or “unresponded,” and they’ll appear that way for the entire team. So at the start of every shift, coworkers can see what needs to be done.

💡 You can also use your SMS inbox to support specific team members who are on the clock as well. You may want to provide some backup during lunch hours or allow outside team members to hop on during high-volume times.

2. See who talked to a customer last

With shared inboxes, team members can see who spoke to a customer last and what they discussed.

So if you receive a text from a customer and you’re not sure how to respond, you can quickly check and see who talked to them last, tag them to ask follow-up questions, or ask them to address the conversation when they can.

This helps avoid double work and spending time trying to gather context. Everything is in one place, at all times, for every person who shares that mobile number. 

There’s also increased accountability since team members know managers can monitor their activity.

3. Keep an eye on team performance

SMS inboxes give managers full visibility into customer interactions. So if you’re in the field all day or aren’t responsible for answering calls or texts, you can always see what’s happening.
You can also use your analytics to review employee performance. When there’s shared context, a manager can oversee all the numbers associated with calls and texts. And like in emails, you can effectively and automatically bcc a text.

“A manager can check in at the end of every week to make sure the entire team is doing an equitable amount of work,” says Kat. “For example, if 30 [texts] came through, did we each answer about 10? The combination of shared inboxes and analytics helps you make sure your team is being fair in managing the responsibility of the phone number.”

You can also:

• Set benchmarks for the daily conversation minimums you want your support team to have
  
• Use heat maps to determine your busiest times of the week so you’re prepared for surges

4. Use custom properties to give additional context

Having the context behind a text helps teams reply faster and reduce back-and-forth.

Custom properties provide more information about customers in-app, so you don’t have to switch to another platform — like a CRM — to find what you need. 

Knowing things like a customer’s birthday or when their last appointment was also makes it easier to personalize specific messages.

Kat has seen businesses use the following tag types:

• Contact owners 
• Preferred communication style 
• Stage of the customer journey
• Customer sentiment or health score (so you can prioritize customers based on their risk of churning, for example)
• Priority (like VIP)

Just make sure your team members understand what each set of tags means and use them appropriately. 

5. Coach team members in real time

With internal threads, you can use your team’s collective knowledge to handle customer interactions and answer specific questions. And you can also use this feature to onboard and train new hires. 

New team members can tag coworkers when they have questions or need help, all within the context of the conversation. This can help them learn faster and doesn’t scatter information across multiple platforms.

Another way to coach team members in real time is using snippets — ready-to-use SMS templates — that ensure consistent messaging across your team.

“If you’re a smaller business and you’re growing rapidly and hiring new people,” says Kat, “you can use snippets as a training tool to make sure all communication is standardized — no matter when a team member joins your business.”

For example, you can use snippets for each stage of the customer journey and ask new employees to use them at particular points, like when asking for referrals or following up on a request.

6. Use auto-replies to shared calendar availability

Need to schedule meetings with customers? A business phone solution with a built-in text message autoresponder (like OpenPhone) can help! 

When customers message your main office line to schedule a meeting, service, or visit, you can set up an auto-reply that shares a link to your team’s appointment calendar. 

This means customers can easily block time with you without having to wait for a response from you. This works at any time of the day, so customers who contact you outside your business hours can still book appointments with you.

Check out this guide if you also want to set up automatic appointment confirmation texts. 

How to set up a shared SMS inbox

A shared SMS inbox makes it easy to use one phone number on two phones (or more) and split the responsibility for inbound messages.

And with OpenPhone, it’s never been easier to get started.

You can follow these steps to set up a shared inbox for your team:

1. Create an account with an SMS inbox provider

The first step in getting an SMS inbox is creating an account with a VoIP texting provider with the features you’re looking for. 

Let’s say you choose OpenPhone. (💪)

During our free trial, you can choose your own business number (local or toll-free) to build your first-ever SMS inbox. You can use this number for calling and texting, including free calling and texting to the US and Canada. You can also text from your computer, mobile phone, and tablet.

The best part? Signing up for OpenPhone takes 15 minutes or less.

2. Choose a business phone number

Next, pick the type of business phone number you want to be attached to your SMS inbox.

There are two different types of business numbers to choose from:

• Local numbers: These are 10-digit numbers with local area codes you can use so you appear more familiar to customers. Think 205-123-4567 (which has the Birmingham, AL, area code). Keep in mind that non-local callers may have to pay long-distance fees to reach you.
  
• Toll-free numbers: These are 10-digit numbers that allow callers to contact you without paying long-distance fees. Something like 800-123-4567 is considered a toll-free number. Since you’re footing the bill for customers, they’re more likely to reach out from longer distances.
  

Can’t decide between the two types? With OpenPhone, you don’t have to. Each user comes with one free toll-free, local US, or Canadian number. You can choose local and toll-free numbers to create SMS inboxes for your team.

3. Invite team members to your account

With your account created and phone number selected, all that’s left is to invite your team to access shared calling and texting:

1. From the left-hand menu of the OpenPhone web or desktop app, select Settings, then Members.
   
2. Click Invite your team, type in their email address, and select Add to list.
   
3. Choose your newly established number as the number assignment and select their workspace role.

Get started with a shared inbox with OpenPhone

Shared SMS inboxes are the best way to split responsibility for incoming messages with your team. With OpenPhone, you can set up a shared inbox and manage customer SMS messages from anywhere with a WiFi connection.

But OpenPhone helps you manage more than just inbound SMS messages:

• Answer and receive incoming phone calls as a team so no conversations fall through the cracks.
  
• Set up automations that push data to your favorite platforms, including HubSpot, Salesforce, and Slack.
  
• Create custom workflows by integrating with Zapier, Make, or the OpenPhone API.
  
• Send automatic text messages directly through Make or Zapier.
  
• Leave personalized notes on individual contacts or tag team members in internal threads to help everyone stay on the same page.
  
• Use AI-generated responses and snippets to connect with customers without typing the same message over and over again.
  

Curious to see what these features look like in action? You can test drive OpenPhone today with our seven-day free trial. Once you confirm we’re a great fit for your team, you can port any of your existing business numbers for free.