Most business owners and managers seem to find themselves with a tedious task: managing their email workflow. With 6 million companies operating in Google Workspace, Gmail is a core email tool that can save you a lot of time if managed efficiently. This is even more essential for a Gmail shared inbox, when you work alongside colleagues.

Email management can be time consuming and confusing if you don’t have a reliable system. In this article, we’re exploring 25 email management best practices you can implement to have your inbox work for you and not the other way around. Follow them to stop wasting time switching between tabs and managing tasks, so you can focus on growing your business.

1. Declutter your inbox

The first step is to start clearing out your email mess. This is one of the best email management practices because it helps you set up a working system without being overwhelmed. 

To do that, start by unsubscribing to unwanted newsletters, archiving or deleting old conversations and removing all that doesn’t belong, such as personal mail on work address and vice-versa. 

While this doesn’t have to be perfect, the more streamlined your inbox is, the better, since a clear view helps you define an email workflow that works for your needs, not the other way around. 

2. Use aliases to categorize emails

Did you know you can have aliases on Gmail? It allows users to merge multiple Gmail accounts into one inbox. This is really useful when you need to have specific email address for each part of your work. 

If you are working on a small business around different departments, you might find it overwhelming to monitor all at once. But if you receive it all in your inbox and just filter it accordingly, you will have a clearer view of everything.

3. Schedule your messages

While there’s a value to synchronous communication, many companies depend on the email management best practices keeping the daily tasks running. If you work overtime to mail your colleagues, your workday won’t end and it will impact everyone else’s too.

For instance, you email a colleague to ask about a non urgent issue, they put it on top of their priority list and reply quickly, then you feel the need to get back to them quicker, etc etc. This creates a cycle of messages that pile on your inbox. If you know you will need someone’s full attention instead of a quick response, wait to send the email until you are also ready for the conversation.

So the best game plan is to schedule it for the next workday. Gmail allows you to pick a date and time, so you can finish writing and hit send – but your reader will get it the next day.

4. Label everything

While you can’t avoid a full inbox, you can set it up in a way that helps you find what you need. This is where labels, or categories, are useful. 

You can create custom labels on Gmail to categorize messages better. For example you can add a “marketing” label to everything sent from your marketing department or “finances” to sort bank statement and receipts. Then, you can use the search bar to go directly to in:[label]. 

Of course there are many ways you could use labels, you can sort them by urgency, by theme, by groups of senders, etc.

5. Use your archive better

Are you done with a conversation but still cannot delete it because you might need to refer back to it in the future? Make a habit of archiving emails if you’re done with them, so that they don’t clutter your inbox.

You can also add a filter to automatically archive bureaucracy, such as order confirmations and payment details for your clients. These shouldn’t be deleted, as they’re essential, but since they don’t require a reply, they take up inbox space. 

6. Manage emails as tasks

If your workflow is email-driven, chances are your tasks arrive as emails and your emails require tasks to be done. If this resonates with you, you should turn your emails into tasks and manage them as such.

Tools such as DragApp, for example, turn Gmail into kanban boards. This way, you can categorize emails across stages, create to-do lists for emails and play with other task management features such as team assignment, due dates, color coding, etc.

That way, as soon as you open your mailbox, you’ll know what need to be your focus for the day.

7. Disable notifications

On that same note, you should also disable the notifications for your email accounts. If you have them on the desktop, you might be tempted to check them every time the dialog box shows up on your right corner. If you use it on your mobile device, the floating red icon might be too much. 

But if you don’t have notifications at all, you can use the time block technique to only check your messages on their designated time and avoid jumping into it as soon as you see the familiar notification box.

8. Don’t bring socials into emails

Nowadays most social media accounts send you notifications to the address you used to set up your profile. However, they are mostly clutter on your inbox and not really useful information.

If you need to see your social media notifications, you should only be able to do this by logging into the social media platforms themselves.

So unsubscribe from social media email alerts. That way, you don’t get tempted into social media or miss important emails because this notifications keep popping up in your inbox.

9. Filter automatically

In the same way, the labeling process helps you filter emails. One of the most useful email management best practices is to keep everything on its place. 

Say you need to forward all customer issues to an IT department. Instead of opening each message, create a rule. Here’s how:

1. Open Gmail.
2. In the search box at the top, click Show search options.
3. Enter your search criteria. In this context, say you choose all emails containing the word “technical issue”. To make sure your filter works, click search and see if the criteria was met. 
4. At the bottom of the search window, click Create filter. 
5. Choose what you’d like the filter to do. Here, you can forward to the department’s email address.
6. Click Create filter.

Of course, which filter you create depends on your needs. You can use them for archival, deleting, forwarding, etc. This is also the way to effectively block an aol, by filtering the sender or subject and creating a rule that deals with them automatically.

10. Write better (and fewer) emails

If you find that your colleagues are often emailing you for details, it might be that your original messages weren’t clear enough. Make a habit of proofreading your emails before you send them and checking for lacking details.

You should also add bullet points and deadlines so that others can quickly scan over the text. That way, everyone is sending clearer messages and fewer of them, leading to less cluttered inboxes.

11. Not everything needs a reply

Another important part of an email workflow is understanding that you can just not reply to certain messages. If you’re BCC’d on an exchange, for example, you just need to overview it, not reply to it.

Or if a conversation has run its course just archive it. That way, you avoid neverending email threads.

12. Use email templates (canned responses)

Even if your receiving mail is all automated and sorted, you might face another challenge for your workflow: the emails you have to send. Often, managers and small business owners find themselves replying repeatedly to the same inquiry. Not only it takes away from other tasks, but also creates an opportunity for errors.

But you can create canned responses right from your inbox and then easily incorporate them whenever needed. First, however, they need to be enabled. Her’s how to do it:

1. Open Gmail on your browser and click the settings button.
2. Click on the Advanced tab and find the Templates option.
3. Make sure it’s ticked “enabled”.
4. Compose your template. All you need to do is to start composing a new email as you would normally.
5. Before you click send, go to the three-dot menu on the lower right and click Templates > Save draft as template and pick a name for it.

As soon as you open the compose box again, for either new emails or replies, click the three-dot menu again. Select the option Templates, then select the template you just made. Done! Gmail templates feature is focused on individuals, which means you are not able to share them with your team. You will need a tool like Drag is your need to share email templates in Gmail to ensure consistent communication across the board.

13. Consider the OHIO (only handle it once) method

This method consists in minimizing procrastination and task switching. Here is the rule: when you open an email, you have one chance to decide what to do with it: replying, forwarding, deleting or archiving.

Instead of opening up many messages and overthinking what to answer and when, this challenge keeps you accountable.

14. Prioritize actual priorities

Prioritizing is among one of the most important email management best practices. Failing to do so may result in you feeling overwhelmed by the amount of emails you need to deal with.

Most times you need to make sure you are tagging relevant messages accordingly and organizing your schedule. This way, you don’t miss them or wait too long because you’re deep into your less relevant information.

15. Give yourself a snooze

Did you know Gmail has a snooze function? If you need some extra time to think over a reply, don’t worry: move your cursor to it and click on the clock icon. Then pick a time for the email to come back. If you have a designated day on your schedule for it, just snooze it until then.

16. Time block 

Are you always trying to keep up with your inbox? Maybe the problem is not the emails themselves, but the amount of times you check them each day. Even though having clear and concise communication is key to a good workflow, it’s important to set up a specific time to do it instead of randomly checking your inbox throughout the day. 

That is because creating intervals to check your inbox throughout the day doesn’t give it your full attention. And you also don’t pay attention to whatever you’re doing before, often getting lost between tasks. 

The ideal way to combat this is to set up a specific time in your calendar to check your email each day. For instance, if you dedicate half an hour each morning and half an hour each evening to see what you’ve missed and reply to anything important, you can add them right into your calendar and don’t schedule anything else for the time.

17. Take extra time for important messages

You can use the same strategy to set up a specific time to work on your important emails. Dedicate an hour or two each week to reviewing the most important messages on your inbox, scheduling tasks and forwarding information whenever needed.

If your time block it on your calendar, you will avoid being called in for meetings or forgetting about your mailbox. Add a reminder if you need to, but try to avoid letting it pile.

18. Solve it now, not later

Who hasn’t been overworked and checked their email in the middle of many other things? This is a common problem among people who work in email-driven companies because they often find themselves letting messages pile up, waiting for the right moment to deal with them.

The problem is that there’s no ideal time and you end up having that much bigger to-do list in the future. To avoid this, you should try a 1 minute rule: anything that can be solved in less than a minute should be done immediately.

19. Use email management Gmail extensions

Gmail is a powerful and easy email client, which is why users gravitate towards it even for custom domains. That said, you can make it better for your needs by installing extensions. These extensions, found on the Google Workspace Marketplace or Chrome Store, can add functions like calendar integration, private messaging, task managers and many more.

Drag is one of these extensions and turns Gmail into a Team Workspace. Without ever switching tabs, you can share files, chat with your coworkers or manage tasks as a team. 

20. Inbox zero (or whatever works for you) is your friend

The ideal inbox zero, which means having no unread emails, might be a hard reach for most people. However, the same principle can be used in other ways. If you have a status label for all your business tasks, maybe make a goal of never having a message unlabeled. Or not keeping more than two to-do items.

21. Use CC and BCC correctly

It’s more common for professionals in an email-driven company to work in a team rather than on their own. Whether you’re the business owner, manager or employee, you probably need to collaborate on each other’s work and understand what every team member is doing.

Your emails can be an ally in this process because they can keep everyone accountable of what’s been going on. But, for this, you need to know the difference between cc and bcc. To include someone in a conversation, add them to the CC. If you’re just making someone aware of what you’re doing, BCC them, so that others don’t reply to them as well .

22. Delegate, if needed

Part of collaboration is delegation. Don’t let yourself be a bottleneck when you already have too much to do. Don’t hesitate to delegate not only emails, but overall day-to-day tasks. For Gmail delegation, tools like Drag can help.

23. Preview emails to save time

The previews are key. Use this function to read them before you even open. Here’s how Google tells you to do it:

1. On your computer, go to Gmail .
2. At the top right, click Settings Settings and then See all settings.
3. On the top, select the Inbox tab and then scroll to Reading pane.
4. Check the “Enable reading pane” box.
5. Select your split pane mode.
6. At the bottom, click Save changes. 

Just don’t forget about the other email management best practices: use the previews to decide whether to add the message to your to-do list or get rid of it, instead of letting it pile.

24. Don’t multitask

Multitasking is a trap most of us fall into. While it seems productive, the truth is quite the opposite. When people switch context, by switching tabs or tasks, they use their time and energy to get acclimated over and over again, which drives down productivity. By focusing on what you’re doing, you finish earlier, better and efficiently.

25. Use shared inboxes

This is among the less known email management best practices but certainly a game changer for email-driven companies. Instead of forwarding to each interested party or replying to multiple people at once to keep them on the loop, teams can have a shared mailbox to deal with collective issues. 

That way, everyone has access to all messages and can get into their tasks, not needing another email.

There are multiple ways to share an inbox, but DragApp helps you do it by organizing those inboxes and transforming then into boards and tasks that need to be done. This makes the content more visual and ready to be done. 

Wrapping up

Now that you know some of the best email management practices, it’s time to up your email game and make it work for you, instead of taking too much of your time.

Are you already incorporating shared mailboxes? Here are our tips on shared email best practices!

Email etiquette is paramount for most organizations, especially those with email-driven workflows. If this is your case and you operate various shared email addresses such as support@ or hello@, this article is for you. It is even more crucial for you and your team to pay attention and put into action shared mailbox best practices.

We have been operating shared mailboxes – and building a shared inbox tool – since 2016. This article summarizes our top best practices for those teams looking to manage shared inboxes the most efficient way. 

Our top 9 shared mailbox best practices

From accountability to automating tasks, there are lots of ways to make shared mailboxes work for you. Here are our recommended shared mailbox best practices:

1. Choose a fit-for-purpose shared mailbox

Companies find different ways to create shared mailboxes, from sharing email accounts to using distribution lists. By the way, if your business is in Google Workspace, check our post about different ways to create a gmail shared inbox and their respective pros and cons.

The problem is, lots of the solutions companies adopt are substandard. Simply because those solutions were not originally built to work as shared inboxes. So our first best practice is to get it right on your first step. Pick a fit-for-purpose shared mailbox tool. Don’t use ‘hacks’ to create shared mailboxes from your normal inbox or email client, like Gmail for example.

At a first glance you may think this will save you money, but that would come at a huge productivity cost. Read our ‘Gmail Shared Inbox’ article above to understand what these costs are. There are plenty of standalone tools that were built to work as shared mailboxes. Or, if you prefer to keep working inside Gmail, you can go with a shared mailbox chrome extension such as Drag shared inbox in Gmail.

2. Define clear mailbox workflows

The key to a productive and well labeled shared mailbox is enforcing a clear workflow. This means clearly defining what happens to an email when it lands on your shared mailboxes. It doesn’t need to be anything complex, especially if your team is small. But it is important to document the flow you want the emails to follow in your shared mailbox. 

For example, the image above shows a flow shared by a customer here at Drag. As a freight company, they have Google Groups that receive emails from different departments, from transport to sales. They built their workflow so that emails sent to all Groups land on a single Gmail inbox, like aliases. Then they use a combination of automations and manual triage to distribute those emails across Drag shared workspaces.

Although simple, this workflow makes sure all team members are aligned on what happens to emails received by the company. Especially if you have a company with multiple teams, where you may need a clear path for handing over information cross-department. Like your support team needing to hand over a ticket from a customer with technical difficulties to the IT team. 

3. Keep emails visually organized

Any mailbox, shared or not, works much better if it’s visual and easy to digest. Since most companies rely on email-based communications to operate, there needs to be a clear path to follow. Enter: email organization. There are many ways of doing it (if you use Gmail, here’s how to organize Gmail like a boss).

Most emails clients offer good resources such as labels, folders or tabs.  You can make use of them to categorize emails by department, issue or urgency for example. However, another less explored mechanism we recommend is kanban for emails.

Kanban is a method broadly used by companies across many industries to make it easier to people to visualize how far along things are. And it’s broadly adopted for a reason: it just helps with productivity. That’s why here at Drag we offer this same kanban view but for shared mailboxes. 

4. Address accountability correctly

Another issue companies frequently face is organizing the activities between them. One way to mitigate this problem is to add accountability to everything on the shared inbox. 

Assigning emails to each person works much better than just forwarding every new message and keeps the person rightfully updated. This way, everybody knows who is working on what so that emails don’t fall through the cracks or, even worse, get replied twice.

It is also interesting to look for a shared mailbox tool that offers an activity log, which brings transparency about everything being done on the shared inbox. If an email conversation has been missing, for instance, you can use an activity log to find out what happened to that email. You may find out that someone archived it by accident, for example. Below is an example of shared mailbox activity log:

Here at Drag, we take accountability very serious. Besides email assignment and activity log, we also have an “assigned to me” view. There, each team member can easily visualize all emails on their plate.

5. Keep the shared mailbox clean 

Of course, like in any other shared space, the cleanliness of your mailbox is essential. Finished a task? Archive it. Found doubles? Merge them. That way you avoid confusion and keep issues like work being redone at bay.

The best practice for a clean work mailbox is to avoid letting things pile up. So it’s even more important to fix issues like broken links, wrongs tags and unarchived tasks before they mess up the workflow.

6. Keep all communication in one place

Another challenge for teams is the need to keep communication channels open without them taking over the schedule. This is part of shared inbox etiquette. Spreading information and constantly switching platforms can eat up a lot of your – and you team mates – time.

A shared mailbox tool will offer your team the ability to visualize all steps of a task without leaving your inbox. That includes relevant files, drafts, step by step completion, deadlines, templates and so on. Below is a practical example of how Drag merges emails, tasks, notes, chat and files in the same workspace. 

If all relevant information is kept in view, no one loses tracks of what is being done. And this can save you an incredible amount of time.

7. Make workflows clear team members

Once you have defined the workflows around your shared mailboxes, you need to make sure they are clear to team members. And the best way to do it is by documenting guidelines for the team members inside the shared mailbox itself.

In our shared mailbox, for example, this can be done in several ways. Below is an example including pinning instructions to the top of each column and adding legends to color coding on a specific card.

 

8. Automate as much as possible

What if you didn’t need to go through every message to assign them to people? Or didn’t need to write the same email over and over? So many things that can be automated in most workflows but, surprisingly, many people don’t make use of them! Here at Drag, these are the most common automations used by our customers:

• Automatically move certain emails to Drag workspaces shared with a specific team (eg. emails with subject “invoices” to go to the “accounts payable” board).
• Auto-assign specific emails to specific team members (eg. assigning the IT manager to every message that contains technical issues).
• Automatically prioritise messages from key customers (eg. tag all emails from specific clients as “urgent”). 

Shared email templates are another form of mailbox automation: set up the base for emails you send often, like offers and client follow-ups, so that you don’t have to redo them each time. The best part is that they are shared, so your team can offer professional and consistent email communication.

9. Track performance for continuous improvement

We can’t talk about shared mailbox best practices without talking about data. Data is the single most valuable asset in the world nowadays. And you can – and should – use it in your favor to:

• Understand what aspects of your workflow are working well and what could work better;
• Reward high-performers and keep them motivated;
• Save time by easily reporting key metrics to management;
  And many other ways. 

Any decent shared mailbox tool will offer reports and analytics in their feature set. The key exercise here is to define what are the key performance metrics for your business (eg. response times) and track them closely.

Why shared mailbox best practices are important

One of the reasons managers and business owners benefit from shared inboxes is that they promote clear teamwork. Delegating and organizing are key parts of team work management, but they require a team that works well together.

A shared mailbox can help teams build a well-guided workflow. If everyone keeps up with the etiquette and follows the correct path, there’s less time spent looking for information, interrupting schedules and troubleshooting issues.

Using makeshift solutions can help on the short term, but for a visual and organized schedule, finding the ideal tool for your needs helps your company grow. If the email inbox, with a documented and organized set of guides, can help make it happen, it’s a valuable resource for the manager and the entire team.

Every successful company demands the correct tools to help you increase output and improve customer service. And while there are several technologies you can use in your business, collaborative inboxes are always a safe bet. If you’re looking for a way to collaborate with your coworkers on a project, here is the place to be. Keep reading to find out more!

Is there a Google ticketing system?

Google Workspace does not provide a ticketing system. There are no Google applications support ticket systems for firms that use Gmail to manage customer support inquiries from their customers. Indeed, the Google helpdesk provides customer service via other Google apps.

Can I set up a Google ticketing system?

There is no built-in ticketing system in Google Workspace. Nonetheless, you may make your own with Google Forms and Google Sheets. Instead of relying on Google, several firms have decided to develop their ticketing system. There are several ways to set up a ticketing system for customer service, such as using Google Forms, Spreadsheets, Drag, and Script.

How does a ticketing system operate?

Technical support staff often use google ticketing systems to track and resolve their customers’ equipment or software issues. A ticketing system is a database designed to simplify answering and resolving customer support requests. In a ticketing system, each record is a ticket.

A ticketing system allows the customer support staff to focus on the issue at hand. This way you don’t have to  wade through tons of email messages and other information. Just find out who the customer is, their contact details, what is it’s problem  and if it has been resolved, etc. The ticket contains all the necessary information in one place.

Why Do You Need a Ticketing System for Your Google Workspace?

If your Gmail inbox is always full of customer service requests, then a ticketing system is best to handle them. Here are compelling reasons why you need a ticketing system.

More Responsive Customer Service

A google ticketing system ensures that every incoming request is immediately assigned to a staff member. Thus ensuring that your customers are promptly served. Failure to use a ticketing system may result in varying response times. Unanswered requests often sit in your mailbox for days before anyone notices.

Enhances the Customer’s Overall Satisfaction

An individual customer may necessitate a series of emails from you to settle their issue. If you’re utilizing a Google ticketing system, you can designate a certain staff member to receive emails from this customer. A customer won’t have to re-explain the issue to each new person in the email chain. Instead, they will save time and effort. As a result, the customer has a better overall experience.

Organizes Customer Service Requests

Incoming requests will be easy to track if you use a workplace ticketing system. This will prevent requests from being lost in the shuffle and getting ignored. It makes customer service a collaborative effort. It makes it easy to include other organization members in problem-solving. If you want to ensure everyone is doing their fair part of the work, you can delegate assignments to your team members.

Prevents the Needless Duplication of Effort

There is no way to know what your team is working on if you don’t use a ticketing system. A possible effect is that you may find yourself working on a support request that another user has previously resolved. Instead of saving time, this practice could lead to client confusion when they receive repeated responses from your staff. Using a ticketing system helps you avoid this problem by allowing you to see what your team is working on at any given time.

How Can I Set up a Ticketing System Using Google Forms?

Google Forms comprises twelve field modules and nine question components, including a photo, text, and video portions. Each field has a copy knob, which allows you to duplicate the field easily and include identical questions on your form. In addition, you’ll find a delete button, a menu with more options, and more possibilities for creating your chosen field in the system.

When you transition from numerous checkboxes or menus to different question kinds, your fields and settings will be reset. Press the enter key to include questions in the form fields. Add new questions to the list by following these instructions.

This issue ticketing system is designed to be simple. While there are many things you can do to improve your Google Form, here’s what you can do:

1. First, make the questions required. This ensures you get all the information you need to process each ticket. For example, in this form, you can ask for a name and email address. So I can follow up on any tickets that you have not answered.
2. Second, add a timestamp question. This will help you prioritize which tickets are answered first.
3. Third, turn on email notifications for new responses. Each time a customer submits a new ticket, you’ll get an email letting you know about it.
4. Finally, customize the confirmation page shown after someone submits the form (for example, by adding a link back to your website).

To answer tickets submitted through your form, open the Google Sheet created when you set up your form (it should show up in My Drive). As people submit tickets through your form, they’ll automatically appear in your sheet as data rows.

How Can I Set up a Ticketing System Sharing a Gmail Account?

Email communications may be automatically converted to tickets by importing them from multiple Gmail inboxes. These tickets are only generated for brand new, unopened email messages in the inbox.

All ticket notifications will be delivered directly from your Gmail account. Gmail’s Sent folder will hold all alerts. The Gmail ticketing link to as many Gmail accounts as you like. All of your Gmail addresses are added to the list of support contacts as soon as you accomplish this. When setting up the connection, you can import the latest 50 emails or not import any pre-existing emails.

Why Is It a Bad Idea?

Put Your Safety in Jeopardy

If a team member is hacked or loses their device, all of the team’s data may be vulnerable to leaks and invasions. The person who finds your employee’s computer may access your client’s emails which is a complete risk.

Platform Restrictions

Many email services restrict the number of devices that you may log in at once without raising concerns. In other words, you won’t be able to concurrently access the inbox without triggering a restriction from your provider. If you restrict who has access to the communications, you will revert to the previous state of information deficiency.

Access to Other Applications

Logging into other services with the same email account introduces other risks. If, for example, the marketing department requires access to the CRM software. However, because it’s tied to a shared email account, you compromise other platforms’ security. More sources of entry increase the risk of someone hacking into your system and causing problems.

How Can I Set Up a Ticketing System Sharing a Collaborative Inbox?

A collaborative inbox allows all support agents to view the same email from the same dashboard on the same platform. When it comes to email communication, a shared email inbox is a radical departure from the usual model. In which a single user owns and manages an email account. You start by having all your customer-facing inboxes on the same page so you can monitor them from a simple interface.

With a shared email inbox, you can close tickets more quickly. Organize and prioritize tickets by labeling and highlighting those that require prompt attention. Assigning a single ticket to the appropriate teams. This allows agents to access the ticket and provide notes and comments to resolve it quickly. Team email management software makes it simple to track and measure its time to resolve a problem.

Why is it a bad idea?

Inconsistent Email Synchronization

A significant drawback of Google Collaborative Inbox is that it does not allow smooth email synchronization. Customers or project managers that utilize collaborative inboxes need to make sure that they synchronize all emails.

It Lacks Automation Capabilities

When it comes to getting the most out of your collaborative shared email, efficiency is one of the primary advantages. There are no automation tools available for the Collaborative mailbox on Google. As a result, you should expect a slew of additional emails to pile up. The only option for team members to interact with one another is through additional emails.

It Operates through Google Groups Rather Than Gmail

Google’s collaborative inbox will be a challenge for your team to work with. It is more frustrating since they have to switch tabs to react to emails, making things even more cumbersome. The possibilities of some emails getting lost in the shuffle are also rather high, though.

How Can I Set Up a Ticketing System Using Drag?

There are various ways in which customer service teams handle incoming tickets. These tickets or emails may be handled immediately from Gmail with Drag’s help. Email and ticket conversions will no longer be necessary.

Most small businesses are always on the lookout. Searching for a platform that can support the company’s 100+ brands while ensuring a consistent consumer experience. The best part is that Drag is always a safe bet! For instance, Boosted Commerce is establishing a platform for 100+ brands that utilize Drag for frictionless customer service. The Boosted team has developed an exceptional worldwide customer support team. Which would not have been possible without Drag’s guidance.

Creating a Helpdesk board is the first step. Incoming inquiries will be shown on the board in real-time. Your Helpdesk emails may be added to your Drag boards, regardless of whether they are genuine email accounts (with password), Google Groups, or simply an alias. All you have to do is this:

• Set up a new board.
• Invite members of your team to join the board.
• Add incoming emails to the list 
• Organize and classify enquiries

Your work becomes easier when you know what’s going on without asking around or seeking information. You may use Drag to sort client enquiries into four different categories:

Create Helpdesk-specific Columns and Listings

The columns (if you use Kanban view) or lists (if you use list view) may be customized to fit your Helpdesk process. Simply click on the names of the columns or lists to rename them. This is possible on the top left. To alter the title, type it in the input form and click outside the input field to save your changes. It enables auto-saving of the names.

Consider Utilizing Shared Tags for Important Data

To classify queries based on important details regarding each client or ticket, use Drag’s shared tags. This might include customer plan, organization size, inquiry, etc. When a board has a variety of queries, the ability to filter boards based on tags is a valuable tool.

To Aid in Visual Segmentation, Use Color-Coded Labels

In addition to arranging your cards alphabetically, you may also use color-coding. Each color can reflect a ticket’s urgency, current state, the timezone where the client is located, or something else.

Determine the Source of Your Responses

Drag allows you to reply to emails using your user@ email address or a shared email address, such as support@.

Additionally, you can choose a “Reply Default” for your emails. If you use support@ as your default reply email address, all answers will originate from support@ regardless of whether you have signed in to your account.

Why Is It the Best Option?

Combine Email Cards to Minimize Clutter

Drag allows you to arrange and classify emails that include similar requests. You may then merge those email cards for simpler organizing. With this function, you can search and answer in the quickest time possible for your team members.

Integrates with Calendar

Using Drag, you can plan milestones and create reminders by integrating your Google Calendar. With this concept, users will receive notifications of upcoming deadlines. Furthermore, the likelihood of late response is relatively minimal.

Features Kanban Boards

Drag’s goal is to make working with Kanban boards in Gmail error-free and straightforward. This feature makes it easier for team members to examine emails at different stages. This allows them to identify which concerns they have addressed and remain unresolved easily.

It is Mobile-Friendly

As one of Drag’s most notable features, its mobile app provides a convenient way for you to keep track of your boards. You don’t have to be at your desk at work to receive incoming emails and keep tabs on how they’re progressing. With a smartphone and an internet connection, you may work on queries from home, road, or anywhere else.

Final Thoughts

Inevitably, a well-thought-out collaborative mailbox feature will increase team output and please customers alike. Just sign up with Drag if you wish to benefit from the incredible tools! Check out how Drag helps Boosted Ecommerce improve its customer service. If you join Drag, you’ll be part of the next success story, guaranteed!

The world’s most popular search engine will now be coming with a wide range of new search updates, and we, for once, are super excited about it. The new updates will facilitate better product discovery while utilizing multiple inputs to look for various results. The one update that we are most excited about is Google’s Multitask Unified Model (MUM) for search. The new search system is here to change the face of Google’s search systems, and we are very eager to see how it works and what it means for customers and companies.

Do you also wish to know how Google’s MUM works and how it will facilitate search results to improve productivity? Then read on to know everything about the upcoming update!

How MUM Works

The MUM system is being implemented to help people search for various products based on variable inputs. It includes visual searches to broaden search parameters and expand discovery ventures. 

Multitask Unified Model (MUM) will be using a new T5 text-to-text framework that is much more powerful than their existing BERT. The new feature has been created to understand and generate language. The AI feature will be able to manage different tasks and is equipped to understand 75 different languages. So, it will better understand world knowledge and information than the previous AI models. 

Using Information Across Different Types

Google’s spokesperson says they will be launching the new visual search method in the coming months. Here, we will also be granted the ability to ask different questions about the products we wish to see. Since the model is multimodal, it will be able to understand any information over various formats like pictures, webpages, or videos all at the same time. 

Based on this brief explanation, we can assume that Google’s advanced search capacity will soon use visuals as a reference point for the searches. For example, if you want socks with a particular design pattern, you have to use the image of the said socks to search for them. You will be sent several products under the same category with your preferred design. 

This new Multitask Unified Model (MUM) method will also be beneficial when you do not know precisely what you are searching for. You can click a picture of it and search to find whatever you are looking for. 

Thus, this new model will be a significant leap in Google’s search capacity. It will open up new considerations and ventures for discovery. It will also lead to how your customers land up on your website because of their various queries and behaviors.

Google’s MUM concept will also use broader contextual searches. They will be adding a new element known as “Things To Know” based on advanced machine understanding. It will help searchers to move in the right direction. 

For example, suppose you look for acrylic painting on Google. The search engine already knows what people like to look at under this topic. So it will show every aspect of the acrylic painting topic to help the audience look at everything they want.

Google will also be adding a deep dive search option that is more visually aligned. This option will be available for specific topics used to identify related topics inside a video. The search engine will also develop links based on these related topics to help you explore some more. 

Google’s spokesperson elaborated that while using MUM, they will also show other related topics not explicitly mentioned in the video. It will be based on the search engine’s advanced understanding of the information in the video. 

The new visual search method is a critical factor in Google’s advanced Lens search process. It enables Google app users to search based on text, video, image content on a website. Thus, it leads to improved eCommerce discovery by clients.

iOS users, too, will be given access to this new feature. They will have a new button on their Google app. They can make every image on a particular page searchable with the Google Lens. Users can now look for anything they want from any website they want!

What’s more, Google will also be expanding its products list on the main search page. Google Shopping already has 24 billion products on its page, and now there will be a new “in stock” filter to help clients. It will be primarily for local store listings so that you get to see which local store has the product you are looking for.

Applying Advanced AI Model Responsibly

According to Google, the first version of the Multitask Unified Model (MUM) feature will be available in the next few weeks. It will be followed by more updates and new versions in the next few months. This announcement is in tandem with their strict rules of proving AI to the world more responsibly. 

We can assume the new search mode will follow a meticulous evaluation process to provide helpful and relevant results. The system will also follow the Search Quality Rater Guidelines to help users find what they are looking for. They will be trying to find search patterns that might indicate machine learning bias and eradicate it immediately. Google will also try to remove as much carbon footprint as possible to ensure that the MUM system runs effectively. 

Removing Language Barriers

As discussed before, the new MUM system is equipped to understand 75 different languages. Google added this new feature to remove any language barrier while accessing information. The model will be able to learn from whatever you wrote in your search and will bring you the desired information. 

For example, if you try to type in Japanese in the search engine, you probably won’t be able to find what you are looking for. However, it won’t matter which language you type in with the new model – Google’s MUM system will bring you the relevant information. 

What It Means For Companies

Google’s new Multitask Unified Model (MUM) process will have a massive role in every company’s brand discovery. Google’s search result display is about to change and accommodate this new shift, and companies have to change their marketing strategies.

The new feature will have a significant impact on SERPs, on user behavior, and much more. After the feature’s release, companies will have to monitor these aspects to implement new approaches accordingly. 

So, we can assume that this new search program will become a vast SEO strategy consideration for small, medium, and big businesses. Company owners must include all the latest trends on related discovery and projects. To ensure they get the maximum out of this discovery method, they have to make website content on these concepts. 

Wrapping Up

Thus, wrapping up, we can conclude that the new Google MUM will change the face of search results. Not just for customers, it will change the game for companies. They will have to take the help of marketing strategists like 360 Digital Marketing to increase their brand exposure. And for customers, it means more efficient results and getting precisely what they want in seconds. 

We have high hopes for the new search method and cannot wait to see how it pans out in the coming weeks!

Business owners and managers are always looking to improve their online presence and lead generation to increase sales. They rarely have spare time and usually seek ways to get more productive.

A Chrome extension can help you deal with essential tasks easily, reduce chances of failure, and increase your business’s efficiency. Thousands of apps are available in the Chrome Webstore, but not all are worth downloading or installing. Some of the best Chrome extensions for business are the ones that add features to Gmail. Millions of users use them every day.

This article reviews the best Chrome extensions for your organization and explains their effectiveness.

What are Chrome Extensions for Business?

Chrome extensions are software that allows you to personalize your browsing experience and Google Apps. They let users customize Google’s features and behavior to suit their requirements. They’re constructed using web technologies like HTML, CSS, and Javascript. An extension must serve a single function that is well stated and easy to understand. An extension can have several components and a wide variety of capabilities that contribute to the same goal.

How do Chrome Extensions for Gmail Work

Many apps can now integrate right within Gmail, providing you with more functionality without ever leaving your inbox. This is great for productivity and time management! For example, if you use CRM software to manage your contacts and customer data, a Chrome Extension for Gmail will likely allow you to connect your CRM within Gmail. It might even go one step further and add CRM features to Gmail without the need for an external tool.

Here’s How It Works

• Navigate to the Chrome Web Store.
• Locate and choose the desired extension.
• To add this extension to your Chrome browser, click the “Add to Chrome” button.
• In some cases, extensions will notify you if additional rights or data are required. To approve, simply click the Add extension button.
• Click the extension icon to the right of the address bar to activate it.

How to Remove Chrome Extensions

Chrome extensions for business are great, but sometimes you need to remove them or substitute them because of compatibility issues with other extensions. Here’s how to remove Chrome extensions that you don’t use anymore.

To remove extensions from Google Chrome:

• Open Chrome and click the Menu icon in the upper-right corner of the browser window – three dots stacked vertically.
• In the menu that appears, select More Tools and then Extensions.​
• Select an extension you want to remove from the list.
• Click the Remove button in the upper-right corner of the extension box.
• A confirmation dialog appears. Click remove in this dialog as well to complete the process.

Are Chrome Extensions Safe?

Chrome extensions for business available on the Chrome Store are safe to use. Google vets the developers displayed on the store and audited the code of their applications. That said, you should be suspicious of extensions from other websites and should only download and install software from sources you trust.

Extensions will also ask for permission before accessing sensitive information like your passwords and browsing history. This is why it’s important to only install extensions from reputable sources and pay attention to these prompts.

Do Chrome Extensions Affect Browser Performance?

For the most part, extensions don’t affect browser performance. However, the more extensions you have installed, the more resources your browser uses, and eventually, it might be a burden to your browser performance.

If you experience sudden or drastic bouts of sluggishness on your browser, it might be an issue related to an extension. To verify it, try heading to the Extensions page and disabling one extension at a time until you find the culprit. If you know which extension is slowing you down, disable it and notify the developers.

Why Using Chrome Extensions for Business is a Good Idea

Chrome extensions are incredibly convenient. They allow you to perform mundane tasks in the blink of an eye and save you time, which is a scarce commodity for most managers. There are thousands of Chrome extensions out there, and we think these are the best for business purposes. 

• Chrome extensions let you add extra features to the Chrome browser, personalizing your experience on your computer.
• In addition to saving you valuable time, they also make your job easier. For example, several extensions with SEO features help you deal with marketing analytics.
• Chrome extensions also elevate your productivity, allowing you to perform tedious tasks efficiently and, in some cases, even automate them. This way, you get more time to focus on the bigger picture.
• With all of this in mind, let’s take a look at some of the best Chrome add ons for business that can help boost your productivity and make your life easier.

5 Best Chrome Extensions for Business

The Google Chrome web browser is one of the most popular browsers globally. As of 2021, an estimated 3.2 billion people worldwide were actively using Chrome as their primary internet browser, and this number is expected to rise even more in 2022. If your business uses Chrome, over 180,000 extensions available in the Chrome Web Store are available for download, making working on the browser easier and more efficient. Many are extremely useful for small business owners, entrepreneurs, and marketers. Here are some of the best chrome extensions for business:

DragRating by Capterra: 4.4stars
Rating by G2: 4.5stars

Pricing: $8 per feature/month

Drag transforms Gmail into one  of the simplest digital workspaces. It was designed to simplify email collaboration and enhance teamwork. Set up help desk, CRM, project management, marketing without the need to jump between programs.

With Drag you can share Gmail inboxes and even set them as Kanban boards. This way your team can easily visualize email threads as task cards in the context of workflow. Customize the columns to reflect your internal processes and drag the emails across the board as their tasks are fulfilled.

Iit’s built right into Chrome and Gmail, the most popular PC browsers and email clients, making it a no-brainer for Google Workspace users. As a result of having everything in one place, you and your staff will be more effective and productive. You can sign up for Drag right here!

Key Features

• The Chrome Extension adds collaborative capabilities to Gmail, such as shared Kanban boards, project/mail assignments, internal team chat, etc. 
• Collaborate on shared inboxes like support@, sales@, or billing@ from within Gmail. This keeps the workflow simple, organized and  cuts the number of apps you need to deal with daily, like Help Desk, CRM or Task Manager.
• Using boards, you may design a wide range of workflows to simplify your team’s tracking of ongoing tasks.
• Prioritize, organize, and manage your emails and tasks with shared labels. You may use rules to label emails and tasks automatically.
• Collect feedback on emails before sending with our Shared draft feature.
• The plugin helps you set up automated workflows. Focusing on the most important things helps your team achieve success. You can create rules where you automate teamwork and workflows.
• Scheduling email follow-ups make it easier to acquire replies and wrap up loose ends.

Grammarly

Rating by Capterra: 4.7stars
Rating by G2: 4.5stars

Pricing: $30 USD/month

Grammarly is a great extension that helps you prevent typos and grammar mistakes in your email messages, social media posts, documents, and more. It runs in the background of your browser and automatically checks your spelling before you hit ‘send’ or ‘post.’ The free version is pretty powerful. Still, Grammarly also offers a premium version with more features.

Key Features:

• The Grammarly editor is trained to spot hundreds of writing issues, ranging from common grammar mistakes to complex stylistic issues and everything in between. 
• Grammarly will help you communicate more effectively and efficiently. On average, Grammarly users report having more confidence in their writing and an improved ability to express themselves with clarity after using the product. 
• Grammarly integrates seamlessly across your entire Chrome experience, including Gmail, Google Docs, Twitter, LinkedIn, and all your other favorite sites. 
• Using Grammarly with Gmail will improve your spelling, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and style.
• Using Grammarly with Google Docs will improve your spelling, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, style (including overused words), plagiarism detection (in Premium), and vocabulary enhancement suggestions (in Premium).

Click and Clean

Rating by Capterra: N/A
Rating by G2: N/A

Pricing: Free

Click & Clean is a free toolkit that helps you safeguard your online privacy while keeping your browser functioning smoothly. The extension allows you to wipe browsing data, clear the cache, delete cookies, and more. The tools can be accessed quickly by clicking the extension’s Chrome menu icon and selecting a tool icon from the tile interface, such as Options. You can also alter individual settings or pick low, medium, or high presets to modify all settings at once, depending on the level of cleaning required.

Key Features

• It clears your cache as well as optimizes and speeds up your browser.
• It analyzes your computer and removes temporary files, search URLs, and download and surfing history.
• The plugin also includes anti-malware scanning capabilities; however, they may be less effective or strong than those found in regular antivirus software.
• Its primary function is to clean your system of unwanted files and erase traces of your internet presence.

StayFocusd

Rating by Capterra: N/A
Rating by G2: N/A

Pricing: $ 14.95/ user/ year

StayFocusd is a browser plugin that assists you in focusing by limiting your time spent on time-wasting websites. As soon as the timer runs out, the websites you’ve been visiting won’t be available to you anymore.

It is very adjustable, allowing you to restrict or enable access to whole websites, certain subdomains, specific pathways, specific pages, and even specific in-page content such as movies, games, photos, and forms. Additionally, you can create a list of “allowed” sites, including everything on the web, and block everything else. This is useful if you only want to block time-wasting sites during certain times of the day.

Key Features

• You can block Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media websites directly in the StayFocusd settings.
• Unlimited Daily Limit. Set your daily limit to anything up to 60 hours (not available in the free version).
• Extended Limit. Set an Extended Limit for your Daily Limit (not available in the free version).
• Customizable Block Page. Customize how your blocked page looks with options like a nuclear countdown timer and custom text and images (not available in free version).
• Able to remove all ads from the StayFocusd website for one year (not available in free version).

Conclusion

Chrome extensions are a great way to optimize your business for productivity. However, the best extensions depend on your business’s needs. From designing to bug tracking, there are a myriad of everyday tasks that can be made easier through the right Chrome extensions, and you already know where to find them. Hopefully, our list of the best Chrome extensions for business can give you a head start on customizing your Google Workspace. There’s no need to waste time when you can save it! Give them a try and see which Chrome add ons for business suit your enterprise.

Working on a computer can be nerve-wrecking sometimes, especially when you have to reply to a dozen emails, manage deadlines, make lists, and monitor your teammates and their progress. Dozens of tasks as simple as these drain your time and energy, disrupting your  productivity. Well, Gmail add-ons are exactly made to tackle this hair-pulling job and you free you to focus on what matters, strategy.

If you want to skip straight to our curated list of Gmail add-ons, see below:

Why you should consider using Gmail add-ons

Gmail add-ons are tools that you can integrate or “Add on” to your Gmail. Yeah, simple as that. These tools provide various features that lets you get the job done on Gmail itself, without having to jump between tabs and platforms to copy pasting requests and information. With add-ons you can consolidate your workspace within Gmail, leveraging new automation, management, organization and collaboration features to streamline your routine . 

In addition to this, Gmail is a widely used platform, familiar and recognizable to almost everyone. Gmail add-ons piggyback from Google’s interface lowering the learning curve. This facilitates the onboarding process and makes it much more likely that your team will actually adopt the new tool. You might be asking specifically what can be done with Gmail add-ons? Well, you can: delay the moment an email is sent; automate email sequences to be sent to clients; track when sent messages are opened or clicked; get digital signatures on documents and much more.

How do Gmail add-ons Work?

Gmail add-ons are apps available online for desktop and mobile devices. They make your work experience smoother extending the functionality of Gmail. All you have to do is install the app or software, register yourself and, if necessary, select your favorite and suitable payment plan. Most apps give you the choice of monthly or annual payment and have multiple plans to choose from, according to your requirements.

The Difference Between Chrome Extension For Gmail And Google Workspace Apps

There are two types of Gmail add-ons: Chrome extensions and Google Workspace add-ons. Each type can be found in a specific marketplace, but for those that use the Google Apps from the Chrome browser, you can pretty much consider them the same. Here are the few differences that you should know between Chrome extension for Gmail and Google Workspace add-ons:

Chrome extensions

Chrome extensions are available at the Chrome Store, a marketplace for applications. In it, you can find add-ons that do pretty much anything to your Chrome browser, Gmail and every other Google app. Among these add-ons, of course, there are several tools designed to help businesses and freelancers get more productive.

Google Workspace add-ons

The Google Workspace add-ons are available on the Google Workspace Marketplace. There, you will find apps specifically designed for businesses. It can be accessed directly from the Google Apps and most tools available here have your productivity in mind.

What are the best Gmail add-ons?

Drag

G2 rating: 4.5
Capterra rating: 4.4

Pricing: $8 per user / month

Drag turns your Gmail into an all-in-one collaborative workspace to manage emails and email-driven tasks. It is a Chrome extension available on the Chrome Store.

With Drag your team can collaborate sharing inboxes, email boards, drafts, labels, deadlines, task assignments and much more. With Drag you can open chats with your teammates within the context of an email thread, keeping the conversation focused.

Drag also has several task management features such as Kanban board views for Gmail. You can customize the columns according to your process and drag and drop the email threads as they move through the workflow. And your team doesn’t even have to bother with all that busy work, Drag brings several automation features to Gmail, like email sequences, task assignment, automatic responses and templates. 

Finally, Drag has tracking and reporting capabilities. You can check relevant board metrics such as activity and volume of received messages. On top of that Drag tracks when your sent email are opened, this can help you optimize your follow up workflow.

Key Features:

• Gmail shared inboxes
• Kanban boards
• Shared labels, drafts and templates
• Workflow automations
• Email sequences
• Analytics
• Calendar integration
• Mobile app

MailerCloud

G2 rating: 4.8
Capterra rating: 5 

Pricing:  $10 per user / month

Mailer Cloud is a famous email marketing platform. Its prime focus lies in creating deep business relationships and increasing sales by providing productivity-enhancing features. It provides the feature of autoresponder which responds automatically to relevant emails depending upon the subscriber’s actions. All you have to do is schedule these emails and MailerCloud will send these on your specified date and time. It also provides automated follow-ups so that you never miss emailing a dear customer. It provides a unique feature of experimenting with your emails such as making variations in your headlines, subject lines, headers, footers, CTAs, added images, etc. This helps you learn what attracts your audience and how to keep them engaged.  

Key Features: 

• AB testing
• Email management campaigns
• Mailing list management
• Spam blocker
• Auto respond to emails

Dropbox

G2 rating: 4.4
Capterra rating: 4.5

Pricing: $9.90 per user / month

Dropbox is one of the most used Gmail add-ons. The key function of Dropbox is to conserve and save all big or small files which might include photos, presentation slides docs, etc. It’s a very treasured function as the user wants his personal and most important files to be saved and, above all, protected. Trello provides the user with the Work Without Limits feature which lets the user save all files to Dropbox without the worry of running out of space. Without downloading a file, the user can easily get a preview of it using the Dropbox add-on. Thus, using Dropbox the user can save his downloading time as well upload the same file at the same time. Some important key features are as follows:

Key Features:

• Previewing Files 
• Use On Web and Mobile
• Easily Get Up and Running
• Stay Organized and In Sync 

Hubspot Sales

Rating At G2: 4.4
Rating At Capterra: 4.5

Pricing:  $45 per user / month

Hubspot is one of the leading applications which converts your inbox into a more productive marketing tool. It further helps you stay connected with leads. It provides the user with a feature that allows the user to track and log the emails that you send from your Gmail account. You can also initiate calls with contacts given in your inbox. Some important features of Hubspot are as follows:

Key Features:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
• Shared Email Templates
• Meeting Scheduler
• Availability On Devices

MixMax

G2 rating: 4.5
Capterra rating: 4.6

Pricing:  $12 per user / month

Mixmax is at the top of the sales engagement platform for Gmail and provides its users with multiple and various features. One of the features provided by Mixmax is analyzing the impact of the user’s email messages and tracking your email and knowing exactly who opens your email. It also provides a scheduler and eliminates unnecessary messages as well schedule meetings with just one click

Key Features

• Unlimited Email Tracking
• Automated Email Campaigns 
• Analytics
• Salesforce Integration
• Advanced Automation and Reminders

Are Gmail Add Ons Safe?

The fact that Gmail add-ons are cheap, convenient, and easy to use makes its users think “where’s the catch?”. Well, it’s definitely not on security, as Google not only vets the developers, but audits the application’s code. This ensures that your data isn’t copied anywhere else and only you have access to it. 

Conclusion

Smooth workflow leads to boosted productivity and that is what Gmail add-ons are meant for. They are a crucial tool to minimize disturbances while simultaneously providing many additional features to ensure a streamlined workflow with zero hurdles.

They are widely used by many businesses, no matter how large or small their setup is, as it directly influences their workers’ efficiency and work rate. After having read the above article, you must be well aware of the top-notch google add-ons.

So, what are you waiting for? Go get your favorite add-on and get working smoothly! 

Google has practically infinite resources for business owners, thanks to Chrome extensions. You can install these tools into your Google account and Chrome browser. They will transform the Google apps into a customized workspace for your needs. In this article we will present the best email Chrome extensions.

For example, they can aid your email management and track responses. They help update client bases, optimize marketing newsletters and many other relevant tasks in today’s professional atmosphere.

It’s safe to say that managers across industries can benefit from email Chrome extensions – they bring efficiency and organization to their inboxes. Thankfully, they’re easy to set up, test and customize, with minimal technical skills required.

If your team has an email-driven workflow and communication system, it makes sense to invest in tools that enhance this part of the digital space. So, how can email chrome extensions help your company?

Context switching

One of the issues faced by teams in any industry is context switching. This is the amount of time you waste going from platform to platform. Time spent logging into accounts and browsing through databases to find what you need. Whether it’s messages, files or any other relevant pieces of information to do your job.

For instance, if you have to log into the corporate account to find the standard solutions to clients’ complaints, you’re going to take longer and risk dissatisfaction. Whereas if standard responses are built into the IT ticketing system, the process is much faster.

The same scenario happens in marketing, for example. If you manage an ecommerce website, you most likely do email campaigns for registered clients. You can set up these  distribution lists in Gmail using add-ons and extensions are some of the simplest ways to handle the task.

Delegation is another part of the job that can be optimized by email chrome extensions. The practice of having a shared account and forwarding emails from that inbox to the teammates responsible for each task can be tedious and time consuming. On the other hand, if you access the shared inbox and delegate tasks, you reach your result much faster. A step further, and you could even set up automated delegation.

Interface and visualization

The best argument for teams to use Google products as work tools is the low learning curve. Especially since most people are already used to Google Workspace software. Extensions take advantage of Google’s familiar interface, lowering the learning curve and breaking implementation barriers. 

That being said, Gmail does have its limitations. If you want to organize your inbox or turn your messages into tasks, you will probably need an email Chrome extension.

Kanban boards, for example, are visually appealing. They provide a more concrete way to show your workflow. You can tag teammates, add schedules and use emails as task cards, moving them from “backlog” to “in progress” to “complete”.

But you can’t do that within Gmail itself. Nor can you organize your messages in many different forms. So to bypass these limits, you go to extensions.

How to install an email chrome extension?

If you decide to install the best Gmail extensions you need to access the Chrome store. There, you can browse through many categories. Some of them are productivity, organization, design and many other functions that can add features to Google’s apps.

 

There’s a category specifically for extensions developed to work within Gmail. Those are valuable to entrepreneurs and managers because with them it’s possible to customize your Gmail`s functions and interface.

So find the extension with the feature you would like to try on Gmail and then, just click on  it. The page will direct you to its full description and reviews. There you can see how other users classify the extension in a five-star scale and also relevant comments and descriptions about the day-to-day use.

Another important aspect of this page is the add-on’s documentation. It contains the team behind the development and important information regarding compatibility and safety of your data.

If the extension is indeed what you’re looking for, you just need to install it on your browser – there’s going to be a button right next to its name – and get started on using it. Most of the time, you can find a step by step guide in the extension page or a FAQ directory on the extension menu.

Troubleshooting and uninstalling

Of course, sometimes you might need to test a few different extensions to see which one is the right fit for your needs. It’s important to know that they might pose compatibility issues when installed together, so it’s best practice to test one at a time.

Most of them offer free services or a trial period for paid subscriptions, where you can see if the software is going to be useful for a company.

If it doesn’t work, you can cancel your subscription and proceed to uninstall the extension from your browser. If you decide to keep using the software, you’ll need to register for an official account and, if needed, add payment information for premium services.

Keep in mind that many extensions need to be updated from time to time to stay on top of your browser updates. If you don’t update one or the other, you might run into synching issues or poor usability, which will affect your experience. Staying up to date on both fronts ensures that you won’t have disconnections when you need the extension the most.

Are chrome extensions safe to use?

It’s important to know that Chrome extensions are heavily monitored by Google. So, if an extension is available on the page, it’s been audited by Google itself as well as tested and reviewed by a global community of developers.

You should pay attention to non legitimate extensions: if they are not on the official Chrome page, they might not have been authorized to work with Gmail and pose data breach risks for companies.

Always look for reviews and search for legitimate sources, such as software reviewers sites like G2 and Capterra. Those are excellent sources of material and user stories about functionality and user experience from whichever extension or software you are looking into.

Check these resources and see what other people are saying about this extension and how you can use it to solve your company needs. They will even show you similar software that you can try as well.

Which email chrome extension do you need?

To make sure entrepreneurs and managers encounter the ideal tools for their emails, we’ve compiled a list of the top 10 best gmail extensions that every company could use. 

Below are our ideas for productivity, organization, communication and even scheduling that might fit companies from across industries, sizes and proposals and will turn your email inbox into a productive workspace.

DragApp

Drag is the toolbox that turns your email inbox into the ideal digital workspace. With features such as shared inboxes, Kanban boards, task delegation and many more, you can transform messages into to-do lists and enhance your team’s productivity.

Companies with email-driven workflows, such as customer support, CRM and supplier management, benefit from this software because it can make your tasks easier to view, share and organize. All of this without leaving the inbox and context-switching, starting at $8 per user / month for collaborative teams.

G2 rating: 4.5 / 5 stars
Capterra rating: 4.4 / 5 stars

Mailtrack

As the top email tracker in the world, this extension lets you know if and when your messages are being read. With that in mind, you can set up marketing strategies and follow up when needed, with supporting data to organize the next steps. 

There’s a free version, with a disclaimer on your signature. If you choose the paid version (starting at $1/month, billed annually), not only you can remove the signature, but also track links and message reopens.

G2 rating: 4.6 / 5 stars
Capterra rating: 4.5 / 5 stars

Zoom

 

Now that remote and hybrid teams are getting more and more common, developing a sustainable and efficient communication is key. Zoom is a video chat platform that keeps you connected to people across the world. It allows users to share video, audio and screens, making conversations better and easier, all on the cloud-based system. The free version allows up to 40 minutes for each videoconference, while the starting price for a pro account is $14.99 per user / month.

G2 rating: 4.5 / 5 stars
Capterra rating: 4.5 / 5 stars

Grammarly

Many professionals across industries have a hard time writing emails. Worries about tone, relevant information and, of course, good grammar, are common in the workplace. Grammarly is an extension developed to help people avoid writing mistakes and have their messages come across clearer.

When you add this extension to your browser, you will be notified in real-time if the email you’re writing is clear, concise and polite, all while helping you find more appropriate alternatives to your words. Grammarly claims to catch more errors than regular word processors.

It’s a pretty useful tool to grow your company’s reputation, by ensuring your prospects receive the relevant information in the best way possible. It can help your team’s conversations as well, since it prevents crossed wires and mismatched tones. You can get a free Grammarly trial and the subscription is $29 per month. 

G2 rating: 4.6 / 5 stars
Capterra rating: 4.7 / 5 stars 

Docusign

Another business practice that went mostly digital in the past couple of years is documentation. In the past, you’d almost certainly need to physically send a contract or a proposal to your suppliers, clients and employees. But if they were far away, that posed an issue.

Now extensions like Docusign make this task much easier, allowing you to send legal documents directly from your Gmail. Then, the other party signs and you’re legally allowed to conduct the agreement. The eSignature can be done through virtually any device, making the process much quicker for today’s fast-paced industries. Plans start at $10 per user / month.

G2 rating: 4.5/5 stars
Capterra rating: 4.8/5 stars

InboxWhenReady

For those users that get overwhelmed with their inboxes and somehow miss important messages, this extension is a timesaver. Basically, it works by blocking new emails from reaching you for a predetermined time. That way, you can deal with the ones already in your inbox, which allows for better organization and time management. 

Instead of a messy inbox, you can reply, archive, forward or delete messages and even reach Inbox Zero if that’s your goal. The basic subscription is free and it displays a message on your email signature. If you want to disable said message, you can get the pro version for $4/month.

G2 rating: N/A
Capterra rating: N/A

Digify

Sending protected information through attachments? Whether you need to share files from projects with teammates or discuss proposals with clients, you need to beware of data breaches and intellectual property. Digify is a tool that emcompasses “document access control, advanced encryption, file tracking, print and download permissions and customizable watermarks”, for $99/month.

G2 rating: 4.5/5 stars
Capterra rating: 4.9/5 stars

Dropbox

If, however, instead of protected information, you need to share large files with coworkers and/or clients, you need a reliable digital space. Enter DropBox, the platform dedicated to storing, sharing and organizing any kind of file in personalized directories. 

With the Gmail extension, you can bypass attachment limits and share what you need with the recipient automatically with a dedicated link. You can also access files through any connected device, cutting down on space usage. The basic plan is free and allows you 2GB storage. On the plus plan ($9.99/month, billed annually), you get 1TB.

G2 rating: 4.4/5stars
Capterra rating: 4.5/5 stars

Briskine

Looking for automated layouts? Briskine is a chrome email extension that helps you build and resume templates for any kind of email, from prospects, to billing, to customer support to company announcements. That way, you can easily go through all your email needs without wasting time. You can add custom shortcuts for common messages and Briskine will automatically write them for you. 

The free version is for one user only and allows 30 templates. If you subscribe for your company, the users are unlimited and the templates are too, for $7 per user / month.

G2 rating: N/A
Capterra rating: N/A

DictationBox

Writing emails on the go? Speech to text is your friend, but it might not be as reliable as an email you sit down to write. However, to boost productivity and avoid mistakes, DictationBox supports over 100 languages and has built-in commands that you can use while emailing for free.

G2 rating: 4.4 / 5 stars
Capterra rating: 4.4 / 5 stars

Conclusion

Your digital workspace needs to be ready both for your professional communication, but also for your own task list and your important conversations with people in your company. Ideally, everything is the same space.

Which is why DragApp brings your tasks, your files, your calendar and chats to your Gmail account and makes it much easier to reach whatever you need without changing tabs.

DragApp is one of the top essentials that can help you and your company spend less time worrying about organization and more doing what you love. If you want to test it, sign up for a free trial.

Email continues to be a major method of communication. And while it is an excellent solution for internal communication, it does not meet the modern hybrid workspace collaborative and requirements. This is where shared inbox apps like Missive come in to offer a comprehensive view of customers’ status updates, minimize response time with automation and encourage transparency.

However, Missive lacks some critical features such as analytics and reporting. This makes it hard to assess the productivity of a collaborative team. Luckily, there are a ton of Missive alternatives to makeup for these limitations.

This guide has everything you need to help you find the best Missive alternative to suit your business needs.

Why Are People Looking for Missive Alternatives?

Undoubtedly, Missive has some great features such as shared inbox management, snooze emails, canned responses, and live editing, all of which streamline internal and external communications. But it has some downsides that limit collaborative teams from achieving their full potential. Some Missive limitations include;

It Does Not Have Analytics/ Report Feature

The ideal collaborative app should allow teams to measure their performance. Modern business operations are data-driven, requiring teams to measure metrics to determine if they are on the right track.

Also, with analytics and reporting features, it is much easier to measure conversation volume and the time taken to solve inquiries. Unfortunately, Missive does not have reporting features, which compromises customer support quality.

It Lacks Email Sequences

Among the reasons for using collaborative tools is saving time and reducing response time. It will be best to choose an app that lets you send more than one email at once via email sequence.

You cannot create a sequence with multiple emails when setting up canned emails with Missive. With this, you can only set it up to send one, which costs the team a lot of time, especially when responding to many emails.

Archiving Emails is Confusing

Email archiving is critical in ensuring customer satisfaction. The idea allows you to keep a record of all sent and received emails, thus ensuring that no message is missed. Moreover, it ensures that you always have a copy of all documents attached to the emails and that they are stored safely in a different folder. This means less chance of deleting them accidentally.

Missive features a complicated email archiving and closing process. The reason being, it is closed from an individual’s box and not the shared inbox. It is also confusing to hand over an email and remove it from your inbox.

Searching and Sorting Emails Can Be Confusing

Email searching and sorting are great time savers. You don’t have to scroll down hundreds of emails to find that one email that you want to handle.

Nonetheless, email searching and sorting with Missive is still a work in progress. Most users opt to shift to Gmail if they have specific emails they need to run, which can be quite inconvenient.

What Are the 5 Best Missive Alternatives?

It is best to compare Missive competitors to help you find a multi-channel inbox that caters to your business needs.

Drag App, the best Missive altenative for Gmail users

Rating by Capterra: 4.4 stars

Rating by G2: 4.4 stars

Pricing: $8 per user / month

Drag is the perfect Missive alternative for Gmail users. It s main product is a Chrome extension that adds more collaborative features on top of Gmail. The most critical one is a shared inbox that lets team members reply to emails to send, read, and monitor emails from their various devices. This makes it easier for team members to work on an email that needs more than one person’s attention. Be sure to check out the shared inbox guide to understand how it works and how it can improve your team’s productivity.

The app lets you create email sequences, so the support team does not have to spend hours setting up emails one by one. This helps you achieve your bottom line: responding to inquiries within the shortest period to boost customer experience.

Drag has reporting and analytics features that help users track their performance and establish if they are on the right track. They can measure the amount of time spent responding to emails and whether they need to bring more members on board.

Even better, if you need to update your team members on a task or make suggestions, you can leave internal notes. The app features discussion boards for easy task viewing so everyone can see the pending tasks and the ones in progress.

The fact that you will be working from Gmail means easy email searching and sorting without switching from the app. Furthermore, email archiving is straightforward because you will be doing it directly on Gmail.

Gmail is not just for customer support teams. It is more about saving time with a shared inbox and increasing transparency. In return, this helps team members to work as one, which can significantly improve customer services. Drag is, therefore, one of the top workflow management software thanks to its numerous collaboration tools.

Key Features

• Gmail shared inbox to save time and enhance transparency
• Kanban Gmail boards for easier task viewing 
• Features analytics and reporting tools
• Task delegation and sharing tools

Pros

• It has a super-friendly interface
• Collaborative email features
• Transforms Gmail into a workspace
• Allows desktop and mobile synchronization

Cons

• It’s only available for  teams using Google Workspace

Zendesk, the comprehensive Missive alternative

Rating by Capterra: 4.4 stars

Rating by G2: 4.3 stars

Pricing: $19 per user / month

Zendesk is primarily designed to help customer service teams to connect with customers seamlessly. The tool has a centralized hub for easy performance management and tracking by admins. They can quickly track metrics and KPIs to establish if they need to lay off some team members or add more.

Zendesk is also suitable for chatbots and chat agents that want to monitor the whole customer journey. The app provides a personalized customer experience so customers will not feel like they are chatting with bots. Instead, it makes them feel connected and that they are cared for.

Zendesk is one of the most complete options on the market, however it is also one of the most expensive. If your team doesn’t require all the features available on Zendesk, then it might not be the best fit.

Features

• Zendesk allows integration with third-party apps to improve customer support
• Enhances ticketing collaboration
• It comes with a knowledge base

Pros

• A complete platform for quick customer support;
• Has many relevant integrations for customer support;
• Offered in multiple languages.

Cons

• The high price makes it only attractive to organisations interested in taking full advantage of Zendesk’s several features.

Spike

Rating by Capterra: 4.7stars

Rating by G2: 4.6stars

Pricing: $7 per user /month

Spike is a productivity app designed to turn your email into more of chat space. It gives you a seamless collaboration and project management platform right from your inbox.

The main advantage of Spike over Missive is the fact that you don’t have to switch from your email to use the app. With this, the customer service team can communicate with customers while still working on their email, thus staying focused.

It also allows you to create groups with your team and customers to collaborate on projects. They can plan and execute plans in real-time with easy access to files and documents. Moreover, they can add collaborative notes to ensure everyone is on the right page.

Email archiving with Spike has been made easy via shared inbox. So, you can archive and forward messages right from your email.

However, Spike is not the best for large organizations. It is mostly geared towards small businesses on a budget constraint. Also, if your business uses Gmail, this is probably not the ideal app for you. Most of its advanced features still need a lot of work.

For instance, it lacks tagging notes, and this makes collaboration a bit challenging. But for 7 dollars a month, small businesses can compromise some of those features and still manage to collaborate.

Features

• Features shared inbox to save time
• It has an encryption feature for security

Pros

• It is budget-friendly for small businesses
• It turns email into a chat thread

Cons

• Not the best for big businesses and Gmail users

Freshdesk

Rating by Capterra: 4.5stars

Rating by G2: 4.4stars

Pricing: $18 per user / month

Freshdesk comes in to help customer support teams offer real-time assistance remotely. The app lets your operations run on autopilot so the agents can focus on other productive conversations.

Ideally, this is a cloud-based customer support tool that lets companies of all sizes offer fast and seamless customer support. It converts incoming email, phone, chat, and web requests into tickets then unify resolution across different channels.

Freshdesk has automation features that get rid of the most tedious tasks. It also offers self-service and has reporting and analytic tools to measure metrics. What’s more? The app allows you to initiate group discussions via a shared inbox, thus easier communication and collaboration.

You can keep tabs on agent workload in real-time to decide if you need to expand your team or lay off some agents depending on their productivity. 

Features

• Features automation tool to save time
• Shared inbox for easier collaboration
• Email archiving and retention feature

Pros

• It has a ton of automation features
• Allows metrics measurement to track performance

Cons 

• Freshdesk cannot be integrated and synced with Google calendar and workspace
• A bit expensive for small organizations

Take Away

Running a successful business requires you to invest in top-notch productivity and customer satisfaction apps. And while there are hundreds of collaboration apps to choose from, you need one with the most advanced features. You should also consider its usability, and don’t forget to check the price before settling on one.

While Missive pricing is affordable for most businesses, the app lacks the essential features to keep your team members focused and productive. Drag is undoubtedly the best out of the competitors, with its helpdesk Gmail shared inbox, reporting tools, and a ton of collaboration tools to streamline your support teams’ work. Sign up today and if you are skeptical, check out reviews on how Boosted Commerce is overtaking the markets with Drag.

Are you having doubts if Helpwise is the best fit for your organization? Maybe looking for an alternative? Or do you just want a swift and complete setup to help your team navigate external and internal communication? Well then, your search ends here! In this article we will present the best Helpwise alternative apps.

Why Switch From Helpwise?

Helpwise is a popular shared inbox for Email, WhatsApp, and SMS that helps teams to manage customer conversations from a single platform. The software is one of the most popular in the market, however that does not mean it is the best fit for all organizations. On top of that, lately Helpwise users have been experiencing shortcomings that have turned them off. 

Frequent Glitches And Bugs

The biggest issues with Helpwise for many users are the glitches and bugs, which sometimes prove to be problematic for their workflow management. For instance, many people report that some emails are labeled as read for one team member and unread for another one, or sometimes the emails show up in a completely different inbox. This causes disruption and gets in the way of team collaboration. Apparently these glitches occur really often and so many people prefer to switch to another shared inbox. 

Unorganized Interface

Clutter is an annoying issue for almost every worker, and it’s a common complaint from Helpwise users. Its interface is not organized, so one cannot streamline their different folders and files. This makes it very difficult to keep track of your emails, especially when time is running out and you need that one particular email. It also does not have a board-styled interface such as Kanban boards. These are of great use to people who have a huge workload with multiple processes going on and tons of clients to deal with. Also, the interface does not mention the number of incoming emails. These drawbacks slow down the pace of work because a person has to waste time searching for emails. It ruins the purpose of having a shared inbox, i.e., saving time.

Unproductive Lower Cost Plans

Helpwise pricing is another issue. Money always matters, and getting the desired set of features for a reasonable price is what we expect. However, the Helpwise plan’s price ranges miss the mark. Its high-cost plans are slightly too expensive for most organizations to benefit from. On the other hand, its lower-cost plans are not as useful either. It does not offer a complete set of basic yet necessary features for a proper business operation.

Slow Customer Service

Finally, another common complaint is Helpwise’s sluggish customer service. Their help desk has several complaints about the time it took to solve issues, which is why many are seeking Helpwise alternatives. They are not only slow responders but also take considerable time to take notice and eliminate glitches. Helpwise also has very little to no instructional material to guide beginners. In fact, one reviewer complained they had to face a steep learning curve when learning different options and features.

What’s the Best Helpwise Alternative? Try these 3 options!

Are you tired of facing all these issues using Helpwise? It might be time to switch to a better shared inbox and make your working experience run smoothly. So read on to know more about the top 3 Helpwise competitors!

Drag, the best Helpwise alternative for Gmail users

Spearheading our list of shared inboxes is Drag, the best solution for Google Workspace users. It consolidates your digital workspace in a single location, your Gmail inbox. It is especially fitted to cut down the time wasted in switching between tabs and tools to handle external and internal communication. 

With Drag you can create shared inboxes inside Gmail to let your team collaborate on email-driven tasks. It allows entire teams to manage inboxes such as Support@, sales@, or billing@. This helps your team collaborate on queries. 

Drag also has many versatile additional features for task management and email organization. These tools include customizable shared Kanban boards, incredibly useful when managing a gazillion emails and tasks. The boards present all your emails as task-cards. This way you can get an overview of the email workflow at a glance. You can also use the calendar integration to set due dates and reminders for your tasks.

Its shareable email templates and email follow ups are a widely popular feature. Templates and automated follow ups are a must-have for anyone dealing with external communication.

Conversation is the key to a successful team project management and with Drag’s email team chat you have access to a more organized communication setup. With it you can chat inside the context of a task-card, right where all the relevant information is. This way focused conversations about specific issues don’t get mixed with other subjects, but you don’t create a confusing amount of parallel channels either.

To monitor and analyze your team members’ individual progress you can use Drag’s report features. This helps teams visualize relevant metrics such as the amount of incoming messages and board activity.

The best advantage of using Drag is that it operates on top of Gmail, a platform most people are familiar with. This creates a low learning curve for you to hit the road running. And even if you find yourself needing some help, Drag has an award winning help desk and a help center.

Drag vs. Helpwise

In a survey that questioned people about the best-shared inbox, The Drag App was ranked 3rd while Helpwise was ranked 16th. The reviewers pointed out some of Drag’s greatest strengths as a help desk system.

1. Drag offers a Kanban board system that organizes emails as task-cards. On the other hand, Helpwise does not offer this feature, so many users resort to complementing the gap with other task management apps.
2. The interface of Drag`s boards is full of useful features that lets you get on top of the email-driven tasks at a glance. Such as customizable columns, calendar integration with deadlines, task assignments, team chat inside cards, file uploads, shared drafts and more. 
3. Drag’s shared inboxes are a very versatile solution. It can benefit not only traditional shared inbox using teams like customer support and CRM, but also other teams that have email-driven tasks, like HR, Finances, Operations and more. Helpwise’s features are tailored for customer support so other teams inside your organization can’t take full advantage of it.

Drag’s pricing starts at $8 per user/month and you can get free 14 day trial here.

Drag’s Rating

G2 rating: 4.4 (Voted Top 50 best collaboration softwares for 2022)

Capterra rating: 4.4

Other Pros of using Drag

• Works from inside Gmail, a tool most people is familiar with;
• Displays email task-cards in Kanban boards;
• Saves you time managing email-driven tasks;
• Available on mobile app.

Cons

• Drag only integrates with Gmail so it’s not available for those using other email clients.

Zendesk

Zendesk support suite is another big name in the market. It is a multifunctional all-in-one platform whose main focus lies on swift customer support. Zendesk has an automated help desk that takes care of minor tasks. You can also share automated messages and emails to save time.

Another relevant feature for some teams is its multilingual capabilities. Making it one of the few tools offered in many different languages for people from all over the world to benefit from. 

Pricing starts at $19 per agent/month

Zendesk’s rating

G2 rating: 4.3

Capterra rating: 4.4

Pros of using Zendesk

• A complete platform for quick customer support;
• Has many relevant integrations for customer support;
• Offered in multiple languages.

Cons

• The high price makes it only attractive to organisations interested in taking full advantage of Zendesk’s several features.

Freshdesk

Freshdesk is also an online cloud-based customer support software, just like Zendesk. It is an adequate alternative for Helpwise. The comparison between Freshdesk and Zendesk is very frequent, considering they have many features in common.

The software is also made for agents offering customer support. It has a shared inbox to facilitate team collaboration on support tickets. You can use automations to save time on repetitive tasks. It offers multi-channel communication management to keep users on a single platform. And finally it offers a chatbot feature to handle some of your FAQs. This is done by creating some reply templates for different situations.

Freshdesk’s pricing starts at $15 per user / month

But the plans have to be billed annually. In addition, you might need add ons sold separately, like Freddy Ultimate, Freddy Self service, and Freddy service management. 

Freshdesk’s Rating

G2 rating: 4.4 

Capterra rating: 4.5 

Pros of using Freshdesk

• User-friendly layout
• Many innovative support features

Cons

• Limited automation in low-cost plans
• Add ons sold separately

Final Thoughts

Switching from one business software to another is a painful and expensive process, but finding the exact tool that fits your organization’s needs can generate productivity gains that quickly outweigh the losses.

So what are you waiting for? Go sign up on Drag App now or get its Chrome Extension to streamline your tasks and improve productivity. Don’t forget to explore how boosted commerce is building a 100+ brand platform, using Drag for smooth CS.

Project managers across the globe agree that good teamwork results in faster completion of tasks, increased productivity and a healthy work environment.

It improves team spirit and empowers the team to easily overcome obstacles during the project work. That’s why teamwork is critical for project management.

So, what is Teamwork?

Teamwork is the process of bringing different individuals together for completing a project efficiently and effectively.

However, any manager who has handled a team will assure you that achieving robust teamwork is way more complex than this fundamental definition.

While resourcing various people is a tough process in itself, the act of getting them to work together without collisions, disputes, and differences needs a lot of expertise.

It requires patience, persistence, compassion, empathy, soft skills and great interpersonal skills.

Despite how difficult it sounds, every project manager that has completed their project with the best teamwork will confirm that the pain is worth it.

We’ll be covering the process of achieving robust team work in a different article. For now, let’s take a look at some of the reasons why you should strive to achieve it.

Reasons Why Teamwork is Essential in Project Management

Smooth Flow of Projects

It’s understood that managing a project can be a bumpy ride because of scope creep, increased timelines, managing demands of clients, and satisfying stakeholders involved.

When you work as a team effectively, you will be able to easily schedule and address ongoing requirements as well as additional requests without breaking a sweat.

And by doing so your project milestones will be met within scheduled timelines and you will complete the project within the project deadline.

Effective Management of Material Resources

Every project requires an X amount of material resources to start executing the project.

Some projects may require a smaller number of resources while some require high-levels of procurement. Costing in millions of dollars.

If your team is not cohesive then you might end up exhausting a lot of resources within a short period of time. Resulting in increased costs to complete the project.

On the flipside, if you work perfectly as a team you will consult with each other about the resources for a certain task and what are the best ways to use them.

This ensures that there are no overhead costs during the execution process.

Enables a Creative Approach

When team members trust and work brilliantly with each other, they tend to share a lot of ideas and brainstorm on multiple aspects of the project.

This fosters creativity and often results in creative solutions to various project related problems.

Also, every unique idea that’s generated may result in developing better strategies to complete the project within the scheduled time.

Let’s not forget that each of your team members has a great deal of knowledge. By working together effectively, you will learn from each other and achieve creative results.

Improves Risk Appetite

“Unity is Strength” – an old saying that we’re well aware about.

Managing a project and working together as a team gives you the strength and appetite to take risks. This is generally not plausible when working alone as the fear of failure will creep in and sometimes you may fail.

However, teamwork provides support to each team member so the risk you’re taking (after prior discussions) will not fall apart.

It’s understood that effective risk management is part of a project manager’s job. If you can bring your team together then you can easily mitigate all the risks you face.

Improves Conflict-Resolution

Humans fight. Period.

The same applies in project management too. You’ll have team members from various walks of life, so it is no surprise if you witness disputes.

But when a good understanding is already established between team members, it becomes very easy for the project manager to analyze and annihilate the conflict.

Creates a Lot of Trust

Trust is the central piece or the foundation stone to every relationship. Be it personal or professional.

Teamwork founded on trust between each team member results in a healthy work environment and interpersonal relationships.

Trusting team members often help each other through multiple hurdles, which leads to higher productivity. It increases confidence in individual abilities as well as boosts the credibility of the PM.

 

Combines Various Strengths for Common Goal

Every team member has a set of skills which they are quite good at. One might be great at planning while the other might do a great job in team coordination.

With good teamwork, you can bring in all these different sets of skills together to achieve the goals of the project efficiently.

Though you may think that diverse opinions can result in conflict, in reality, they provide different views to approach problems, create strategies, and even new opportunities.

Enhances Accountability

Not every day is our best day. Sometimes, we don’t want to give our best and be lazy.

However, a team working together with mutual respect will drive each member to stay accountable for the task undertaken. They will feel the unspoken peer pressure to not let the team down because of their unwillingness.

This applies not only for the team members of the project but also the stakeholders involved in it.

Improves Project Execution

It should not come as a surprise that good teamwork improves project execution.

It increases the speed of completing each task, which would not be possible if you are working alone. The pools of various skill sets combined together enables this possibility.

In fact, you will be flying on cloud nine when all the right people join forces to achieve very difficult results.

Also, time is on your side when you work together as a team.

Effective Feedbacks

You may have set up all the necessary project dashboards, automated check ins, and monitoring to track the team’s progress.

However, the best feedback is the one you give & get informally and during day-to-day activities. This is only possible when there is enough amount of trust among the team members.

You can also create regular meetings and get the best results out of them because each team member is willing to participate without any hesitation.

Project managers can also inform the team to be wary of the feedback they receive from each other as well as stakeholders and clients.

According to Jessica Ulloa, Community Manager at MyPerfectResume, “When it comes to project management two heads think better than one and when you work as a team you are able to better anticipate problems and find more effective solutions. A good tip is to assign tasks based on your team’s strengths, knowledge and skills. This would also make it easier to trust that your team is doing a great job and contributing ideas that only they can come up with while you focus on the things you are good at.”

Easily Resolve Complex Problems

Encountering complex problems happens in every project.

And any project manager who thinks that he or she can handle it alone will face disaster.

You need your team to resolve complex problems. When you have a good teamwork built in then your subject matter experts will pitch in immediately to get the ball rolling.

As mentioned earlier, team work generates unique and creative ideas to resolve problems. The same can be applied to any complex problem with a huge risk.

Even if your team cannot get you a solution, they may connect you with their network of connections that can potentially help you achieve resolution.

Easily Delegate New Requests

Every task in a project is dependent on another task.

However, scope creep and ad hoc requests happen every other day in a project. These requests tend to increase the burden on the team and also increase dependencies.

When you have solid team work going on, then this process of delegating new tasks will not be so hard as the team is willing to go an extra mile to get things done.

On the contrary, poor team work and team collaboration will drastically affect the overall deadline.

Everybody Owns Their Work

It is often thought that a good lead is essential to get work done on time.

However, that is far from the truth.

In cooperative and well-meaning teams, everybody owns their tasks perfectly and therefore, there is no real need for a micromanaging leader.

Only the project manager can track all the details of the work being executed and communicate when necessary.

Strive to Achieve a Robust Teamwork Today

As you can see these are the many reasons and benefits for establishing good team work.

If you want to get tasks done faster and improve the speed of your projects then start working on it today.

You may want to start by answering questions such as:

What can I do to improve teamwork quality? Or

How can I bring all these different people together?