Front as Your Team’s Shared Inbox OS: Rules, Tags, SLAs, and Collaboration That Scales

Por

Email is where customer reality shows up—questions, renewals, bugs, press, invoices, everything. The problem isn’t that email exists; it’s that most teams treat it like a personal tool with ad-hoc forwarding and CC trees. Front turns email (plus chat, SMS, WhatsApp, forms, and social DMs) into a shared operating surface: one inbox, clear ownership, fast collaboration, and honest metrics. This playbook shows how to set up Front as a production-ready shared inbox for small and medium teams—complete with information architecture, routing rules, tags, SLAs, templates, analytics, and a crisp 14-day rollout plan.

What “good” looks like

  • Single source of truth: customers write to addresses like support@, sales@, info@, and the entire team works from one shared view—not hidden personal inboxes.
  • Explicit ownership: every conversation shows Assignee, Status (Open / Snoozed / Waiting / Closed), and Due.
  • Fast collaboration: internal comments and shared drafts replace reply-alls and forwarding.
  • Smart routing: rules auto-apply tags, route to the right team, and escalate based on SLAs.
  • Searchable history: one thread shows the full relationship with the customer across channels.
  • Measurable flow: response and resolution times, backlog, and deflection are visible on dashboards.

Information architecture: channels, inboxes, tags, and views

Start with three concepts:

  1. Channels — places messages come from: email (Google/Microsoft), contact forms, live chat, SMS/WhatsApp, Twitter/FB, apps (via API).
  2. Inboxes — containers for a team’s work. Common ones: Support, Sales, Billing, Press, Ops. Avoid per-person inboxes for shared channels.
  3. Tags — metadata you’ll filter and report on. Keep them short, stable, and mutually understood. Recommended base set:
    • Intent: billing, bug, feature-request, how-to, account-change
    • Segment: enterprise, smb, partner
    • Priority: p1-urgent, p2, p3
    • Lifecycle: new-customer, renewal, trial
    • Outcome: closed-no-reply, knowledge-gap, churn-risk

Create Saved Views (filters) for common work modes: “My Queue,” “P1 Now,” “SLA Breaches,” “Renewals This Month,” “Bugs—Awaiting Eng,” “Billing—Refunds.” Pin them in the sidebar.

Roles, permissions, and guardrails

  • Admins: configure channels, rules, and analytics.
  • Team leads: manage tags, templates, and escalations.
  • Agents/ICs: reply, assign, tag, snooze, and close.
  • Observers: read-only for auditors or execs.

Guardrails:

  • Limit who can create tags and templates—sprawl kills reporting.
  • Lock down sensitive channels (e.g., Legal, HR) with restricted access.
  • Require two-factor authentication for all users; turn on SSO if available.

The baseline workflow (everyone follows this)

  1. Triage: new messages land Unassigned → the triager applies Intent and Priority tags (rules handle most), then Assigns to the best owner and sets Due.
  2. Collaborate: if context is missing, @mention a teammate in a comment or share a draft for edits—no forwarding.
  3. Respond: reply once you have enough signal. If you’re blocked, Snooze until a precise time or event (e.g., “tomorrow 10:00,” “after deploy”).
  4. Close: once the customer is satisfied (and the next action is on you, not them), Close the conversation. Don’t let threads sit “open forever.”
  5. Capture insights: add a quick note or tag like knowledge-gap or feature-request to categorize follow-up work.

This cycle gives you clean handoffs, clear ownership, and honest metrics.

Routing rules that remove babysitting

In Rules, create high-leverage automations that trigger on channel, subject/body, from, to, time, tag, status, or SLA state. Start with these:

  • Skill-based routing
    IF to = support@ AND subject contains "invoice" OR body contains "refund" → tag billing, move to Billing inbox, assign round-robin across Billing team, set priority p2, due +24h.
  • VIP handling
    IF domain in (bigco.com, partner.io) → tag enterprise, set priority p1-urgent, notify channel #vip-alerts, due +2h.
  • Language detection
    IF body language = pt → tag pt-br, assign to LATAM group.
  • Auto-responses with value
    IF subject contains "downtime" AND status = new → send a light status auto-reply with link to status page and estimated next update; tag incident.
  • Churn signals
    IF body contains "cancel" OR "churn" → tag churn-risk, assign to Retention specialist, due +4h, notify account owner via CRM integration.
  • No-reply cleanup
    IF waiting for customer > 7d AND priority != p1-urgent → send a gentle “We’ll close if we don’t hear back” template; after 48h without reply, tag closed-no-reply, close.

Name rules clearly (Support—Billing Routing v1, VIP—Priority Upgrade v1) and document them in a short handbook page.

SLAs that create predictable service

Define two layers:

  • Response time SLA (first reply):
    • P1: 2 hours during business hours
    • P2: 24 hours
    • P3: 48 hours
  • Resolution SLA (close or clear plan):
    • P1: 1 business day
    • P2: 3 business days
    • P3: 5 business days

In Front, configure Business Hours per team and set SLA policies by Priority or Inbox. Add rules for breach alerts:

  • 75% of SLA elapsed → tag sla-risk, @mention assignee.
  • Breach → escalate to Team Lead, add sla-breached tag, and post to a Slack channel.

SLAs only work if Due dates and Priorities are real. Don’t set theater deadlines you won’t defend.

Collaboration that beats reply-all

  • Comments: private, @mentions for quick context (“@Sam did we ship the fix in 2.18?”).
  • Shared drafts: co-edit replies without stepping on toes. Great for sensitive or legal wording.
  • Assignments: one owner at a time. If multiple people must act, create subtasks in your PM tool and link them (or re-assign after each step).
  • Email-to-task: push complex follow-ups into Jira/Linear/Asana with the Front app; paste the task link back into the thread and Snooze until the task’s due date.

Cultural rule: no blind forwards. If you forward externally, paste a summary first.

Templates and variables (speed without sounding robotic)

Create templates for the top 20 intents across Support/Sales/Billing. Keep them short, friendly, and modular. Use variables like {{first_name}}, {{company}}, {{order_id}}.

Examples:

  • Bug acknowledgment: apology + known status page link + next update timing + ticket ID.
  • How-to: 3 numbered steps + GIF/screenshot + link to full doc.
  • Refund policy: conditions, timelines, CTA for bank details if needed.

Guidelines:

  • Templates are starting points, not scripts. Personalize a line or two.
  • Maintain one owner per template; review quarterly.
  • Track usage and deflection (did the template reduce back-and-forth?).

Integrations that collapse context switching

Pick the few that reduce copy-paste the most:

  • CRM (Salesforce/HubSpot/Copper): show ARR, plan, last activity; create/update contacts from Front; log important emails.
  • Issue tracker (Jira/Linear/GitHub): create issues from a message; show status in the sidebar; auto-close the thread when the issue moves to Done (optional).
  • Billing (Stripe/Chargebee): pull invoices, refunds, plan details; paste secure links rather than raw PII.
  • Chat/Status (Slack/Statuspage): post incident updates; link status components.
  • Knowledge base (Notion/Confluence/Help Center): quick search and link insertion.

Rule of thumb: if you wouldn’t manually paste it frequently, you don’t need the integration.

Analytics that leadership will actually use

Build dashboards that answer five questions:

  1. How fast do we reply? First response time by inbox/segment/priority; aim for trend stability or improvement.
  2. How long to resolve? Median resolution by intent; find outliers (e.g., refunds slow on Fridays).
  3. What’s in the queue? Open conversations by status and assignee; watch for WIP overload.
  4. What causes volume? Volume by intent and channel; tag coverage reveals knowledge gaps.
  5. Who needs coaching? Quality audits (sampled replies), SLA breaches by assignee, and template usage.

Review weekly in a 20-minute ops huddle; pick one improvement. Dashboards are a steering wheel, not a scoreboard.

Playbooks by function

Support

  • Inboxes: Support (Tier 1), Escalations, Incident.
  • SLAs: strict.
  • Rules: Bug detection, incident broadcasts, language routing.
  • Template highlights: bug ack, troubleshooting flows, RMA, feature request capture.
  • Integration: Jira/Linear, Statuspage.

Sales

  • Inboxes: Inbound (MQL), Renewals, Partnerships.
  • SLAs: first response 2 business hours.
  • Rules: account triage (geo/segment), VIP routing, auto-create CRM lead with owner.
  • Templates: discovery Qs, pricing overview, case study bundle, next-step scheduler.
  • Integration: CRM + calendaring.

Billing/Finance

  • Inboxes: Billing, AR/AP.
  • Rules: keyword routing (“invoice”, “refund”), auto-attach invoice PDFs from billing system.
  • Templates: refund policy, W-9/Invoice instructions, PO process.

Ops/Logistics

  • Rules: order ID detection → link to ERP; transit delay auto-reply with tracking link.
  • Templates: shipping updates, address change acknowledgment.

Security and privacy

  • Turn on SSO + 2FA and least-privilege access.
  • Don’t paste secrets; use secure links (customer portal, billing profile).
  • Redact PII in screenshots; store sensitive docs in your DMS and link.
  • Set data retention policies; audit exports.

A 14-day rollout plan

Days 1–2 — Design
List channels (support@, sales@…), define inboxes, pick the tag set and SLAs, and write a 1-page “How we use Front” (ownership, tags, templates, SLAs).

Days 3–4 — Connect & import
Connect email and chat/SMS channels. Import existing shared mailboxes. Create user groups and permissions.

Days 5–6 — Rules & templates
Build the five core rules (billing routing, VIP, language, auto-ack, no-reply cleanup). Write the top 20 templates with variables.

Day 7 — Pilot
Run Support + Sales in Front for one day with 2–3 triagers; shadow in a Zoom/Huddle; fix gaps live.

Days 8–9 — SLAs & dashboards
Configure business hours and SLAs by inbox. Build “My Queue,” “P1 Now,” and the leader dashboard (FRT, resolution, backlog, breaches).

Day 10 — Integrations
Connect CRM + issue tracker; test create-from-message and status sync. Turn on a VIP alert to Slack.

Day 11 — Training
45-minute hands-on: ownership, comments, drafts, tags, snooze, templates, and rules. Share the style guide.

Day 12 — Go-live
All shared channels switch to Front. Leads monitor dashboards every 2 hours; adjust rules/tags.

Days 13–14 — Tune & lock
Archive unused tags/templates, tighten rules, publish the final playbook. Set a monthly review for analytics and templates.

Common pitfalls (and quick fixes)

  • Tag explosion → cap to ~25 active tags; merge synonyms quarterly.
  • “Everyone replies” chaos → enforce one Assignee; use comments for collaboration.
  • Rules spaghetti → name + document; group by inbox; test with a sandbox email.
  • SLA theater → only set deadlines you’ll defend; monitor sla-risk daily.
  • Template robots → personalize the first line; audit tone monthly.
  • No insight capture → tag knowledge-gap and create/refresh docs based on volume.

Why this works long-term

Front doesn’t magically solve customer experience; your operating model does. With clear ownership, sane routing, tight SLAs, and friendly templates, you’ll see faster replies, fewer dropped threads, and a growing knowledge base that reduces repeat questions. The payoff is compound: less inbox stress, better cross-team visibility, and customers who feel heard.

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