A shared inbox here is one queue for the support email address and for messages customers post in Slack Connect channels. Every threshold below is our default, to adjust after a month of your own data. Vendor statements name the documentation and the date we read it, because plans change.
Give every request one owner and one state
Each request is unassigned, owned or waiting. Unassigned means no one has claimed it. Owned means one named person owns the next reply. Waiting means blocked on the customer or an internal person, with a return date.
- Non-owners read the owner’s note before posting. The owner replies without asking first.
- “Waiting, check Thursday” is a state. “Waiting” with no date is a request that will be forgotten.
- Claiming means setting the request to owned in the shared queue. An emoji or “on it” in a Slack thread is not a claim, because nobody else can see who holds it.
Failure mode: a request is marked waiting on the customer while engineering blocks it. Name the internal person in the note.
Define staffed hours and what counts as a reply
Pick one time zone for the team and write the hours down, for example Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 18:00. List your country’s public holidays once a year and treat them as off the clock. Customers in other zones are measured on your clock. “4 business hours, London time” means the same thing to both sides; “4 hours” does not.
A reply is a message from a human that answers, asks a specific question, or states a next step with a date. These never stop a clock: auto-replies and out-of-office messages, “we received your request” emails, reaction emoji, “looking into it” with no owner or time, and any AI answer.
Filter automatic mail at intake, so an out-of-office never opens a request or restarts a clock.
Set the claim chain and reply timers
Round robin picks the primary on arrival, but the request stays unassigned until the primary claims it. Claim clocks run in staffed hours from arrival and stop only when someone claims the request. Reply clocks run in business hours from the last ownership change and stop only when a human reply goes out. Auto-replies, reactions and AI answers stop neither clock.
| Clock | Ordinary request | Priority request | Next owner when it runs out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claim by primary | 15 minutes | 5 minutes | Backup |
| Claim by backup | 15 minutes | 5 minutes | Final owner |
| Reply by owner | 2 business hours | 2 business hours | Backup |
| Reply by backup | 2 business hours | 2 business hours | Final owner |
The final owner takes an ordinary request at 30 minutes if nobody has claimed it, and a priority request at 10. Priority is an agreed short list of words such as “down”, “outage” and “can’t log in”, plus a few top-tier accounts. If more than one request in ten is priority, the list is too broad.
Outside staffed hours the clock pauses at shift end and resumes at the next staffed day. Two examples:
- A request arrives Friday at 17:50, so 10 minutes are on the claim clock. The clock resumes Monday at 09:00, and the primary’s claim is due at 09:05.
- An owner takes a request Friday at 16:30. Ninety minutes of the 2-hour reply clock run before 18:00, leaving 30. The clock resumes Monday at 09:00, so the backup takes it at 09:30.
Help Scout’s routing article, updated November 5, 2026 and read on 2026-11-10, lists Round Robin on its Plus plan and Balanced only on Pro. It says new conversations stay unassigned when no eligible teammate is available, so name a backup.
Load check: four people share about 60 requests a day, about 15 each. If one person’s open count reaches 22 while the others sit near 12, the average is 14.5 and 22 is above 1.5 times it. One day is noise; act on the second.
Run the rotation with a primary, a backup and a final owner
- Primary: claims new requests and owns them until they close or move.
- Backup: takes over under the chain above.
- Final owner: the support lead, or whoever the rotation names.
Handover is weekly, for example Monday 09:30. The outgoing person writes one line per open request: customer, state, next action, date. “Acme, owned by Sam, waiting on their CSV, check Thursday” is enough. Record rotation changes at least 48 hours ahead and update the routing eligibility list the same day, because a rotation that still lists someone on leave keeps sending them work.
Hand off from an AI agent to a human
An AI agent that answers first does not own the request, and its answer does not stop the claim clock.
- The request is unassigned to a human from arrival. An AI answer the customer ignores does not buy extra time.
- The AI hands off when the customer says the answer is wrong, asks for a person, mentions a refund, a security issue or a contract, or after two AI attempts. The primary then has 5 minutes to claim, because the customer has already waited.
- If the customer accepts the answer, for example with “that fixed it”, the request closes under the closing rules, and the clock stops at close.
The handoff carries the question, the AI’s answer and the customer’s reply, so nobody asks again. Suggested opening from the human: “I’ve read the thread above. Here is the part the assistant missed: [answer].”
Measure how often AI answers are reopened by a human within 24 hours. Above 20 percent, narrow what the AI may answer before you widen it.
Merge duplicates and move between Slack and email
Customers often post the same question in the channel and by email. Rule: if a message from the same account arrives within 24 hours of an open request and asks the same question, merge it into the older request. The older one keeps its owner and clocks. Close the newer one with “merged into [request ID]” and post one pointer in the Slack thread.
Failure mode: “the export broke” and “where is my CSV” both get answered. Read both first.
Contacts who never join the Slack channel reach you only by email, and their requests run the same clocks. When a request changes channel, the owner stays the same. Move a request to email when the reply needs an attachment, a signed document, or replies from more than two people at the customer: “I’m moving this to email so the attachment and the approval trail stay in one place. You’ll hear from me there today.” Send from the shared address, and post the Slack closing line only after the email has gone.
Put the Slack thread link in the first internal note of every moved request. Slack and your email provider have separate retention settings, so check both before you promise a customer a copy or a deletion. This is not legal advice.
Write closing rules that protect promises
A request can close when the customer confirmed the answer, or when 3 business days have passed since your last reply and that reply asked a question. If your last reply was a statement, a link or a thank-you, silence is not a reason to close. Set a follow-up date instead.
Close in the channel where the customer last wrote: “I’m closing this thread for now. If anything comes up, reply here and it will reopen with the full history.”
- A customer message within 7 days reopens the same request with the same owner.
- After 7 days, a new message creates a linked request with a fresh claim clock.
Never close while a promise is open. If you wrote “we’ll send the export tomorrow”, the request stays owned until it goes out. Turn off auto-close on snooze expiry for owned requests.
Handle a missed deadline in a shared channel
Everyone in a Slack Connect channel sees a breach, so the owner writes first, within 15 minutes of noticing: “I’m sorry, you should have had an answer by [time] and didn’t. I’m on it now and will update you by [time + 1 hour].” Post the update even if it says “no change”. If the final owner’s tier caused the delay, the lead adds: “I’m [name], leading support. I’ve taken this over and [owner] stays your contact.”
Set permission tiers for the shared inbox and Slack Connect
These tiers are our recommendation, not vendor rules.
- Admin: manages Slack Connect invitation settings. One or two people. We suggest the same people connect the shared mailbox, which no vendor page we read covers.
- Agent: replies, assigns, closes and snoozes.
- Read-only: reads threads and leaves internal notes.
Slack’s help article, read on 2026-11-10, says the Slack Connect invitation settings are available on paid plans. Under “Who can use this feature?” it lists Workspace Owners on Pro and Business+ plans, and Org Owners and Org Admins on Enterprise plans. It names two invitation types, “Permission only to post” and “Permission to post, invite, and more”. Anyone who can send invitations can change an accepted external person’s permissions. If your workspace is on a free plan, check the plan page before you promise a customer a permissions setup.
Give customer contacts “Permission only to post” and keep the broader type with the admin tier. The failure mode is an invitation sent with the broader type, which lets an outside person bring in more outside people. Review invitation holders each quarter.