Best Ways to Leverage Email Communication in the Workplace

Effective email communication in the workplace can mean the difference between success and missed critical opportunities. Strong internal communication sustains most workforces; without it, company operations could easily falter. 

In workplaces with exclusively digital operations, remote and hybrid working options can present potential communication barriers. In addition to increased traffic in Zoom calls and instant chats, employees send more emails now than ever before. In fact, email use is projected to increase from 4.2 billion current users to 4.6 billion by 2025. As email represents a vital communication channel—at least for the next three years—teams need robust systems in place to maintain effective teamwork and streamline communication.

Complications of Email Communication

To leverage better email communication in the workplace, teams need a practical and efficient solution. Often, teams find standard email solutions are not enough to simplify workload. In an effort to solve the problem, companies invest in multiple communication platforms to achieve better results. However, multiple platforms create multiple conversations in different places, leading to longer response times and delays in productivity. Here’s an example: 

1. A team manager receives a client request via email. 
2. The manager forwards the request for another team member to address.
3. The manager cc’s the team lead to include them in the conversation. 
4. Since email does not require an immediate response, the manager then reaches out via an instant messaging app to notify the team member of the email that needs a resolution. 
5. The manager then creates a task in the company’s project management platform (i.e. Trello or Asana) and assigns it to the same employee, all for one response. 

By the end of the process, the manager has reached out on three separate communication platforms. While these steps establish organization and accountability, the efficacy of the process is unclear. This issue can become even more confusing when remote or hybrid working schedules enter the picture. 

Flexible Fixes

The flexibility of remote work has been proven to increase productivity amongst a team. However, a key issue of contention is effective communication with other team members, especially when varying schedules and different time zones make it difficult to predict when another member will see an email or instant message. Additionally, if teams operate using shared inboxes for various internal departments, it becomes difficult to determine whether or not an email has been addressed. 

These communication obstacles often result in: 

• missed opportunities
• delayed response times
• poor customer service
• miscommunication

Industry-Specific Impediments

Industries such as retail, logistics, and real estate face a higher risk of experiencing these negative implications from poor email communication. For example, realtors rely heavily on email to interact with potential home buyers. Building trusting relationships to nurture leads and maintain clear communication regarding available properties is critical for success. Since more potential buyers translates directly into more commissions, missing an email not only jeopardizes the potential for a sale, it puts a realtor's reputation and income on the line. 

The severity is even more pronounced for logistics teams that rely heavily on email to communicate with suppliers and vendors regarding shipment dates, deliveries, and inventory statuses. Without consistent and effective communication, shipment delays risk the quality of relationships with suppliers and clientele. 

Although the negative implications of poor communication can be detrimental to many companies, there is a better way to employ the power of email. 

How To Leverage Email Communication in the Workplace

Instead of presenting communication barriers, email can improve communication, increase response times, and maintain inbox organization so you never miss another opportunity.

Shared Inboxes

If your team doesn’t already use a shared inbox solution, it’s the perfect place to start improving email communication. Shared inboxes centralize communication in one location allowing teams to manage multiple shared company email addresses together from within their own inbox. Rather than using several different logins and passwords, shared inboxes reduce the redundancy of switching back and forth between numerous accounts.

Gmelius provides a shared inbox with a robust set of collaborative features allowing teams to get the visibility they need to manage a group mailbox together inside Gmail.While managing a traditional department or company  inbox from seperate accounts could result in multiple employees responding to the same email, Gmelius eliminates this potential misstep by allowing managers to assign emails to specific team members and know who is working on what in real-time. 

Delegated emails go into a separate “assigned” box on the left-side panel, along with status-specific inboxes, such as “pending” and “closed.” Every email is organized according to status. No matter your company’s industry, they can benefit from using Gmelius to prevent any more missed email opportunities. 

Email Notes

On top of clear accountability, teams can also build internal conversations on the side margin of any email with Gmelius’ email notes to provide better context. 

Instead of reaching out on yet another platform, teams can get clarity and improve email communication by having real-time conversations in the workplace. 

Instant Message Integrations

Instant messaging began in the ‘90s so people could communicate instantly on the web. Overrun by texting, instant messaging has been sustained for business purposes. Apps such as Slack and Google Chat are prime examples of effective business tools. Gmelius recognizes the importance of instant messaging in correlation to email correspondence. As a result, Gmelius offers unique two-way integration with Slack to unify team collaboration and remove silos by syncing team communications. No matter which tool team members prefer to work from—Gmail or Slack—Gmelius keeps every member connected. 

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Teams can also integrate their shared inboxes and Gmail labels with Slack channels to allow team members to collaborate on email conversations.

Organization Options 

Often, the average worker becomes so swamped with overflowing emails and client requests that email organization and best practices are lost. Taking simple measures, such as organizing emails into folders and labels, can make a big impact and keep you from drowning in messages. Gmail labels organize emails by name and color, and the process can also be automated to further expedite the process. 

Gmelius offers shared Gmail labels to improve organization and communication amongst teams utilizing shared inboxes. Teams can share new or existing Gmail labels and synchronize conversations in real-time. When teams use Gmelius, they can turn shared Gmail labels into Kanban boards; this transforms emails into actionable items that can be visually tracked to determine progress. Kanban boards are visual project management solutions that bring transparency to teamwork to meet a common goal. 

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Visualize Project Success

Project coordination is a primary challenge for teams, especially when the bulk of communication is via email. With Gmelius’ Kanban boards, email communications are transformed into project management solutions. Teams can also sync Gmelius’ Kanban boards with Trello, another Kanban-style project management app, to get a consolidated real-time snapshot of all projects, both in Gmail and Trello. Supply chain and logistics teams can benefit the most from this solution, as each column shows a clear status of where an order is in the process, as well as whether it has been completed on time. 

Email communication in the workplace should be top-of-mind when looking for ways to boost productivity and improve company operations. Gmelius offers unique email communication features so teams can create frameworks from which to build efficiency and collaborative opportunities in today’s digital workplace. 

Are you looking to improve email communication in the workplace? Check out our features and integrations and learn how Gmelius is built to improve team communication and collaboration. Ready to get started? Sign up today!

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