Team Email Communication: Best Tools You're Not Using

There are two types of email users: those who work to get to “zero inbox” each day, and others who have inboxes with 5,000 emails and more. Whether your inbox stays organized or not, it’s no secret that email is hard to manage. The average worker has over 200 unopened emails in their inbox, with approximately 121 new emails coming in every day. If not managed properly, it’s easy for that inbox count to reach 1,000 in a single week. 

Lack of organization causes inbox clutter, missed opportunities, and email overload. As a widely-used communication tool, workers must utilize email to its fullest potential to maintain a productive workflow and build better team email communication. 

The Problem with Email 

Email communication is an essential part of the workday. Employees use it to communicate internally with other staff members, assign tasks, and transmit critical messages. In many cases, email is also the primary channel of communication between a company and its clients.

When disorganized email becomes overwhelming, it can create significant issues for teams like poor communication, unopened client messages, and wasted company time due to a disorganized workflow. The resulting anxiety from email overload often has a negative impact on team morale as well.

And organization is only part of the problem. Many teams find they are not using their current email system to its full potential. A recent Mailbird survey reports shocking statistics that reveal how many teams experience despair from under-utilizing their current email platforms:

• 61% believe their email management methods are inadequate. 
• 60% report they lack the time to learn non-tech alternatives to assist with email management. 
• 49% report that missing business-critical information is a large concern. 

When asked what solution could improve current email management, 40% believed following better email management best practices could help, and 20% believed using email management tech solutions such as programs and apps could be useful. 

How to Improve Team Email Communication: Tools You Need 

Increasing efficiency with a solid email management process is critical to developing better communication amongst a team. Here is a list of the best email tools to implement into your daily workflow and how Gmelius, a communication and collaboration tool for Gmail, can help. 

Stop Wasting Time and Start Using Automation

If you haven’t already begun using automation in your daily workflow, now is the perfect time to start. As more companies turn to remote and hybrid working options, the use of email has become a vital communication tool. Increased email use results in a greater need for managing it. Automating the grunt work significantly improves productivity. Teams can set automation rules for the following tasks:

• filtering emails into folders or labels (Gmail) 
• deleting emails after a certain timeframe
• preventing junk emails from crowding an inbox
• sending auto-replies at scheduled times
• receiving automatic notifications and reminders

Using rule-based logic to manage email also allows team members to communicate more efficiently to save time, identify potential unread emails, and create better email management opportunities. 

Gmelius offers powerful workflow automation rules to streamline menial tasks and organize email creating more time for critical work. The logic uses an "if this, then that'' methodology. 

For example, if an email contains the word order, then a confirmation email will be sent to the client. If an email contains the word return, then that email will be assigned to the appropriate team member. This is particularly useful for team managers as they can automatically assign email conversations based on a team member’s workload, send email auto-responders, apply SLA policies, and add labels for better organization.

Communicate Faster with Email Notes

Teams are always looking for new ways to communicate more quickly in today’s growing digital world. When employees don’t have the option of walking over to a team member’s office for a simple question, teams rely heavily on instant messaging tools such as Google Chat and Slack to receive answers quickly. However, it’s time-consuming to jump back and forth between email and instant-messaging applications. 

Many shared inbox solutions allow users to add notes to an email for further context. This is a simple and effective way to clarify emails without using other platforms for answers. However, Gmelius allows teams to build conversations to the side of an email with their email notes feature. Email notes live inside a team's email interface so questions can be answered in real-time to avoid delayed responses.

Furthermore, Gmelius integrates with Slack, so team members can receive notifications in both Gmail and Slack. Teams can respond directly in Slack to improve communication without getting distracted by the rest of their inbox emails.

Increase Response Times with Email Templates

More often than not, we find ourselves rewriting the same emails throughout the workday. Email templates offer a simple solution to streamline such tasks. Most, if not all, email platforms offer email templates to save current drafts and re-use them at a later date. Email templates are commonly used for follow-up emails, new hire information, thank-you emails, customer support issues, and company announcements. 

Gmelius takes the utility of email templates a step further with shareable Gmail templates and email drafts. Teams can compose responses together to benefit from collaboration, then save the draft as a template to share with another team. Effective and repetitive replies turn into actionable emails that produce positive results. 

Enhance Email with Robust Integrations 

If your team is looking for a more efficient way to operate using email, email integrations are the key. Email integrations tie software and tools together to create productive and collaborative outcomes for teams. Often, standard email solutions are not comprehensive enough for teams to operate efficiently, particularly in today’s digital climate. As a result, companies end up looking for other integration tools to work with their current email platforms and build more efficient and productive workflows. 

Gmelius smooths chaotic inboxes into shared workspaces without leaving Gmail. Based on the aforementioned Mailbird statistics, many workers do not have time to learn new platforms in addition to their current workflows. Gmelius makes managing email easy by integrating with platforms your team is already familiar with. 

In addition to Gmail, Gmelius offers powerful integrations with Google Workspace, Google Calendar, Slack, Trello, Zoom, and many more. Team email communication is made easy and expedites the workday by reducing the need to switch back and forth between apps. Everything is accessible from one interface. 

To achieve quality communication amongst a team, workers need to reinvent the email wheel by using powerful new tools to enrich the process. It’s human nature to do what we’re already comfortable with. But making small changes can have a big impact. And Gmelius makes it easy with a user-friendly platform filled with countless features to assist in building better team communication, collaboration, and productivity. 

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

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