A shared inbox with several people in it needs ownership, or prospects get two replies and neither person knows what the other said.
Assignment
Assign a conversation from the conversation header. The assignee sees it in Assigned to me and everyone else still sees it, marked with the owner.
Assign on the same three triggers every time and it stays tidy: when a reply arrives and you are picking it up, when you hand a qualified prospect to someone who closes, and when you go on leave.
Auto-assignment can route new replies by campaign, by connected account, or round-robin across the team. Set it under Settings → Inbox.
Internal notes
Notes live on the prospect, not the conversation, so they follow the person across campaigns. They are never sent.
Useful notes record something the next person cannot reconstruct:
- “Asked us to follow up after their fiscal year ends in March”
- “Evaluating a competitor, decision by Q3”
- “Not the buyer, but introduced me to their Head of Sales”
Not useful: “Sent follow-up.” The message history already says that.
@mentions
Mention a teammate in a note to notify them. Good for handoffs where the context matters more than the assignment.
Statuses do the rest
Assignment says who; status says where it stands. Together they are enough for a team of any size to work one inbox without collisions. Neither works if only half the team keeps them current, so agree the convention once and hold to it.