# Answer a customer email from start to finish

Take one customer request through a shared inbox, from arriving to closed: assign it, brief a colleague, reply, and close it out.

This guide follows one real request through TeamEmail, from the moment it lands in a shared inbox to the moment it's closed. By the end you'll have assigned it, briefed a colleague without the customer seeing, replied from the team's address, and closed it so it leaves everyone's working list.

> **Before you start:**
>
> You're a member of the shared inbox the email arrived in, with a role that can send (Observers can't). The example uses **Service Desk**, but every shared inbox works the same way.

1. **Find it**: The Unassigned tab of the shared inbox.
2. **Own it**: Assign it, so nobody else picks it up.
3. **Brief**: An internal note the customer never sees.
4. **Reply**: From the shared address, not your own.
5. **Close**: Mark it Done once nothing else is needed.

## The example

Yvonne Braithwaite, facilities manager at a food producer, emails service@: *"The chiller in the packing hall is running warm since Friday."* She needs an engineer. You're on the service desk, and Nadia Osei books engineer visits.

## 1. Find the email and take it

A new email lands in the shared inbox with nobody's name on it, and waits on the **Unassigned** tab until someone takes it.

- In the sidebar, under **Shared inboxes**, select **Service Desk** to expand it, then select **Inbox**. It opens on **Unassigned**.
- Select Yvonne's email, **Callout request - chiller not holding temperature**, to open it on the right. The sender's name and address are at the top of the message, which is how you tell which customer it is.
- Select **Assign** at the top right, then select the person who should own it. Choose yourself if you'll see it through. Here it's Nadia, because she'll make the call.

The button now shows the owner's name, and the conversation moves to the **Assigned** tab. [Assign a conversation](/teamemail/help-docs/shared-inboxes/assign-a-conversation) covers this step in full.

## 2. Brief a colleague with an internal note

A note is a message to your team inside the conversation. **It never reaches the customer**, so it's the place for "can you take this?" rather than a separate chat or a forwarded email.

- Select the box at the bottom of the conversation that reads **Note to the team… @ to mention**, and write your note.

  ![The note box at the foot of a conversation, reading Nadia, can you take this callout? followed by @Na. A Teammates list has opened above it with one match, Nadia Osei, nadia.osei@ironvale.co.uk. The corner of the box reads Internal, only you.](https://www.neuracrm.com/help/teamemail/shared-inboxes/note-mention.png)
- To make sure a teammate sees it, enter `@` followed by the start of their name, then select them from the **Teammates** list. Their name is added to the note.
- Select **Enter** to post it, or **Shift+Enter** for a new line.

The note appears in the conversation's timeline, marked as internal. Anyone you mention gets a notification, and the conversation shows up in their lists, so they don't have to be watching the inbox.

The label in the corner of the box, such as **Internal · you and Nadia**, shows who follows the conversation. Everyone in the inbox can read notes, but only the people listed there are following it.

## 3. Reply to the customer

- Select **Reply** in the bar at the top of the customer's message. The reply opens below it, inside the conversation.
- Leave **From** as the shared inbox, here **Service Desk (service@ironvale.co.uk)**. That way the reply comes from the team's address, the customer's answer comes back to the team, and the whole exchange stays in one place.
- Check **To**. It's already filled in with the customer's address.
- Write your reply in the box. If you've set up a signature, it's added underneath automatically.

*Fields in the reply box*

While you write, the reply saves itself as a draft. The bar above it reads **Personal draft - Only visible to you**, so you can leave and come back to it.

## 4. Send it, and choose what happens next

The arrow beside **Send email** sends your reply and moves the conversation on in one step, so you don't have to come back and change it afterwards.

- Select the arrow beside **Send email**. Under **Send as**, select **Open** if your team still has work to do, **Waiting** if the next move is the customer's, or **Resolved** if this reply finishes the job. Selecting one sends the reply straight away.

  ![A reply open inside the conversation. A bar at the top reads Personal draft, Only visible to you, Saved, with a Share draft button. From reads Service Desk, service@ironvale.co.uk, and To holds facilities@trentsidefood.co.uk. Below the typed reply sits Eleanor Whitfield's signature. The menu from the arrow beside Send email is open, listing Send later and Send and snooze, then a Send as group with Open, Waiting and Resolved.](https://www.neuracrm.com/help/teamemail/shared-inboxes/reply-send-menu.png)
- If the status shouldn't change, select **Send email** instead.

A message appears at the bottom right: **Your message is being sent**, counting down with an **Undo** button (unless you've turned Undo Send off). Select **Undo** within that time to get the reply back unsent, with your text and attachments. Check **To**, **CC** and **From** again before you resend. When the countdown ends, the reply goes out from the shared address. It then appears in the conversation and in the inbox's **Sent Items**, and any **Send as** choice is applied.

In this example, choose **Send as** > **Open**: Nadia still has to book the visit.

## 5. Close it out

Once the engineer's visit is booked and nothing else is needed, close the conversation so it stops asking for attention.

- At the top right of the conversation, select the status button. It reads **Open**.
- Select **Done**.

A banner appears at the top of the conversation: **This conversation is resolved.** The conversation also moves to the **Resolved** tab of the inbox. Nothing is deleted: the conversation and its history stay exactly where they were.

The banner also offers **Archive in Service Desk**, which is optional. Archiving tidies the conversation away from the Resolved tab too, and TeamEmail brings it back to **Open** if the customer ever writes again. Your Outlook mailbox isn't affected either way.

**You're done when** the conversation shows **Done** and sits on the **Resolved** tab, with your reply in its timeline.

## Mistakes worth avoiding

**Replying from your own address.** If **From** shows your personal mailbox, the customer answers you rather than the team, and nobody else sees the rest of the exchange. Check **From** before you send.

**Putting internal detail in the reply.** Prices you haven't agreed, a colleague's availability, "can you take this?": all of that belongs in a note. A note can't be sent to the customer by mistake. A reply can.

**Leaving it Open after the job is finished.** An open conversation keeps counting in everyone's lists. Mark it **Done**, or choose **Resolved** when you send the last reply.

## If something doesn't look right

**Your reply isn't in the conversation straight after you select Send email.** It's still inside the undo countdown. It appears once the countdown finishes.

**The reply was sent but shows it failed.** Look in **Outbox** in the sidebar, where failed sends wait with the reason and a **Retry** button.

**You're asked to share the conversation when you mention someone.** That person isn't a member of this inbox. Select **Share** to give them this one conversation, or **Cancel**. Cancelling doesn't post your note, and your text stays in the box.