• by Ray Schultz , July 2, 2021

B2B marketers may not like this development. The Mac mail app Spark has a new feature for teams: Shared Inboxes. 

The tool, which is available to all Spark for Teams users with Gmail or Google Workplace accounts, prevents the confusion that ensues as teams pass around incoming emails, bicker over who should handle them and struggle with passwords, according to a video offered by developer Readdle.

Case in point: Manager Alice sets a deadline for handling an incoming email with just a few clicks, and assigns it to Jeff. Everyone sees that Jeff is responsible, according to the video.

Readdle claims that Shared Inboxes “enables multiple team members to simultaneously access common email accounts (like sales@ or info@) & enhance collaboration by assigning emails, setting deadlines, discussing emails internally and even drafting emails together in real time.”

That’s all well and good on that end. But what about B2B brands that are trying to sell to this team?

It may be easier to target a team than an individual. But Shared Inboxes could also to lead to a diffusion of targeting capability, assuming that marketing and sales messages will also hit this inbox. 

Will this reduce the ability to personalize communications?

But here’s another scenario. Let’s say a B2b marketing email makes its way into the shared inbox. Alice could assign Jeff or one of the others to look into it or nudge someone who has not responded to an earlier email. Of course, this could also lead to shaming.

Readdle contends that companies have to deal with these challenges:

• Figuring out which team member replied to an email
• Losing track of emails to be responded to
• Manually dealing with adding new people and removing access for previous team members
• Never knowing how many users are accessing the account with the shared password.

Readdle claims that the new Spark addition will allow users to “share access to any email accounts with your team members without having to worry about or dealing with any of the complexities above.