What is Front?

Front is a platform that brings all your work communication in one place. Instead of logging in to Gmail or Outlook to check and respond to your email, you just have to log in to Front. If you use customer communications apps for SMS texting, live website chat, social media messaging, or support ticketing, you can manage those in Front too.

What can you expect when you start using Front?

Front makes it easy for you and your team to answer all your messages, faster. Here’s what you’ll find when you’re all set up on Front:

  • You’ll use a shared inbox, so your team will work more collaboratively.
  • You can share specific conversations with teammates by @mentioning them on the message, so you don’t need to forward or copy them on replies
  • Your CRM and other apps can integrate with Front, so you’ll have all the information you need to answer messages, right in your inbox.
  • You’ll spend a lot less time hunting for things buried in your threads, because Front keeps you and your team organized.

Onboarding Your Team

We know moving away from a traditional inbox like Gmail or Outlook can take some getting used to, but once you’ve played around in Front a little bit, we think you’ll really love it. Onboarding a team to a new product is always tricky, but Front is easy to get the hang of! Here are some tips on how to jump start your team.

  • Focus Areas — Helping your team focus their attention is key! Front can be overwhelming for some users to log in and see messages from all your accounts in one place. Teach them how assignments work, and specify the team folders they should monitor so they know what to focus on.
  • “Inbox Zero” Mindset — Emphasize to your team that Front can help you clear out your inbox entirely by the end of the day by replying, assigning, or snoozing messages. By triaging, nothing slips through the cracks and you’ll all work more efficiently.
  • Process — Process makes perfect! Sharing a written guide or cheat sheet that your team can easily access will help them feel more secure with Front from day one. It’s also important to emphasize that moving to Front is not optional — Front won’t work as well if communication still occurs outside of Front.

Getting Started in Front

1. Update your account settings

  • Select preferences that work best for you and your team.
  • Find your settings by clicking on the icon in the upper left corner of Front. From there, you’ll be able to customize individual settings like your name, password, and profile picture. 
  • We suggest that you set up the main settings right after you’ve set up your Front account, including Profile, My preferences (select your default settings), My Signatures (create email signatures), Notifications ( choose to receive or not receive desktop, mobile and email notifications).

2. Connect your individual work email

  • Front’s not just for your team email. It’s for your individual work messages too! Sync your work email so it’s easy to manage all your messages in one place. And don’t worry — your personal work emails stay private and separate from your team inbox, unless you share them with someone.

3. Think collaboratively

  • Talk to your Front Admin and team about how you plan to work together in your shared inboxes. Some teams like to let everyone answer messages in shared inboxes as they come in, while others prefer to set a process for triaging your shared inboxes. Every team approaches it differently, so it’s important to understand the protocol expected for your team.

4. Start working together in Front

  • Front is made for teamwork, so there are a few features that make collaboration easy.
    • Assign and follow messages
      • When you assign a message, you’re designating a teammate to take care of it, so there’s no confusion on who’s following up.
    • Leave a comment
      • Instead of forwarding a message to a teammate or CC’ing them when you reply, use comments and @mentions, located at the very bottom of your screen in Front. 

5. Boost your productivity

  • Snooze messages
    • Not every message that comes into your inbox needs an answer right away. That’s why you can “snooze” in Front. Hit the clock icon at the top of a message you don’t need to look at right now, and select a time for it to come back to your inbox later.
  • Reminders
    • When you’re sending a message you’ll need to follow up on, set a reminder in Front. Click the clock on the bottom of your message to select a time for the message to pop back up in your unread message folder. That way, if you haven’t gotten a reply, you’ll know to send the recipient another message.
  • Canned Responses (Message Templates)
    • Save messages that you repeatedly create as canned messages. That way you can easily pull it up, edit it, and send with just a few clicks, instead of typing out the same explanation all the time. You can save canned responses for your private inbox, or for your shared inboxes, so you can access responses your teammates have created as well.

6. Master your team inbox

  • Manage your messages
    • Front keeps your team inbox from becoming a black hole. You can always see the status of a message in your team inbox to know exactly what’s going on.
      • Unassigned – Your new messages. Or messages that were unassigned by a teammate or by rules.
      • Open – These are assigned and unassigned messages that haven’t been archived yet. You should try to keep as few open messages in your inbox as possible to help your team stay organized.
      • Archived – These messages have been handled, but that doesn’t always mean they’re gone for good. They might be snoozed to re-open at a later time if you don’t get a reply. That way, you don’t lose track of messages that need follow up, but they don’t clutter up your inbox.
  • Organize with tags
    • Label messages to keep them organized or signal a teammate to take action
  • Share canned responses and drafts
    • Re-use your best messages or get a second pair of eyes on your draft
  • Send a mail merge sequence
    • Put your email blasts on auto-pilot

7. Download the Front apps

8. Learn more about using Front

  • Check out Front’s other helpful resources for how-to’s and tips on setting up workflows and using Front features.
  • Check out Front’s other helpful resources for how-to’s and tips on setting up workflows and using Front features.