Shared inbox for Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram: team setup

Picture a common Dhaka setup. The owner answers Messenger on a laptop. One employee has the WhatsApp Business app on the shop phone. Instagram is on the owner's niece's mobile because she set up the account. A customer asks the price on Instagram, orders on WhatsApp, and complains on Messenger two days later. Three people saw parts of that story. Nobody saw all of it.

A shared inbox fixes the "where" problem by putting every chat in one list. It does not fix the "who" problem on its own. If you split the work badly, you get the same gaps in a nicer interface.

This guide explains how small teams, two to eight people, should split chats from Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram so every customer gets one clear answer.

What is a shared inbox?

A shared inbox is a team inbox that collects customer messages from several channels in one place, so several people can answer them without double replies. Each chat shows its history, who is assigned, its labels and any internal notes.

For a Bangladeshi online shop, the useful channels are usually:

• Facebook Messenger, from your Page
• WhatsApp, through the official WhatsApp Business API, because the phone app is built for one person
• Instagram direct messages, from a professional account linked to your Page

Why not give each person one app?

Splitting by app looks tidy but breaks as soon as a customer uses two apps, which many do. The Instagram person quotes ৳1,450, the WhatsApp person quotes the old price of ৳1,350, and the customer screenshots both.

The better rule: split by job, and give every open chat exactly one owner.

How should a small team split chats?

Split chats into three jobs: first reply, sales, and after-sales. Then decide who does each job in each shift.

Two people

One person takes first replies and sales. The other takes after-sales and covers first replies during lunch, Jumma and evenings. Swap weekly.

Three to five people

One dedicated first-reply person per shift, one or two in sales, one in after-sales. The owner watches the "Complaint" label and steps in only there.

Six or more people

Add a moderator who sees every chat and reassigns when someone is overloaded. Split sales by product line (for example cosmetics and clothing) if your catalog is large.

What rules keep a shared inbox from becoming chaos?

The rules are simple: one owner per chat, labels for status, notes for internal talk, and saved replies for repeat answers.

Rule 1: One owner per open chat

If a chat is assigned to Sabbir, nobody else replies in it. If Rina knows something useful, she writes an internal note and @mentions him.

Rule 2: Labels show status

Keep the label list short. A starting set:

• COD pending (waiting for the customer to confirm)
• Address issue
• Wholesale
• Exchange
• Complaint
• Follow up tomorrow

Rule 3: Internal notes replace the side group

Most teams run a separate WhatsApp group to discuss customers: "Ei apu 2 bar parcel return korse, careful." Move that into internal notes on the chat itself. The context stays with the customer, and new staff can read it.

Rule 4: Saved replies for the top ten answers

Delivery charge, delivery time, exchange policy, size guide, payment method, shop address. Write each once, carefully, in Bangla, Banglish and English if you need all three.

Dhaka r moddhe delivery charge ৳60, 1-2 din. Dhakar baire ৳120, 2-4 din. Cash on delivery, parcel haate peye taka diben.

The ৳60 and ৳120 are examples. Use your own charges, and update the saved reply the day they change.

Rule 5: Close what is done

Resolve or snooze chats when they are finished. An inbox where everything stays "open" hides the chats that really need a reply.

Where does an AI chatbot fit in a shared inbox?

An AI chatbot fits as the first-reply layer: it answers the repeat questions, and people take over when judgement is needed. The split looks like this:

Two things matter here. The bot must answer only from your own data, never guess. And the handover must be clean: once a person replies, the bot should stay out of that chat. For more detail, read our guide to chatbot to human handover.

How do I know if the split is working?

Check median first response time and per-person workload once a week. If first response is slow, the first-reply job is understaffed. If one person's numbers are far above everyone else's, the split is uneven.

Questions to ask in a ten-minute weekly review:

1. What was our median first response time? Did it get worse on sale days?
2. Who handled the most chats? Is that fair?
3. How many chats sat in "Unassigned" for more than an hour?
4. Which saved reply was missing? Write it now.

During a sale rush, such as Eid or 11.11, the same review can happen daily. See our plan for handling an Eid sale inbox rush.

How does SaleMag's shared inbox handle this?

SaleMag's shared inbox puts WhatsApp (through Meta's official WhatsApp Cloud API), Messenger, Instagram DMs, Telegram and WeChat in one thread list. It has folders for Mine, Unassigned, All open, Snoozed and Resolved, assignment with notifications, open, pending, snoozed and resolved statuses, coloured labels, internal notes with @mentions, and saved replies you insert by typing / and a shortcut.

Roles decide what each person sees: an agent sees chats assigned to them or still unassigned, while a moderator sees and assigns every chat. There is no round-robin assignment; assign by hand, or use an automation step that assigns a conversation when a keyword like "wholesale" arrives. The AI chatbot answers new messages with an AI badge, hands over when unsure or asked, and stays quiet for 15 minutes after any teammate replies. The inbox report shows median first response, median resolution and a per-agent leaderboard. Comments on Facebook and Instagram posts are not part of the inbox.

Next steps

This week, write down your three jobs and who owns each one per shift, create six labels and ten saved replies, and move the side WhatsApp group into internal notes. Then start free and connect your Page, Instagram and WhatsApp to one inbox, or see pricing for team plans.