Better customer service · Lesson 3 of 6
How to divide customer service work in a team
When everyone can see the inbox, either nobody feels responsible or two people reply at once. A few simple agreements fix both problems.
7 min
What you'll learn
- Give every conversation one clear owner
- Choose how new work gets divided
- Hand over without the customer repeating everything
- Keep messages from being left behind
Step by step
- 1
Give each conversation one owner
The owner is the person who makes sure a conversation gets finished, even when a colleague looks something up along the way. A conversation owned by “the team” is in practice owned by nobody. Agree that no conversation stays without an owner for longer than a set time.
- 2
Choose how new work gets divided
There are roughly three ways: someone assigns it, people pick from a queue, or it's automatic, based on turn or workload. Picking works well in a small team where everyone can do everything, assigning when questions need specialist knowledge, and automatic when volume is high. Try your choice for a few weeks, then check whether work is shared fairly.
- 3
Agree which questions belong to whom
Make a short list of topics and who handles them, for example at a language school: enrollments to the office, course content to the teachers, invoices to the bookkeeper. Add what everyone can decide alone, such as a refund up to a certain amount. That keeps customers from constantly waiting on someone else.
- 4
Show that you're working on it
Double replies happen when two people open the same conversation without knowing about each other. So assign the conversation to yourself before you start typing, and first check who already has it. On a large screen in Bugalou, the profile pictures of colleagues who also have it open appear at the top right of the conversation, and the Unassigned filter shows what still has no owner.
- 5
Hand over with a short note
A customer who has to repeat their story sees straight away that something's off internally. Write three lines at each handover: what the customer wants, what's been done, what the next step is. For example: “Wants March invoice corrected. Address checked, correct. Bookkeeper still has to create the credit note.” Put this in an internal note, which the customer can't see.
- 6
Plan for absence and open work
Agree what happens to open conversations when someone is ill or on holiday, because that's how messages most often get left behind. Reassign them to a colleague before leaving, and make sure automatic assignment skips anyone who's away. On Pro you can do this in Bugalou: under Preferences, turn on Auto-assign conversations, and new conversations go to the available colleague with the fewest open conversations.
- 7
Spend a few minutes each day on what's stuck
One person, rotating by day or week, spends a few minutes each day checking conversations with no owner or a long wait. The goal isn't to police colleagues, but to make sure no customer falls through the cracks. Also ask from time to time what keeps getting stuck, because it's often a question nobody has agreed on yet.
Common mistakes
Leaving responsibility with “the team”
If a conversation belongs to everyone, everyone assumes somebody else has it. Always attach one name, even when more people are helping.
Discussing cases in a separate chat channel
If the discussion sits away from the conversation, the next colleague misses the context. Keep what belongs to a customer with that customer, in an internal note.
Only picking the easy questions
With a pick-your-own queue, difficult conversations easily sink to the bottom. Agree that the oldest gets picked first, and that asking for help is fine when you're stuck.
Tips
- When a conversation moves to a colleague, tell the customer who will be helping them from now on.
- In a small team you usually don't need specialists yet, just clear agreements about who covers the inbox when.
- Once a month, discuss one conversation that went wrong without blaming anyone, and adjust your agreement.
You're done when
- Every open conversation has one owner
- Everyone knows how new work is divided and who handles what
- Handovers come with a three-line note
- Someone checks each day what has no owner or has waited long
Frequently asked questions
How do you stop two agents replying to the same customer?
Assign the conversation to yourself before typing, and work from one shared inbox instead of separate mailboxes or phones. That way you can see who has it and nobody does it twice by accident.
How do you split customer service when there are only two or three of you?
Use a rota: each part of the day, one person is responsible for the inbox and the other can work on something else. The questions are covered, and you don't both have to keep checking.
Should a conversation always stay with the same person?
Where possible, yes, because the customer doesn't have to repeat anything. If someone is off or a colleague has the right knowledge, handing over beats waiting, as long as you write a good note.